Casio WS210H is possibly the best cheap solar digital watch

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.

Published 2020 Aug 10