Hey everyone, I feel almost like Indiana Jones digging out this thread, but I guess I feel like I can close this one. Sometime after starting this thread I was browsing watchuseek and I stumbled upon some posts meaning Casio F91W being used by guys in the military, due to the fact that it was lightweight, cheap and rather rugged. Even though I had some cheap Casio watches when I was a young kid (I still have my Casio W728H which I bought around 2001) I never had a F91W. So I figured that while searching for that casual quartz watch I can get a F91W and hopefully it will scratch that itch for a little bit and once I find what I'm looking for, I can just toss that F91W in the watch case and not be sorry I spent $10 for it. But it turned out quite different.
When I got the watch I was rather surprised with it, it looked and felt a whole lot better than I anticipated. Whenever looking at online photos of that watch I thought it was cheap in every aspect. And I mean cheap, not inexpensive (like a Zippo lighter is inexpensive, but it's not cheaply made, nor it looks cheap), and I felt I was completely wrong about that little Casio. The resin case and the strap look and feel good (always keeping in mind that this watch costs as much as one McDonald's meal), and I definitely like the fact that it's so light that you can't even feel it on your wrist. So, after a whole first day of wearing it, I was about to take it off before going to take a shower, because no matter what watch I'd be wearing I always avoided water contact (even when I used to wear my Vostok Amphibia a lot). But then I thought that if guys in the military wear this watch for its ruggedness, I will just leave it on my wrist day and night, and see just how tough it is. Oh, let me tell you, it's tough. And I have been wearing it since, every day and every night for almost 4 months.
And during all that time I truly fell in love with that watch.
I mean, ever since I got into the watch hobby, I would spend countless hours looking at various watches with an extreme desire to own each one and hoping that then I can feel a little bit like people they are associated with. A Stowa Flieger to feel like WWII pilots, Seiko 6105 to feel like those who fought in Vietnam, Rolex GMT to feel like Pan-Am pilots, Omega Speedy to feel like those who reached the moon... The list can go on and on. But no matter what watch I would buy I always felt a need for another one. Somehow F91W made me realize no matter what I do, I will never be like those guys. Having watches that are similar to the ones that they wore, I will not magically transform my life experience into theirs, not even in the slightest. If I wish to live through great moments and have great stories to tell, I need to live them by myself.
Having that same Casio on my wrist every day took away that “What watch do I feel like wearing today”, and I truly started to enjoy it. I realized that I no longer need to look further, that F91W tells the exact same time any other watch would, all the other functions (hourly beep, alarm, chronograph) are used by me on a daily basis, and this watch truly is everything that I ever needed. And what I also realized about it, is that it is so unpretentious. Whenever I see watch ads (be it Omega, Breitling or even microbrands) I feel that the manufacturer is almost trying to sell the story and heritage tied to a watch, not the watch itself. But not Casio F91W. I have to admit that I have never seen an ad for F91W, but I can’t imagine Casio trying to sell that watch as a watch chosen by military personnel (even though it often is) or even by those are actually flying airplanes (even when I was flying thru Munich airport about a month ago and I saw a couple of Lufthansa pilots wearing none other than F91Ws). It is just a simple, inexpensive watch that will do its intended job. Period.
I still love to read about watches and watch all the YouTube channels dedicated to wristwatches, but I no longer feel that itch that no watch could scratch, I no longer feel a desire to own yet another watch. I think that almost everyone knows the Chinese proverb "A journey of a thousand miles begins with a single step", and it's true. But that same journey also ends with a step, and I feel that my watch journey ended with a single step of getting a Casio F91W.
