casio watch strap broke, replaced battery in another

Something that happened on one of my Casio F-91W watches (I own two) is that the strap decided to break. In the way the F-91W is made, the strap is not attached with spring bars, but rather pressed-in pins with no springs involved. Technically, yes, you can remove the pins to attach another strap, but not without a small mount of destruction. Not on the lugs themselves, but within the lug holes the pins go through. If you have ever removed pins from an F-91W, you know what I'm talking about. An F-91W can have its pins removed only a handful of times before they become too loose to stay within the lug. After that, you have to use thin superglue applied used those super fine applicator tips just to keep an F-91W lug pin from falling out.

I've not replaced the strap and may not even bother. But I did replace the battery on another Casio that I've had for almost a decade if not slightly longer.

Recently, I've started wearing my AE1000W again. The WS1600H is nice and totally works, but I just felt like wearing something else.

I noticed the LCD display had a little fading happened going from function to function, and button presses were a little slow to respond. It was time to replace the battery, which on the AE1000W is a CR2025.

Thankfully, replacing the battery on the AE1000W is a simple process for the most part. The strap does not have to come off. Four screws need to be removed from the rear. The rear plate comes off after that, peel off one protective sticker, and then comes one of two slightly difficult parts. The metal piece holding the battery down has a shape similar to that of a light bulb. At the "top of the bulb", you take tweezers, get down into the case, flip a little flap, then the battery comes out easily. Insert new battery. Push the metal piece down so that flap snaps back where it needs to be. The second slightly difficult part is touching the AC point to start the watch again. It is labeled, but barely visible. Find that tiny hole, stick tweezers in there, press lightly, and the watch starts right back up. Put the protective sticker back, then put the rest of the watch back together. Done.

Casio digitals are the second easiest watches to replace the battery, depending on model. The AE1000W is easy, as is the AE1200WH, W218H, W800HG, and others. One that I know is not easy at all to replace the battery is the AE1500WH (the strap has to come off), but that's an outlier. The majority of Casio digitals keep it simple.

It is a good idea to have a small watch repair kit to make replacing the battery on a Casio easier. I have one, and have used it several times. You get the little jeweler's screwdrivers and the appropriate tweezers needed. Even if you don't use the other stuff in the kit, believe me, it is worth the buy. You don't want to be futzing about looking for those tools when you need them just to replace a battery. Better to have everything in a little kit with its own little case you can zip up and put away until needed again.

Casio is second easiest for battery replacement, but the absolute easiest isn't Casio, it's almost any Swatch watch. You absolutely don't need a watch press or any other specialized tools. In fact, no tools are required at all. All you need is a coin to take out the battery from the rear, put in the new one, done.

Swatch is the watch that could convince even the most diehard mechanical watch fan to go quartz just because of how stupidly easy it is to replace a battery in one. Which battery is used depends on model, so it could be a CR1220, CR2016, CR2032 or possibly something else. But no matter what it is, getting to the battery for replacement is ridiculously simple.

I may get a Swatch one of these days, but for now, I'm okay replacing batteries in my Casios.

Published 2025 Nov 22