Casio Men’s Alarm Chronograph Digital Sport Watch #W96H-1AV Reviews - Best sport watches collection for men and women

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Sandesh S. Sadhale (Jersey City NJ) –

  

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.

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By 

Peter Kwok –

  

Pros: Light weight. Bright light. Intuitive adjusting buttons. Big Letters. Decent price (about $19 after tax at Sears, and about $20 including S/H at Amazon Marketplace).

Cons: No multiple alarms (i.e., can’t set the alarm to turn on every 6 hours, etc.).

More advanced models, such as Casio DB37HD-1AV and DB37HD-7AV, have similar designs but more functions, such as data bank, weekdays in foreign languages, etc. This model (W96H-1AV) and its variant (W96H-1BV), however, offer only the standard basic functions for a digital watch. One thing that may bother people is the way the band is rigidly fixed to the case. The hinges cannot be turned. As a result, the watch cannot be laid flat on table. This “feature” does not bother me. But it may be something for other people to consider. All in all, this watch is a good deal for its decent price and good design.

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