The Casio F-91W Is the Best Smartwatch
26 Sep 2022
I recently stopped wearing my Apple Watch in favour of the classic Casio F-91W. This humble little watch is the best smartwatch on the market in my opinion.
A little over a week ago, Joel posted a picture of his watch on Fosstodon and it opened a MAHOOSIVE can of worms. People started posting photos of their Casio watches and I just had to get involved.
I’ve had a number of Casio watches over the years, from really cheap ones that my parents bought me as a kid, to rather expensive G-Shock watches that survived deployments to both Iraq and Afghanistan with the Army.
I’ve always had a couple of Casio watches knocking around the house. When Joel published his post, I had 2. A G-Shock M5610 and a Green W-218H. But for the most part, I was rocking a series 5 Apple Watch.
My Casio watches
After all the talk of Casio watches within Joel’s thread, I decided to drop the princely sum of £15 on a Casio F-91W. First released in the late 80’s, this fantastic little watch has proven itself time and again to be a great device.
My Casio F-91W
I made a small modification where I switched the standard strap for a NATO strap, as I much prefer them – I have one on my G-Shock too.
Ditching the Apple Watch
I recently wrote about all of the Apple devices I now own. Honestly, it’s a little excessive. So I thought this was a good time to try ditching the Apple Watch, since it’s the Apple device I’m the least impressed with.
After switching to the F-91W, I quickly realised how often I subconsciously checked the Apple Watch for notifications. I have all audible notifications (except for phone calls) disabled on the watch, but I still kept checking it more than I thought.
It’s now been around a week since I stopped wearing the Apple Watch and the only thing I really miss is the ability to use Siri in the car to change music. It’s a pretty small thing, I’m sure you will agree. So I’ve given the Apple Watch to my wife and she’s happily using it.
Why is the Casio F-91W the best smartwatch?
Now, strictly speaking, the humble F-91W isn’t a smartwatch. But to me it does a few things that I personally think are really smart that put ahead of the Apple Watch.
Price
I didn’t pay for my Apple Watch; I got it via a rewards program in work. But even now, a refurbished series 5 Apple Watch is at least £300 on the Apple store.
My Casio F-91W was £15 for the watch itself and another £15 for the NATO strap. So 1:10th of the cost of my Apple Watch. And guess what…they both tell the time!
That’s pretty smart if you ask me.
Battery life
I had to charge my Apple Watch every single night. At a push I might have gotten 2 days out of it, but unlikely. Let’s give it the benefit of the doubt though, and say I could get 48 hours out of a single charge.
My F-91W sports a 7 year battery life. That’s 61,632 hours, folks! So on a single “charge” my F-91W will last 1,278x longer than my Apple Watch.
C’mon – that’s pretty bloody smart, no?
Size & weight
This is the pièce de résistance of the Casio F-91W, folks. It’s so bloody small and light that I barely even feel it on my wrist. So much so that my (small by G-Shock standards) M5610 feels like I’m wearing a house brick on my wrist.
It weights just 21 grams, including the strap. The Apple Watch, on the other hand, weights a chubby 50 grams. It’s also a lot bigger than the little Casio.
I’m not a fan of big watches, I never have been. So the Casio suits me perfectly.
It’s also so cheap that I don’t need to really worry about it. If I scratch the screen for example, it’s not the end of the world. I can get a scratch repair kit, or just buy a new one if it’s really bad.
Final thoughts
So the Casio F91-W is way smaller, lighter, cheaper and has a battery that lasts over 1000x longer than the Apple Watch. Plus, they both tell the time!
Casio really nailed it with this watch – for my money, it’s the best smartwatch out there. 🙃
I know the Casio F-91W isn’t actually a smartwatch, so please don’t email me whinging about the fact it’s not a “real” smartwatch. I’m just having fun; it is a great watch though.