CasioUnisex-Adult's Continuity Vintage Edgy Japanese Watch

This is the best watch I have yet found and I have done a lot of searching. I hope they never stop making them.My requirements in a watch:1. Digital2. Looks OK with formal clothesA. Not tactical lookingB. No unnecessary LED's, designs, maps, or anything elseC. Not too large to fit under a long sleeveD. Metal or metallic looking3. Buttons that push watch out of standard mode don't easily get pressed4. Has a useful night view modeSuch a watch is surprisingly difficult to find. If you look at watches that can reasonably look good with formal clothing, they are essentially all analog. Casio only makes a handful and I don't see any good competitors from other companies.The other Casio watches I have used in the past are the the classic A168W and more recently the A178WA. The former is a pretty good watch. Pretty close to optimal, though not quite as good as this one. The latter seems to have some upgraded features but there are several big steps backward. For example, one touch of a button changes the time from 12H to 24H. This button was very easily pressed. I don't know why they made that such a prominent feature...it's not like people are constantly wanting to change from standard to military time. Anyway it seemed like any time I checked it at night it was in military mode, so I had to try and change it back, but that would turn off the light and I could never remember which buttons were right. Setting the time was hard. Getting into and out of the stopwatch was hard. It had all the features, but they ignored which features were commonly used and which should be hard to get to when they were designing the UI. In short, I do NOT recommend the A178 despite the fact that it looks like an upgrade from the A168 and B640.Ok, so how is this watch different? Changing to military time is hard to get to, as it should be. The light button just turns on the light and isn't one of the buttons down at the bottom you always press. The button that is used to enter the mode that changes the time or alarm is flat, so it doesn't get pressed on accident. There is less obnoxious writing on the front face. The watch overall is a bit smaller and more curved. Even though the numbers are smaller, they are thicker and easier to read. Getting into and out of different modes is always the same button and it's really obvious (also not positioned in such a way that it gets pressed easily). The lower left button is always to change modes, the lower right is always to advance. Very easy to use and intuitive.Of course, it's not the perfect watch.* The band is made of bits of folded sheet metal. They work fine and look OK, but by no means luxurious. On the plus side they are super easy to resize with just a small screwdriver* The face plate is made of hard plastic painted to look like metal. If it takes a blow it scratches or dents* The watch is somewhat thicker than the A178 and, I think, heavier.* Countdown timer is too much of a fancy and hard-to-use feature. It would be better off without it.* Battery doesn't last 10 years, like the A178.I would happily pay several hundred dollars for a watch like this that was actually made of stainless steel and that had a better-built band and a scratchproof face (gorilla glass would be fine). Optimally the face would be silver as well, instead of black. Unfortunately, Casio thinks of this as a vintage watch for people trying to relive the '80s, rather than the closest-to-perfection watch that has ever been created.If only the rest of the world had my sense of style and utility, we could have some nice things.

This model was the closest I could find to having all the functions that I needed, in a suitable style, without paying a lot more. The resin bezel isn't as good-looking as a stainless or chromed version, but it's reasonable. It's also lightweight. I would have preferred a gold-tone color scheme, but the black and gray scheme is OK. The backlight is adequate in most cases, but I would have preferred it to be momentary-on (while holding the button in) rather than a several-second time-out action. (It seems to stay on a lot longer than needed, probably wasting the battery. Also, I'm not sure how to keep it on while doing operations - like setting, changing modes, etc. I guess it's best to do things during daylight). I like the month-date display, but the day display has only two characters instead of three, and can be a bit confusing at a quick glance in dim light. (For example, "FR" looks more like "FA", and often gives me a "huh? moment"). Some of the other display segments seem like they could have been shaped better, too, for better clarity. The overall display is reasonably-well laid out, but seems a bit "plain", and lacks some function/status indicators, that I'm used to helping me keep tabs on the status. Despite all that, this is one of the best display layouts that I've seen in this price range.Operationally, it seems to be good; most of the operations are "intuitive" and smooth, and give good "feedback"... but there were a couple of operations that seemed a bit "cumbersome" to me: Setting alarms, and using the chronometer (stopwatch). One useful feature that is missing is either dual time modes or else an easy way to switch between daylight and standard time.I have not had this watch long enough to comment on its durability, battery life, moisture resistance, etc.There are aspects that I would have liked to be better or different, but this model has the best compromise of style, features, modes, and price that I found, in relation to my own needs.