i'm sad the casio w213 is being discontinued

The Casio W213 at the time I write this is still available, but not for long because it appears it's being discontinued in the North American market.

Do I have confirmation the W213 is being discontinued? No, but it's not being shown as in stock any longer on the Casio USA web site. When a model disappears from there like that, it always means it either is or very soon will be not for sale any longer.

What makes the Casio W213 so great?

The W213 has a near-perfect set of features. Easy-press buttons that allow for lightning fast operation, great legibility, great night light, ridiculously light in weight at just 28g, and a 10-year battery life.

Imagine the AE1200 with its world time feature replaced with dual time, the "1-ON" alarm function (meaning "sound once and disable") removed, its display replaced with one that's easier to read, and its countdown timer had an auto-repeat function added in. That's the W213 in a nutshell. W213 has 5 independent daily alarms, stopwatch, countdown timer with auto-repeat and dual time. This exact same feature set is in the F201WA and MWD100H, but the W213 just does it all better, however...

The W213 has three flaws

First is that circle at top left. That's where the W213 shows how many alarms are enabled. A bit dim because of the blue background. The rest of the display (which is what matters more) is fantastic, however.

Second is the strap. Not the best.

Third is that this watch will never be a looker. Plain design, silver paint on most you'll see out there (the other common color is blue). Even with the plain look, the measurements are good. 45.5mm lug-to-lug, 40mm diameter, 11.7mm thick. It certainly doesn't look like a 40mm watch, but yes, it is.

W213 is one of the very few watches that gets it right

Even with its flaws, it's very difficult to find a model of low-cost Casio digital watch that's done as well as the W213.

The time is big. The date is big. The panel has that perfect light gray to it with thick segments for superior legibility. The night light is just right.

The speed of how fast you can go through the functions is incredible. You wouldn't think speed matters on a Casio watch, but you'd understand if you used the W213 at all. There is ZERO wait time function-to-function. The only time you wait for anything is a long press to set the time, alarm or countdown timer and that's it. Everything else is instantaneous. The easy-press buttons also add to the speed of operation. You can blaze through everything on the W213 like greased lightning.

F201WA I mentioned above is the only other model that's just as fast, except the panel isn't as legible. It's close, but not quite to W213 level.

I just bought a W213 since I'm pretty sure it's going away forever. I had owned two before, but threw them out because of strap and case modification that damaged both. Since the W213 is going away, I bought another while I can still get it...

...and this one is staying all-stock. No modifications this time around. It's good enough as-is, minor flaws and all.

Published 2024 Oct 15