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Casio F-91W: The strangely ubiquitous watch (2011)

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Re: Casio F-91W: The strangely ubiquitous watch (2011)

#131

These are great! For less than $10 each, I’ve bought a bunch of them and left them scattered around my apartment and various other places so I can always find a watch. If it’s starting to take me too long to find a watch then the watch density must be getting too low, so I order some more.

The others laugh, but this is great (my house isn't big enough to bother though). Another baby game changer along these lines - buy a 20 pack of small microfiber cloths and hide them in all your coin and inside jacket pockets. Never be without a glasses wipe when you need one. I even give them away to people who forgot theirs, since frequently I'll have two on my person.

I always just use my cotton shirt. Is there really that much advantage to using microfiber?

Re: Casio F-91W: The strangely ubiquitous watch (2011)

#132
post #44

The "cheap" Casios run on the fumes of their old fame and retro nostalgia. I'd say the modern day equivalent would be a $20 waterproof fitness band like a Xiaomi Mi Band. They are basically uncompetitive today, unlike they were initially. Here they are literally more expensive than a band with a color display, bluetooth and various sensors.

Only that your Bluetooth band needs to be charged several times a month.

My son has Garmin VivoFit from 2015 which hasn't needed the batter changed (they weren't rechargable). He did switch to a Apple watch a couple of years ago, but it was between 2 and 3 years of every day usage.

The claimed battery life was 1 year.

Re: Casio F-91W: The strangely ubiquitous watch (2011)

#133

These are great! For less than $10 each, I’ve bought a bunch of them and left them scattered around my apartment and various other places so I can always find a watch. If it’s starting to take me too long to find a watch then the watch density must be getting too low, so I order some more.

I call this Object Saturation.

I don't do it with watches, but I do it with charging cables, socks, and toothbrushes.

(Of course, I avoid buying things, so I don't buy them.)

Re: Casio F-91W: The strangely ubiquitous watch (2011)

#134

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I know several people who are far from poor and wear this watch.

People who are far from poor are a tiny minority and so have no bearing on why this watch is ubiquitous. There are also exceptions to every rule, so it's no surprise that some rich people wear it too.

I know a bunch of software engineers who wear this watch. It's incredibly popular without respect to income level.

From my observations poorer people are less likely to wear this.

Re: Casio F-91W: The strangely ubiquitous watch (2011)

#135

best watch I ever owned, I bought in 1981 when I had been late and locked out of my Monday morning physics class (Dr Poynton had standards, and you learnt fast), I walked to Dixon's and bought a Casio watch that seemed to do everything I ever wanted, I can't recall it's name, but it had a swordfish on its side and it was simply amazing. it died after many years, when being used by my brother, smashed face, very sad d…

Perhaps a search on eBay for a Casio Marlin would let you find another one - the Marlin was Casio's way of marketing their waterproof feature.

Re: Casio F-91W: The strangely ubiquitous watch (2011)

#136

SKMEI make a clone: https://skmei.com/products-item/skmei-digial-sport-watches-l... It has an excellent backlight and I regularly wear it swimming without any problems so far.

Why would you not just get the original?

A couple of dollars cheaper (in Australia), better backlight, 50m water resist.

Re: Casio F-91W: The strangely ubiquitous watch (2011)

#137

These are great! For less than $10 each, I’ve bought a bunch of them and left them scattered around my apartment and various other places so I can always find a watch. If it’s starting to take me too long to find a watch then the watch density must be getting too low, so I order some more.

What do you do when the hour changes?

If the BIPM redefines how long an hour is, I guess we'll just have to ditch our Casios and start using Swatch internet time.

Re: Casio F-91W: The strangely ubiquitous watch (2011)

#138

These are great! For less than $10 each, I’ve bought a bunch of them and left them scattered around my apartment and various other places so I can always find a watch. If it’s starting to take me too long to find a watch then the watch density must be getting too low, so I order some more.

I've done this with laptop power bricks.

I'm laying on my couch right now, with my laptop plugged into a brick perched permanently at the end thereof. There are two more at the table (sometimes work and personal laptop are up at the same time), and one on my nightstand, and one in the kitchen for when I'm using a recipe from online or just youtubing while cooking.

All my old Thinkpad bricks with the gray round plug have little converter cables on 'em, so they work with the modern yellow rectangular socket now. I got a new brick with the work lappy, a new one with the personal, and I think there's one knockoff cheapie in the mix somewhere.

Re: Casio F-91W: The strangely ubiquitous watch (2011)

#139
post #131

Earlier quoted context omitted.

The others laugh, but this is great (my house isn't big enough to bother though). Another baby game changer along these lines - buy a 20 pack of small microfiber cloths and hide them in all your coin and inside jacket pockets. Never be without a glasses wipe when you need one. I even give them away to people who forgot theirs, since frequently I'll have two on my person.

I always just use my cotton shirt. Is there really that much advantage to using microfiber?

Only small ones

Re: Casio F-91W: The strangely ubiquitous watch (2011)

#140

Earlier quoted context omitted.

A gshock would very likely last 30 years in pretty much any usage situation.

But you’d have also spent 30 years wearing a watch that looked like a ten year old was asked to design a super hero watch

Beg your pardon? G-Shocks come in a wide variety of designs and price ranges. At a glance, mine could easily pass for an F-91W - a cheap, digital watch about as far from pretence as it is possible to get. Durable, radio sync'ed, solar cell driven, and watertight down to some ridiculous level of pressure. Just about the most functional piece of hardware I have ever owned. The unflashiest of black boxes, just there when I need it, shows me the time to the second every time, no discussion about it. And it doubles as a signaler, a very neat expression of who I am or at least would like to be. I wouldn't swap it for a Rolex even if somebody gifted one on me.
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