Tool Watch (Casio F-91W)

To be clear, watches can be tools or they can be adornments. If they are going to be adornments then they are jewellery. Nothing wrong with that if that's your thing. But I see a lot of hard lube free KingWanging going on over on Reddit (yeah, what else would you expect right?)

Anyway, while back I bought the Casio F-91W, which is the embodiment of the following:

• accurate
• functional
• rugged
• feature laden (compared to an uncomplicated plain watch; it has day and date complication as well as chronograph, hourly chime and alarm, display in 12h or 24h times)

Compared to a Rolex like this:

The Casio  

1. is more accurate (seconds per month not seconds per day)
2. is more rugged
3. has a day date (and the date is actually a perpetual unlike 90% of automatic watches)
4. has a chronograph
5. has an alarm
6. is lighter (mine weighs 27.3g including the strap the Rolex will be over 130g on the strap)

Without a doubt the Casio (cost $20) is a mere fraction of the cost of a Rolex and I'm unafraid to wear it when working on stuff (like my motorcycles or other things). I know a few old watch makers and they tell me that back in the 1970's workers (welders, mechanics, boiler makers, fishermen) would still buy a Rolex because it could withstand punishment. Now they are more like $10,000

Lets be honest here, do you see Rolex's on workers wrists to tell the time (or help time a task) or do you see them on finely dressed wankers who are trying to signal their wealth (either real or faked).

One of these is worn by a tool, the other is being worn as a tool.

The Quartz revolution nearly drove expensive mechanical watches extinct, indeed the Swiss were really unable to beat brands like Seiko, Orient and Casio and indeed were only able to survive (after some dreadful and laughable failures) by appealing to wankers with too much money who wanted to be special on their Yacht or in their Armani Suite who were buying Swiss mechanical watches for exclusivity.

 So I put it to you that if you want a "tool watch" then you want a Casio, and probably one of these amazing little F-91W's

If you think that the influencers telling you that an IWC or an Omega, or a Rolex is really a "tool watch" then I'm afraid that the tool is wearing the watch.

I don't wear my little Casio all the time, as I have a couple of other watches (quartz and mechanical) which I enjoy wearing (sometimes for ornamentation, sometimes comfort, other times for functionality) but its only the Quartz watches that can sit in the watch box for weeks and come out and just be fine, indeed its only the Casio because its digital that nothing needs changing (you know, like the date).

BTW, I put the NATO on the Casio with but a little effort, I bought a $15 one (so yeah, nearly overcapitalised) because I just didn't really like the original straps. Fitting the NATO took a little fiddling but there's plenty of videos on YouTube about that. I initially put a strong crease in the strap and used a typical watch springbar tool to guide the pin when I was inserting it so as to guide the pin back into where it will click in.

Then when one side was in, I could lay it over and see exactly where the other side needed to be "creased" so that it would fit in and sit nicely.

Naturally I cut off the useless flap (which is only there for military watches which have fixed bars and the watch might slide off without that flap).

Casio F-91W = best value watch on the market.