i bought a casio w221h

This might be the ultimate watch for a Gen X, because what it does get right it does very well.

The last time I talked about this watch, I said nope, I'm going to wait because the price at the time was way too high. Since then, the price has now dropped to something much more reasonable, so I went ahead and bought one. Now I can talk about what I got right and what I got wrong in what I said about it before.

Blocky shape? Yes.

Appears bigger than it actually is? Yes.

Strap will work its way loose from the strap keeper? No. The strap is thin and chintzy, no question, but it does stay in the keeper, so I was wrong on that one.

Forced to wait when going mode-to-mode because of that flash alert SYNC feature? No. There is a pause, true, but you can "cheat" the pause just by pressing the button you want to do the thing you want before the display refreshes.

What saves the W221H from being an unwieldy top-heavy mess is the fact it's a 35g featherweight. I did not take weight into consideration when researching this watch, but it really matters. The W221H may not be as light as the W217H at 32g or F105W or F-91W both at a very minuscule 21g. But the W221H is the biggest digit display in the smallest possible package. You can't get anything else with digits this large in a small case that weighs lighter. Absolutely no top-heavy mess going on here.

Yeah, I'm definitely keeping this one. Having a big-digit digital that fits my 6.5" wrist and weighs next to nothing is lovely. The fact it has full time, day, month and date all on the home screen is even better. And the fact it has a countdown timer with auto-repeat and 3 alarms? Icing on the cake. This watch has everything I want in a digital.

The reason I say this might be the ultimate Gen X watch is because over-50 people will absolutely love this thing. HUGE day-of-week, HUGE time, smaller month/day at bottom left...

...which is my only complaint. The month/day should be the same size the seconds are, but they're not. If that month/day was at that seconds digits size, it would be perfect. But even with the month/day slightly smaller, The W221H is still really good for what it is.

I think the only real drawback of the W221H for most people is that it isn't simple to set up due to the advanced features it has (flash alert, countdown timer, time zones, advanced alarm settings, and so on). To that I would say if what you want is a truly simple and highly legible digital, then just go F108WH, W217H, W218H or W219H. Or for something with a metal bracelet, B650WD. Every single one of those is "F-91W style" in the way it works, meaning it's stupidly easy to set the time/date on them.

I'm familiar enough with Casios to where I got everything set up on the W221H without needing to read the manual. But for others, I could totally understand the desire to have something simpler.

But for me, yes, W221H is one I definitely like.

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