Review by Sandesh S. Sadhale for Casio Men’s Alarm Chronograph Digital Sport Watch #W96H-1AV
Rating:
I first bought this watch at a local shop and the reasons for choosing this watch were the following -

1. It has a nice large display.

2. There are no “obvious buttons” – Some watches have either stop watch or light button in a very prominent area, protruding out and they can easily get pressed accidentally while doing regular chores, sometimes even while putting hands in trouser pockets. This watch doesn’t have those.

3. You see everything that matters in one shot – hour, minutes, seconds, day, date, month and even year, alarm and snooze. This was probably single most important reason for choosing this watch. And I think most of the time this is the only information you are interested in and will be looking for, in a watch at any given point in time. Most of the watches show just the time and date but for everything else you need to press at least one key. Some watches show only time and for month and date you need to press key. No such crap with this watch.

4. This watch hides everything else nicely. But the rest of the stuff can be accessed equally easily through the buttons provided. But trust me – once you adjust the date and time to your local date and time – it will probably be the last time you will be pressing any keys.

5. Technically the manual says that the 10 yr. battery life is calculated taking into account certain fixed seconds of alarm/chime and fixed seconds of using the built in light. If you never use any of these – the battery will last way past 10 years (ofcourse if your watch is new and wasnt sitting on the shelf in the shop for years – which is again highly unlikely). I dont use alarm/chime because I use my mobile for all my alarms. I dont use the light because I dont go to wrong areas at wrong times

6. This is perhaps the only watch I have come across that doesnt waste absolutely any “real estate” on the display. Plain common sense display will really attract you.

I have been using this watch for more than an year and following are the cons (these are the only reasons I am rating this watch at 4)

1. The display glass of the watch is just too soft – it scratches easily. One small dash at any hard surface puts scratches on it. The watch, if dropped from some height, lands on the display and that can cause some serious scratches (personal experience). But it also means that those scratches fade out eventually. The glass keeps getting smoother with day-to-day usage. My first scratch has faded away completely and can be detected only if seen really closely. Perhaps to keep the cost low – they compromised on the quality of the glass.

2. The belt of the watch is a bit on the weaker side – mine broke in 1.3 years – but then thats because I am a 24 hr watch man. The only time my watch separates from me is while bathing. I do not remove it even while sleeping. So your’s will definitely last longer (at least a bit more than mine). If you are travelling to some other country where the watch belts are cheaper and the labor cost of fixing them is lesser than US then you can easily get a new belt.

Overall its a really really good watch especially for the price and would recommend it to others and would love to buy again myself. BTW its cheaper on amazon even with shipping (as of this writing). Some of the local shops are selling this item for 20+ dollars as of today. I bought mine for approx 21 bucks (over an year ago)including tax.

Review by philo_vance for Casio Men’s Alarm Chronograph Digital Sport Watch #W96H-1AV
Rating:
This is a very nice watch. Large, easy to read time digits (about 7mm). 10 year battery. Date, day of the week and seconds always displayed. Backlight is old-school LED and *not* Indiglo blue. And very accurate to boot! A completely satisfactory, basic, economical, digital watch.

So then why only 3 stars?

The watchband. Its made of plastic (Casio calls it “resin”). Mine broke after a year and a half. The constant flexing back and forth causes the plastic to crease and then disintegrate at the point where it bends.

The watch has non-standard fittings for its band. The only way to replace the band is to buy an identical one from Casio. And that costs almost as much as the watch! Granted, that’s not very much and you could almost look at this watch as a disposable, to be replaced every 18 months, but it annoys me that it could easily keep on going for *years* were it not for the crummy band.

Prior to writing this review, I pulled mine out of the “junk” drawer where it went 3 years ago when the band fell apart. It has lost a total of just 17 seconds in that time! If you buy one of these, I recommend you try to extend the band’s life by treating it very gently when you put the watch on your wrist and take it off. It’s the pulling of the “tongue” of the band all the way back to engage or disengage the pin into one of the band’s holes that will ultimately destroy it.

One last thing – Amazon has half a dozen different listings for this watch and the W96H1BV which is almost identical. Make sure you do a search in Watches and Jewelry for W96H1* (don’t forget the *) to see all the prices and all the reviews.