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kimmk • yesterday at 5:05 PM • 14 replies • view on HN

I like Casio watches but I'd like them more if the watch faces weren't splattered with "Water resist", "Chrono alarm", and such labels. Yes I don't need to be reminded this watch indeed is an chrono alarm, like an advertisement, every time I look at it.


Replies

discreteevent • yesterday at 10:34 PM

Last year they made a few minimal versions of the f91w with those labels removed https://www.casio.com/europe/watches/casio/product.F-91WB-1A...

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forinti • yesterday at 5:29 PM

It really was part of the aesthetics in the 80s. I had a gorgeous red cassette player from Sanyo that had text and lines drawn all over it.

There are a few Casios that have cleaner designs.

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brap • yesterday at 9:18 PM

This was also a thing in the 90s and possibly early 00s, I remember my PC had a bunch of logos and crap written all over it.

Minimalism didn’t really take off until Apple made it fashionable.

osener • yesterday at 5:44 PM

Come to think of it, this reminds me of how LLMs fill every empty space in a design with technical jargon that is technically correct but doesn’t serve any purpose. Basically typographic cornice.

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ndiddy • yesterday at 6:43 PM

I imagine it's because they need to put something on the area around the screen, otherwise it would look weird. Casio do make plainer variants of their watches so you can see what I mean: https://us.firstclasswatches.com/casio-black-382mm-digital-d... . It just kind of looks empty. The F-84W has stuff around the screen but is a bit more understated compared to the F-91W: https://i0.wp.com/centreseconds.com/wp-content/uploads/2019/...

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mingus88 • yesterday at 5:59 PM

Casio is a fashion brand. They have G-shock watches in matte black if that’s what you want

https://www.casio.com/us/watches/gshock/product.GA-2100LXB-1...

They also have entire lines that aren’t G-shock such as their edifice line that are more dress oriented

https://www.casio.com/us/watches/edifice/product.EFV-160D-1A...

Fact is g-shock is their most popular line and they release collabs with streetwear brands all the time. People really like the styling

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talmr • yesterday at 7:18 PM

I actually love that :)

My A159W is my daily driver. I prefer it to my Apple Watch, which I've pretty much stopped wearing. I am not in a wealth bracket to afford wearing mechanical watches.

My Casio is a cheap watch, kind of quirky, and I love it!

I think it suits me very well.

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cillian64 • yesterday at 11:22 PM

Thinking about it, even a lot of fancy fashion watch brands seem to do this, “Quartz”, “water resist 20m”, however many jewels. The old Casio watches are a bit worse for it though.

But check out the Casio MQ-24, it’s cheap and cheerful but has a much plainer face.

scrtm • yesterday at 8:06 PM

models like the Casio AE-1200 (Casio Royale) look pretty good if you rub off some of the printing: https://i.imgur.com/q1cpCOS.jpeg compared to stock https://www.casio.com/content/dam/casio/product-info/locales...

granted that requires taking out the face plate and rubbing off the print you want to remove

stasomatic • yesterday at 8:10 PM

I saw a newish Subaru this week and there was a thin strip near the left rear light that spelled out “symmetrical AWD”. That gave me a slight chuckle. Same with 16g, Turbo or Platinum or “sea salt”.

deadbabe • yesterday at 5:25 PM

If you're Japanese and don't know or interact much with English characters and words it probably looks cool. Similar to how people tattoo random Japanese/Chinese characters on their bodies.

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rasz • yesterday at 8:58 PM

Turbo, 16V, Electronic Fuel Injection. All over Japanese cars from the 80ties, those were the aesthetics of the time.

coldtea • yesterday at 11:57 PM

Those are part of the charm. Fuck 2020s minimalism

Mawr • today at 3:54 AM

Same, which is why I got the DW-5600BB recently. Lacks features I'd like — no radio sync, no solar, no MIP display, but at least it looks cool and clean. Wish Casio had more such nice looking options.

GW-BX5600 is sooo close to being a perfect watch, but they just had to plaster the watch face with all that text and that ugly solar pattern.