I won't be getting the Casio WS1600H

You'd think with this being a new inexpensive model that I'd be all over it, but no, I'm giving this one a miss.

I am a fan of cheap Casio digital watches, evidenced by the fact I've owned many and my current daily wearer is model W218H (I like that one so much I bought a second for a backup). They're cheap enough to where you can splurge a little, buy one and see how you feel about it.

So here comes the WS1600H. It looks good with that '80s and '90s flavor to it. But the more I examined it, the more I realized what it was, and decided nope, not this one.

What is the WS1600H? A restyle of the AE1300. What gave it away is the fact it has just one alarm and a bunch of complicated countdown timer features. Once I researched it more, that's when I figured out, "Oh... just a different AE1300".

This isn't to say the WS1600H is bad. Not at all. It's a great watch and the styling is absolutely good - but... - for me it has things that are deal-breakers.

It's the same size as a popular watch people buy to mod, the affectionately known "Casio Royale", i.e. AE1200. This means it has the same strap as the AE1200, and I do not like the strap on that watch.

The fact it has a single alarm is annoying. If this watch had 5 alarms like the AE1200 and AE1000W (which incidentally has an identical feature set to the AE1200), that would elevate it to near-perfect Casio digital watch. But unfortunately, that's not in the cards for this timepiece.

The "COUNTDOWN TIMER" text on the dial. Also annoying. Casio loves to print features on their digital watch cases, and the WS1600H is no exception. If you want that text gone, you can't sand it off readily because it's on the inside of the case, meaning you'd have to take the watch apart and pull the module out just to get to that area. After that, a few passes with fine sandpaper (minimum 1000 or 1500 grit) will remove that text. But the fact you even have to DO that is annoying in itself.

Last but not least, color choices. There are 3, and Casio misses the mark with each one. WS1600H-1AV, seen above, is the least worst looking with its gray bezel and orange script. Model WS1600H-8AV has a black bezel and green script. Model WS1600H-2AV has a black bezel but blue case and strap, and the script is yellow.

What should have happened is a WS1600H-1AV with all the orange replaced to gray. Then it would look just right (which by the way is why the W218H-1AV looks as good as it goes as it carries that color scheme). Unfortunately, that doesn't exist. You can't unsee that COUNTDOWN TIMER in a color you don't want every time you look at the dial.

I'm not willing to take apart one of these just to scrape off that COUNTDOWN TIMER script, so again, I'm giving this one a miss.

Published 2023 Jun 20