Casio W735HB (I wish this strap was offered on G-SHOCK)
I like this watch so much, I bought two!
It has taken me a long, long time to finally find a big Casio that fits my wrist correctly. I finally found it with the Casio W735HB.
The W735 measures close to a G-SHOCK DW6900. The DW6900 measures 53.2mm lug-to-lug, 50.0mm case size and 16.3mm thick. The W735 measures 51.4mm lug-to-lug, 47.1mm case size and 16.1mm thick.
On paper, the W735 should not fit my 6.5" wrist, but it does. And the reason it does is 100% because of the strap that I talk about in detail at the tail end of the video seen above.
What many G-SHOCK owners do is get a strap adapter kit to specifically make the watch wear like the W735HB does. When you have a proper nylon strap, what was unwearable is now wearable with no strap tail whatsoever.
The strap on the W735HB is a genius design. The top side is a short length of resin with a thick loop, and the other side is nylon with Velcro and a single strap keeper. It works amazingly well.
If Casio offered this same strap on G-SHOCK watches, it would make for the ultimate G-SHOCK. But no such strap option exists for that line. As far as I can tell, only the W735HB has it...
...if you can find one. I bought the two I have from eBay, and the only North American seller had 3 in stock. Amazon shows 4 in stock at the time I write this. That's it.
While the W735 model with resin strap may stick around a while, the W735HB looks like it may be gone by 2022 or possibly much sooner - hence the reason I made the jump and just got 2 of them now. After receiving the first one, it fit so nicely that it was a no-brainer to order a second one immediately.
Specifications
- Measurements: 51.4 x 47.1 x 16.1mm
- Nylon/resin strap
- 100m water resistance
- "Super Illuminator" LED night light
- Dual time
- 1/100 stopwatch up to 24 hours with 5-second countdown auto start
- Countdown timer from 1 second to 24 hours (no auto-repeat)
- Daily alarm (1 alarm only)
- Hourly time signal
- Vibe alert (when vibration enabled, beeps are disabled, vibrates twice every hour if hourly signal enabled, vibrates if alarm is set, vibrates when countdown timer ends)
- Full auto-calendar up to 2099
- 12/24 hour format
- 10-year battery, battery used is CR2032
Better than a G-SHOCK?
Strictly speaking from a toughness perspective, no. All G-SHOCKs have 200m water resistance and shock-resist technology. The W735 has 100m water resistance and no shock-resist tech - but - it is a rugged piece and built to take some punishment.
The vibration feature, while nice, isn't the big deal about this watch. On the HB model, it's the strap. That strap makes the watch fit just about any wrist without flopping around and no strap tail as said above.
Is the all-resin W735 any good?
Yes. The non-HB is the same watch except with an all-resin strap. It operates exactly the same as the HB models...
...but if you can get the HB with that glorious fabric/resin strap, you'll be glad you did, because it's amazing.
