Casio WS210H is possibly the best cheap solar digital watch

I talked about this recently, and decided to go ahead and buy one. This was a good decision.

Solar powered watches have come a long way. Back when I was a little kid in the early 1980s, I did in fact have a Casio solar watch. I don't remember the exact model but it was probably a Casio W-15 or W-27. You could easily see the solar part, and if I remember correctly it worked just like a solar calculator from that era where holding your finger over the solar cells caused the display to dim.

Modern solar powered watches are far superior compared to ones made in the '80s, and the Casio WS210H is one such example.

At the top of the display are the words TOUGH SOLAR. True on both counts.

The WS210H for all intents and purposes is G-SHOCK tough, although it is not a G-SHOCK model. The watch was built to handle its intended purpose as a tide and moon phase timepiece. This means if you wanted to take it out for boating or fishing duties, it can handle that easily. But even if you don't sail or fish at all, this is still worth getting just for the solar feature.

Imagine an AE1200 model that was built tougher, solar powered and had tide graph and moon phase function. That's what the WS210H is. Full time + date + weekday on the face with tide/moon info, 5 alarms, countdown timer, stopwatch and world time feature.

Now some notes on solar and why it matters.

What's the big deal with solar?

The big deal is that as long as the watch isn't shoved in a drawer (meaning not put in total darkness for extended periods of time,) it is totally possible for the battery to last 15 to 20 years.

In the photo at the beginning of this, note the PS at the bottom left of the display. That means Power Save, which is an option you can have enabled or disabled. It makes no sense to ever disable this. Turn PS on and leave it on. What this does is that if the watch is in the dark for long enough, the display turns off...

...which is exactly how I received this watch new. When I took it out of the box, the display was blank. But as soon as it detected light, the display came right back on. The way it works is that if the watch is in the dark for an hour, the display turns off but all other functions remain enabled (like the alarm and hourly signal.) If you leave it in the dark for over a week, the beep and night light are auto-disabled until the battery gets a proper charge again.

How to know the state of the battery charge is seen easily at the right of the display. H is high, M is medium, L is low.

But again, as long as PS is kept enabled and the watch isn't put in total darkness for extended periods of time, it is highly unlikely the charge will ever move from H.

Do other solar watches act the same?

Basically, yes. Any Citizen Eco-Drive watch is made like this. If you want something fancier than the Casio WS210H, get an Eco-Drive and follow the same rules as you would with the Casio. Just don't put it in the dark for long periods and the battery can last a very, very long time.

And do the tide graph and moon phase functions work?

WS210H is one of the easiest watches to set up for moon phase and tide graphing

Where moon phase is concerned, it's stupidly easy to set up. Just make sure the correct time zone is selected for where you are, the correct Daylight Savings is set (which is simply on or off,) and the date is correct. That's it.

Where tide graph is concerned, same thing. Have the correct time zone and date set and it will work. You can fine tune it if needed. The watch is set up out of the box to show approximate tide data for 6am and on from there. If that is not when a high tide occurs for where you are in your time zone, that time can be adjusted so the tide data is more accurate.

If you are nowhere near a coastline, just set the time and date and the moon phase and tide data will be mostly accurate without any further adjustment necessary.

The tide/moon data is not intended to be super-accurate, because after all, we're dealing with a small LCD panel here and not some full-screen monitor will all sorts of data to play with. But the data is accurate enough. The little moon you see on the display is pretty much how the moon looks in the sky at night. As for the tide accuracy, I wasn't able to test that because I'm currently not near an ocean coastline.

If you want a watch that's digital, solar, tough and cheap, you want the WS210H

I prefer digital to analog, and the solar feature is what sold me on this one.

It's just nice to know that there's a very good chance I'll never have to change the battery in this watch. With other digital watches you get 3 to 5 years or 7 out of the battery if you're lucky. This one can go to 10 and most likely well beyond that.

No, I don't plan on wearing the same watch for over 10 years. But with the WS210H, I actually could if I wanted.

Are there other versions?

Yes, there is the WS200 and WS220. Both of those are also Tough Solar models but do not have the tide and moon phase features. Instead they are runner's models that feature 120 lap memories - but still have the same solar features including Power Save mode and the battery charge indicator.

I label the WS210H as the best of the lot because you get the most for the least and it has the most interesting display. It just looks cool.

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Published 2020 Aug 10