alt Hacker NewsCasio F-B100W-1A
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Casio has been leaving a lot of money on the table in terms of nostalgia products. There's been a low rumble of demand for the Casio CZ series of synthesizers for a decade or more, and a bunch of non-Casio companies have cashed in on it (Behringer makes CZ-1 Mini, Arturia has CZ V, several other phase distortion synths exist). It's incredibly cheap to replicate, a simple early digital synthesis algorithm that'll run on anything; Korg has been making ARM-based emulation synths (basically a Raspberry Pi-like SoC in a keyboard form factor with some knobs) for a decade or more and I have to assume their margins are very comfortable since most of the guts are off-the-shelf low-cost parts rather than custom chips.
But, I guess their watches were always a bigger business than the synths.
One thing I've never understood (and hopefully some Casio geek can shine a light on): why do almost all old Casio models have a 24/12h time switch taking the premium spot as one of the main 4 buttons, instead of having it buried deep in the (awkward) menus. Seems to me that something like alarm or stopwatch setting or a second menu action button would have been far more useful.
For anyone interested in modding the F-91W there's also The Ollee Watch, a replacement PCB which adds even more "smart" features.
I have one of these, there is an open source project called gshock_api that supports it. I think that makes it a much more interesting device. I don't use the app, I tag alarms in remind, and sync them from cron - works great.
https://github.com/izivkov/gshock_api
The full lifelog (what Casio calls the steps and other metrics) is an opaque binary blob, but we mostly understand it now, so you can access that too.
Hmmmmmmmm. I've always been a fan of the classic Casio aesthetic, and I want to want it, but this is a strange point in the functionality-vs-price space.
A base F-91W costs less than half that, and my phone can already track steps with reasonable reliability.
An entry-level fitbit costs about the same and monitors way more stats including heart rate, SpO2. Worse battery life and appearance, but if I wanted that featureset it's probably what I'd get.
> A built-in motion sensor automatically tracks your daily steps, with your step count displayed on the LCD screen. Pair with your smartphone via Bluetooth® for automatic time adjustment and easy access to watch settings through the app.
I see and I was wondering why they sold it for £55 only. They collect and sell your personal data.
I'm happy with my original one, thanks.
Like their G-Shock watches, the actual area dedicated to showing the time is overwhelmed by superfluous elements. Must be barely 20% of the top surface that actually performs its primary function.
When I look at my watch I want to see the time, not wasted space announcing "Casio Step Tracker" or "Water Resist" ( which isn't even proper English).
I moved to Timex a few years ago as their basic digital watches have nice big numerals for the time display.
BIG Warning to anyone thinking about purchasing one of these
You cannot connect the watch to Bluetooth without a proprietary app, and that proprietary app will not let you use the Bluetooth feature without some bullshit called a "CASIO Account". Their privacy policy is a bit of an eyebrow-raiser too.
The absolute state of things.
It seems to me that it's a slightly more affordable repackaging of the ABL-100WE. The features are the same, so is battery life.
That said, I really like this because the ABL-100WE comes with metal bands and I'd really like another watch with a rubber band :)
https://www.casio.com/de/watches/casio/vintage/product.ABL-1...
Right when I started building a custom F-91W with/for my kids based on sensor watch: https://github.com/joeycastillo/second-movement
I'll take some solace in mine supporting lots more alarms (beep when school recess ends) and a bunch of geeky stuff like sunrise, moon phases, tides, and stuff.
I really like my F91W case with a Sensor Watch Pro board and accelerometer sensor.
My favorite features:
- Piezo alarm is much louder.
- Countdown time can be incremented by tapping the watch.
- LED color can be changed by adjusting RGB values.
- It features sunrise/-set and moon phase info/calendar.
- I changed the week day names to German abbreviations.
- There are lots of intriguing watch faces that you can compile into your firmware.
Sadly, the project is in some disarray as the originator apparently lost interest and the community isn't moving uniformly. Would love to see such a project for Casio with 4 buttons as this would allow for a lot more interesting use cases ... the pinnacle would be a board for their calculator watches. That would be rad.
The Sensor Watch forum on Discord is pretty active.
https://www.crowdsupply.com/oddly-specific-objects/sensor-wa...
Upon seeing "Bluetooth" and "Daily steps" I'd assume this is another watch that requires daily charging, but wow 2y battery w/ CR2016!
Or you could get a $50 smartband and have so much more functionality and still recharge only once a week or two.
Only available via that link in the UK or Ireland for £55.00. Quick jump over to Ebay US? $189.62 (And FedEx will have a word after they deliver it.)
US, for now, can keep getting the unconnected F91W $25 lookalike. IIRC, the F-91W has a really small strap. Almost a "ladies watch" size.
If you want a Casio watch and are traveling to Japan, just get one at a second hand shop there (WonderEx, Second Street, ...). They are tend to be well stocked on the Casio cruft.
I have a Casio PHYS STR-800, nonworking. I got it two decades ago because of the large lap memory (and unusual look, too); I was doing a lot of running, including track training and such.
It short circuited one day. Put in a battery, and it drained the thing in a minute. Put in another one, same thing.
It's been sitting in the top shelf of a bathroom cabinet since like 2011.
I have two of these (wearing one right now!!) and several other cheap Casio watches. Some of my favorite purchases ever. I'm so in.
Casio has so many great, cheap, watches for which you don't accidentally change the time, reset your stop watch, or switch from between 12/24h mode every time you bend your wrist.
The F201W (which this appears to be based off of) is not one of them.
I wish they would've added features like LED lighting and other improvements while keeping Solar and Atomic clock syncing. Instead of modern smart watch stuff.
> Power supply and battery life
> Approx. battery life: 2 years on CR2016
Kind of hope this is a signal the culture is moving towards an analog 2.0 movement (a merging of old school interfaces with modern tech components thoughtfully incorporated).
I use daily a Japan exclusive model, LIW-M700D (https://www.benswatchclub.com/blog/casio-lineage-liw-m700d-r...), and lucky enough to be in range of DCF77 signal (https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/DCF77). Hard to believe, it was less than 200 euros.
Immediate popup asking me to select my country, and when I selected Canada it tells me the page can't be found. Great UX work as always.
Not the first new F91W-ish model in 40 years but still neat, I hadn't heard about this one yet, thanks for sharing.
Step counter seems like a bizarre thing to focus in on? are people passionately tracking steps without their phones?
This sucks so much. The point of the F-91W is that is a dead simple digital watch that you can get for $10.
Neat. Note that battery life is reasonably good (2 years) even with Bluetooth sync feature.
Nice! When I wanted a “dumb” smart watch many years ago, I went with a FitBit. I think it matched the features to what this Casio offers minus the HR monitor. Fast forward to now, I use a Garmin Instinct that hits the spot for me. I’ve grown accustomed to the more detailed analytics (HRV and “daily battery” are awesome). Still I’d consider a Casio with more sensors and a solid phone app to give them justice. Anyhow, I own the previous version of this watch and a few other Casios and I still like them for what they are. Gonna hold on to them until I die :)
I started browsing the UK catalog and found a PAC-MAN edition: https://www.casio.com/uk/watches/casio/product.CA-53WPC-1B/
GW-M5610U-1ER enjoyer here. I am actually glad it is not connected to my phone, and I swap them with Garmin watches when I need to check the time and don't want to get any notifications.
Or going to meetups.
i love the product design aspect of a product that only needs to have one thing set (in this case, the time zone), to be eternally a functional device
which is why i love gshocks, both for design but also specifically the ones with tough solar/multiband 6 (and bluetooth (optional))
they have battery lives in the range of decades (due to solar charging), set themselves (multiband 6 is using atomic clock radio signals) and via bluetooth
you can get gw-b5600-2 and gw-s5600u (auto backlight) for under $200, but usually closer to $100. there are many more models, of course
that sounds expensive, but it's insanely durable construction and battery life means it'll be the only digital watch you'll ever need to buy. and the only configuration it will ever need is the time zone.
would some Casio/watch expert know if it's possible to replace the face plate on these watches? I love the simplicity but I don't like all the text outside the watch itself like "Step tracker" and "Water Resist".
How are they getting 2 years on a CR2016? Is that with step tracking and Bluetooth disabled?
If you want to retrofit your existing watch: https://www.olleewatch.com/
I got one earlier this year, pretty awesome project!
My favourite ’90s wristwatch. battery lifetime just amazing.
I haven’t worn wristwatch anymore, since the dawn of smart phones. All my time information has moved into that, in my pocket. That’s my only dependency.
Best feature of old Casio products is they do NOT have RF (wifi/bluetooth) , but (sadly) this one has listed bluetooth and app as a feature.
I have seen (Xiaomi) smartwatches that wont allow setting the time without an app (asking to many permissions, and forcing cloud accounts) installed on a linked phone. facepalm
Here is a fun fact; the US believes owning and wearing an F-91W is evidence that you're a terrorist so much so that they can place you in Guantanamo Bay without trial[0]:
> In a handful of cases the detainee's possession of a Casio watch or the wearing olive-drab clothing is cited as evidence that the detainee is an enemy combatant. No basis is given to explain why such evidence makes the detainee an enemy combatant.
This is also noted on the F-91W's Wikipedia page:
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Casio_F-91W#Usage_in_terrorism
[0] https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Seton_Hall_reports#Detainees'_...
Casio figured out that cheap and durable isn't a contradiction. Thirty years later the F-91W still sells because it just works.
After wearing an Apple Watch for almost a decade, the F-91W became my new "never take off" watch. For daily use, the only thing I miss from a smartwatch is a weather+temp forecast complication. Interestingly, it doesn't seem like this F-B100W-1A provides that (yet).
I would love a watch in the F-91W form factor that does heart rate and sleep tracking. Maybe one day…
Damn, and I just bought a used Garmin hybrid watch, too.
i want one of these but i need it bigger. i bought an F-91W last year and its so small, it barely fit on my wrist and it looked like a little girl watch on my wrist.
Started looking at Casios. Now I am thinking of getting W-800HD-1AVEF. Old A159W is kinda broken or pain to get right. Not really using one often, but maybe a few times in 10 years clock would be reasonable.
Most notably, it's a bit bigger in size, so finally wearable by adults. I love the ABL100. It's my favorite Casio watch.
I love Casio watches, perfect blend of utilitarian and nerd. Wearing my 5000U-1JF right now.
How does it do step tracking with a 2 year battery life? A purely mechanical step tracker?
I feel that the smartphone connectivity feature is a departure from the philosophy of the F-91W. Is having a smartphone for "Easy watch setting" not a flaw of the watch, rather than a feature?
I'd love if it was radio controlled and charged with solar. And without phone connectivity.
I love the F91-W. I’ve owned a few of them. Each one had the same problem; the band would crack and break before the battery died. I foresee the same issue with the non-metal banded versions of this watch. Also the stated 2yr battery life is kind of meh in comparison to the F-91W. I’ve got an F91W that’s been running on the same battery for nearly a decade.
Nice, still have my original Casio and Timex ones though.
Does it fix the terrible backlight on the F-91W though..
I am going to take advantage of all the Casio expert to ask whether it is possible to invert the screen from dark background to light background in these watches. I have seen articles and tutorials online but the guy at the shop told me absolutely not. I have the ABL-100WE. Thank you