State of the watch collection 2020
Still riding the Casio train.
I said to myself that I wasn't going to buy any watches this year. Well, that didn't work out and I bought two of them, and went back to wearing one that was sitting in a box for many months before that.
This is the watch seen in the photo above. I bought this in 2017 and then returned it, then bought it again and kept it. The A178 is what you get when you take an A158, add the ability to see the full date (weekday + month/day) on the home screen and a night light that actually works right.
A178 is thicker than the A158, but having the full date with the better night light is really nice to have. It also looks better than the A158 does too.
This is a simple sports watch which, like the A178, shows a full weekday + month/day on the face in additional to the time. Functionally it's almost identical to the A178 as well with a similar feature set and proper green night light.
I like the buttons on this watch. A lot. Bigger, longer, easier to press and very responsive. It's also very lightweight as well. My only complaint is that the strap is a little too long for my small wrist, which I'll have to attend to in the future, and this leads me to...
I've had this watch literally for years, and I love it - but the strap on this one is so bad. Or rather, bad for me. Way too long. It's for that reason alone I just chucked it in a box and kept it there for years.
I then finally decided to say screw it, I'll try to customize a cheap leather strap I have to see if I can make it fit the W213. The way this watch works (as is the case on many Casio digital watches) is that while the strap is a normal width, it turns into a "short U" at the lugs. This means no standard replacement strap will fit it unless you cut out small corners right where the strap meets the lugs.
Being I had nothing to lose, I grabbed a utility knife and did the cuts on the strap...
...and it worked:
I was able to fit the strap to the watch. Finally. And now I'm wearing the W213 again.
The reason I love the W213 is because like the other two watches I mentioned above, it has full time + weekday + month/day on the face. But in addition to that, the digits are thicker and easier to read, it has 5 alarms, and it has countdown timer with auto-repeat. On top of that, the side buttons are all textured. The F200W has really easy-press buttons and the W213 is even easier.
I'll totally admit that a black leather strap doesn't exactly suit the W213, but the fact I'm actually able to wear this thing now is great.
Had I known all I had to do was cut a leather strap where it meets the lugs at the watch just to make it fit, I would have done this much sooner.
I'll be looking into other leather straps to see if I can find one that better suits the watch, but for now, again I'm just happy I can wear the thing.
Published 2020 May 26
