State of the watch collection for end of 2019

This has been a year of going all-in with F-91W type Casio watches.

I only bought two new watches this year, and also made a return to F-91W style timepieces.

When I say "F-91W style", even though one of the watches I bought is in fact an F-91W, I'm talking about the display and how the watches operate. And that is to say they all work the same way, with the only real difference being appearance and night light.

First was the F-84W. Not sold in the US. Had to order it from Japan. Fortunately it didn't cost any more than it would here, and it was worth the wait. It's the most '80s thing Casio has released in a very long time.

Second was the F-91WM-1BCF. I had sold off my two regular F-91W watches earlier this year, but saw this one with its monochrome style color scheme and bought it. Looks great and has the same fantastic legibility the original does. No complaints.

The other three I've been favoring lately have all been F-91W type. The A168 seen above, the A158 and the F105W. The 105 and 168 have the "ElectroLuminescent" a.k.a. EL nightlight while the A158 has the older style incandescent green bulb like the F-91W does. But again, they all operate exactly the same.

Things I still know to be true

I will never get along with an analog dial

Several times I have tried to get along with an analog watch, and I just can't do it. Digital is my preference.

The only thing I've not tried yet is using an analog watch with contrasting hands. As in when the hour and minute hands are of differing colors. I need to see that kind of contrast. An example of this is the Casio G-SHOCK G100. The hour hand is yellow (or red if you like) and the minute hand white. That would work for me. On the cheap end there's the Casio HDA600 with contrasting hands, but I don't much care for the styling of that one.

I will never get along with thick watches

Thick watches don't bother me until I put on a coat or a long sleeve shirt. Then I hate them.

"Busy" dials are awful

Part of the reason I went back to F-91W type digitals is the display. Very clean, very uncluttered. I can read them faster.

Time zone features are worthless

I have a few watches that have a ridiculous amount of things you can do with time zones, such as the ability to have 5 different zones set that you can view at any time at the press of a button, quick-swap any one with another and have DST on or off for as many as you like.

None of this is worth using.

If I were a world traveler or a pilot that flew all over the country routinely, sure, then that would be useful. But I'm not a world traveler nor a pilot.

F-91W type watches don't have DST or other time zone features, and this is a good thing. Less crap to deal with. Just set the time and go. When DST happens or if I find myself in a different time zone, I just adjust the watch to the local time. Simple enough.

There are plenty of tough Casio watches that aren't G-SHOCK

Any one of these digitals can take a serious beating, and they're all under $50. Some are even under $30.

I prefer the smaller F-91W type, but do own two of the above (SGW100 and AE1000W) for whenever I need something tougher... which in all honesty is rare.

Am I done buying watches?

I could say that but I wouldn't mean it. What I can say that I am happy with what I have and don't really feel the need to buy another watch at the moment.

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