The day date is the best watch complication ever

Believe it or not, there's a part of my audience that actually likes it when I talk about watches (who knew?), so here's my take on my favorite watch complication, the day date.

For those not in the know, any feature on a watch that does something other than tell time is called a complication. If the watch shows the day of the month in a little window, that's called a "date complication." A watch that shows the day of the week and the day of the month is called a "day date complication."

The watch pictured above is an example of a day date, the Rolex Day-Date. The date is shown at the 3 position and the day is shown at the 12 position.

Is the day date complication Rolex-only territory? Hardly. You can get it cheap on a Casio such as the MRW200H, and from that link you'll see the many different styles it comes in, all for under 20 bucks.

Side note: At some point I will probably buy an MRW200H because it's a good cheap day date with a bezel that actually rotates so you can time things. Nice to have. Reliable, easy to read, rugged, lightweight. Doesn't get much better than that.

What about digital?

Digital is the absolute cheapest way to get a day date complication. In fact, it's actually a challenge to find a digital timepiece that is not a day date. The Casio F-91W, its steel "cousin" the A158 and A168 are all day dates.

In fact, every single new digital watch made by Casio is a day date, so if you want it, you can get it real easy.

Why is the day date the best watch complication ever?

It's not because of the time nor the date complication.

It's because of the day complication.

No matter what your age, be it young, old or somewhere in between, there are going to be times when you simply forget what day of the week it is. When it happens (and it will,) you're going to be thankful you're wearing a day date watch.

For me, a watch that doesn't have a day date complication is useless. I own a few watches that have a date complication but no day complication, and because of that I never wear them.

This is, incidentally, why I could never own a Rolex Submariner even if I had the money for it. Not having the day complication would drive me nuts. The Rolex Day-Date is literally the only Rolex I would actually find useful.

Fortunately, there are several day date watches out there.

What are the best cheap day date watches?

Casio and Timex own this domain.

Casio analog: MRW200H, as mentioned above.
Casio digital: Any

Timex analog: T20011 Easy Reader or T20041 Easy Reader
Timex digital: Any

Published 2016 Jun 5