Pie plate on your wrist: Casio AE1500

Pie, anyone?

This is a ginormous watch from Casio, but it has a few very good things going for it.

Firstly, cheap. The "sand" color one seen above is under $30.

Second, ultra-legible, as it has giant digits on it.

Third, feature packed with things that actually matter. Full time with weekday/month/date on the front, 5 alarms, countdown timer with auto-repeat, great night light, long-life battery.

Fourth, it actually looks good for what it is...

...but this watch is frappin' huge.

How big?

54.4mm lug-to-lug, 51.2mm case diameter, 15.7mm thick.

The AE1500 is not for people with small wrists.

To put this perspective, I measured my left wrist before writing this, and it measures 6.7" (17cm) before the wrist knuckle. My daily driver Casio is a W218H, and it looks large on me. That watch measures 44.4mm x 43.2mm x 10.8mm, meaning there is absolutely no way I could wear the AE1500 and not look ridiculous.

However, that doesn't take away from the fact the AE1500 is a seriously good watch for a seriously good price - if you have the wrist for it. I think at absolute bare minimum, you need a 7.0" (about 18cm) wrist to get away with wearing the giant AE1500.

Legibility matters. A lot.

I wear the W218 regularly because it is the most legible digital watch I own. True, it's very simple (it has the same feature set of an F-91W) but it's very easy to read and the night light is great.

If the AE1500 had a smaller lug-to-lug measurement, I could wear it. But at 54.4mm, no way.

The last big-display Casio I owned was the SGW100, which has measurements of 51.5mm x 47.6mm x 13.2mm. Because of the shape design of that one, I could get away wearing it on my small wrist. Barely.

I can't rock the AE1500, but if you have the wrist for one, it's pretty much the best thing going for a big-digit watch with the most features for the lowest price.

Published 2022 Mar 15