Tag: Casio

The Casio Marlin

By Joe Berk

I’ve mentioned my Casio Marlin (also known as the Duro) a few times in previous blogs.  I love this watch for any number of reasons:  It’s accurate, it’s rugged, it’s waterproof, it’s comfortable, and it’s inexpensive.  It’s a diver’s watch, but I’m not a diver.  I just like the look of thing.  I’ve worn it on a few big moto trips including the ride around the Andes Mountains in Colombia.  It poured cats and dogs on that trip.  The Marlin was unfazed.

At about $50, this watch has to be the deal of the century.  Just for grins I grabbed a picture of the Rolex Sea Dweller and put it along side the Casio.  If you own a Rolex don’t get your shorts in a knot ((I own one, too).   But the comparison has to make you wonder:  Let’s see, $50 for the Casio and $16,500 (or whatever it is these days) for the Sea Dweller (if you can find one and in today’s market that’s not easy).  As Aristotle would say….hmmmmm.

Yeah, you can go a little deeper with the Rolex (they say down to 3,900 meters).  My Casio says it’s good for 200 meters.  That’s over 600 feet down.  It’s not likely I’ll ever visit those regions and if I ever do I can guarantee you the time of day is not what will be on my mind.

I’ve owned my Marlin for about 10 years now.  I think I’ve had to replace the battery twice.  My guy charges me $3.25 to install a new battery (parts and labor).  The strap got stiff and cracked, so I’ve replaced that once (I think it was $10).  I checked and the cost of a replacement resin Rolex band is close to $300.  On the other hand, the Rolex is self-winding, so it never needs a battery.   Again….hmmmm.

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On that comfort thing…the Casio Marlin is about the right size for a man’s watch and the resin band is very comfortable.  I always forget I have it on and on more than a few occasions I’ve gone into the water wearing it (swimming, showering, and most recently, almost being swept away in my Subaru going to the gun club).  It doesn’t matter to the Casio.  I’d say it’s indestructable, but some Internet weenie would want to get into a urinating contest about that.

Boarding the ferry in Magangué on the Magdelena River.  Even there, the Casio’s good looks and functionality appealed to an onlooker.

When I rode Colombia with Juan and Carlos, one time we had to wait a couple of hours on a hot and humid afternoon for the ferry to come in and carry us down the Magdalena River to Mompos.  While we were waiting in what little shade we could find in Magangué, a young Colombian boy came over and touched the Casio, nodding his approval.  If I had another watch with me I would have given it to him.  I still think about that on occasion and wish I had given it to that kid.  I think when I bought my Marlin, they were $39.  That young fellow most likely would have cherished the Casio the rest of his life (as I will).  Maybe I need another ride in Colombia.  If I go again I’ll throw an extra Marlin in one of the panniers.  You know, just to be prepared.

More watches and more product reviews?  You bet!

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A New G-Shock Sale Alert

I follow a few motorcycle forums and one of them has a watch thread.  One of the guys who posted recently alerted me to a Casio GD400 G-Shock watch in a new color scheme.  Without intending to, I guess I became a G-Shock collector.  My orange and turquoise GD400 conked out on a Baja trip (my fault, not the watch’s), and when I tried to buy another one, I was g-shocked (pardon the pun) by four facts:  The orange and turquoise color was no longer available, prices on the orange and turquoise model were up about 400% on the secondary market, you couldn’t get replacement parts for that color, and G-Shock collecting/investing is a real thing.

My first Casio G-Shock watch. I still have it.

I liked the watch, though, and when I was in a watch shop on the east coast, I saw a new color theme Casio had released.  I like the watch, so for me it was a no-brainer.  I picked up a replacement in OD green and black.  I’m wearing it right now.

My daily wear Casio GD400 G-Schock watch.

I took the inability to get replacement parts on the orange and turquoise model as a challenge, and I overcame it.  My orange and turquoise model is digitally and happily tick tocking away on a shelf in my office.

Anyway, to circle back to the topic of this blog, Casio just introduced this new color scheme in black and gold, and I like it.  It’s the one you see at the top of this blog.  The deal is this:   The new Casio is available now for $69.99, which is a good price.  Casio is taking pre-orders on their website, and they will start shipping on 25 November.  My order is in.

Want to see other Casio watches?  Take a look at these G-Shock watches on Amazon.

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Product Review: Casio GD400 G-Shock Watch

I own a bunch of watches.  They’re not rich man watches; they are the indulgence of a guy with practical tastes and a flair for useful and inexpensive tools.  My all-time favorite watch, hands down, is the Casio G-Shock GD400 series, with a personal preference for the olive green one.  I’ll get to that in a second (hahahaha…a time pun).

I first bought a similar Casio in turquoise and orange, almost as an impulse buy.  I had purchased a set of shoes from Nike or Adidas or somebody in turquoise and orange, and then (probably because I had searched for them online) I started seeing pop up ads for the Casio.

I know it’s weird.   I mean, what kind of a motorcycle guy buys a watch to match his shoes?  (You don’t need to answer that.) The watch arrived a few days later and I liked it.  I was in and out of CSC a lot when I bought the watch and the shoes (we were getting ready for a CSC Baja ride), and I caught a bit of flack for being a fashion plate.  That’s how it goes sometimes when you’re a famous and well-dressed blogger.

I liked the watch, and I loved its phenomenal accuracy.  I went to www.Time.gov (that’s the official US government time), and the Casio was running exactly even with the government website over the span of a month.  That’s really good.

The Casio has a bunch of features I never really use and some I use a lot.  It’s got a stopwatch, a timer, and an alarm.  It’s got a calendar and it shows the day of the week.  You can have it show regular time or military time. You can set it so that if you flick your wrist, the backlight comes on. And you can press the G button and the thing lights up.  I use the Casio as a flashlight three or four times every night…you older guys will know what that’s all about.  And by pressing the buttons mounted on the case side you can find the time in just about any time zone in the world.  That comes in handy on many of my overseas secret missions.

I wore the watch for several years, and then on another CSC Baja trip the battery went south on me.  The battery had the good manners to do this in Guerrero Negro, where there are a few stores.  I asked the guy who took us to see the whales on that trip which store would have a battery and he pointed one out on our way to the docks.   After seeing the whales and having a couple of fish tacos at Tony’s, I rode my RX3 to the place the guide had mentioned.  Nope, they didn’t sell watch batteries, but the farmacia two doors down did.  Okay, so I went to the farmacia two doors down.  Nope, they didn’t have watch batteries, but another farmacia two doors on the other side of the first store did.

Then things got interesting.   They had the battery, but the lady behind the counter told me I had to open the watch and change the battery myself.  The watch has these tiny little screws and I was wearing my contact lenses, which gives me great far field vision but lousy near field vision.   She gave me a little box of tiny screwdrivers, but I couldn’t see the screws very well and I tried to explain my predicament to the very nice lady, but she didn’t speak English.  So, I took my right contact out (they’re one-day disposables, so it wasn’t a big deal) and I basically did a roadside repair.

The watch lit up as soon as the battery went in, but the rear cover is orientation sensitive and I got it wrong.  The watch crystal fogged within an hour, and by the end of the day, the watch called time out (hahahaha …another time pun).  The time out, unfortunately, was permanent.  When I returned to So Cal, I took it to the guy who normally sells (and installs) watch batteries for me, but it was too late.  The watch was toast.

I missed having that watch on my wrist, and I tried to buy it again.   But it turns out that Casio changes the colors frequently on this particular model. Not only had the turquoise and orange version been discontinued, but now it was collectible.  I had paid $72 for mine, but by this time used ones were going for close to $400 on Ebay.

A week or two later, another secret mission, and I found myself killing time (wow, a third time pun!) in a mall in New Jersey, and I saw the OD green version of the GD400 Casio.  The sales guy and I went back and forth a little, and $92 later (tax included), the watch you see in the big photo at the top of this blog left with me.  Like I said, it’s just about the perfect watch and I wear it nearly all the time.

More good news?  I liked that turquoise and orange G-Shock watch, too, so I called Casio’s US importer and asked them if they could repair it.  I had to spend another $60, but that’s okay.  There’s only one thing that’s better than one Casio GD-400 G-Shock, and that’s two of them.  The GD400 model comes in a variety of other colors, too, and they typically go for around $100 on the Internet.   Trust me on this…if you want a good watch for every day bouncing around, you can’t go wrong with a G-Shock Casio.

More watches?  You bet.   Looky here!

More on Baja and the CSC Baja expeditions?  Absolutely!

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A 1%er Moon Watch

In line with our editorial policy featuring luxury goods with outlandish prices, a few weeks ago we posted a blog on the Longines perpetual moon phase automatic watch.  That’s an item with what is euphemistically referred to as “prestige” pricing, which most folks would simply call overpricing (you know, like most motorcycle dealers’ freight and setup fees).  The Longines is a lofty $3550, although our blog post pointed out you could find them for less if you poked around on the Internet.  I did, and my best price so far was a scant $2250, which is still way too rich for my blood.  Hell, you could buy a used Sportster for that kind of money.

Now, don’t get me wrong…if you want to buy the Longines watch, by all means we think you should.  In fact, we think you should buy it through this Amazon Longines link, because then Gresh and I would get a cut.   I have no idea how much (we’ve never helped to sell anything that pricey through our Amazon affiliates program), but it would be cool to find out.

Terry, the Prince of Tides.

But that’s not the point of this blog.  If you read that earlier Longines blog and the comments that you, or esteemed readership, posted to it, you will see that none other than our good buddy Terry commented that he might consider the watch if it also showed the tides.

The tides.

Hmmm.  That tickled a long-dormant neuron buried among the other neurons between my ears.  They’re mostly focused on Weatherbys, Royal Enfields, SIGs, RCBS reloading gear, Baja, Michelle Pfeiffer, and God only knows what else is swimming around in there.  The tides.  I vaguely remembered seeing something about a watch that does, indeed, show the tides, so I went on Amazon, looked, and what do you know:  The Casio moon phase and tides digital watch you see at the top of this blog appeared.  Wowee!

What got my attention immediately was the price:  $22.50.  Could it be? A Casio watch that actually does way more than the Longines watch, but sells for a scant $22.50?   That’s exactly one percent of the lowest discounted price I could find for the Longines watch!  $22.50!

Hey, I couldn’t resist.  I’m wearing my new Casio moon phase and tides watch as I type this blog.  $22.50, and because I’m an Amazon Prime member, I didn’t even have to pay for shipping!  Go Bezos!

There are just so many things that are cool about this Casio watch I almost don’t know where to begin.   Yep, it shows you the tides.  That waveform in the lower left quadrant of the watch face has a darkened section that shows you were the tide is at that instant.  It goes through a complete cycle every 24 hours, just like the real tides do.   And there’s the moon phase.  That’s the little circle in the lower right quadrant (it darkens in arcs to show you what the moon is doing that day).   All this for $22.50.  And the Casio has a dual time feature…you can set a different time zone and switch to it instantly, although this feature is kind of weird…the “other” time is whatever you want it to be, not some exact number of hours different from where you are.  It kind of reminded of a Chinese hotel we stayed in once where they had a bunch of clocks on the back wall showing different times at other locations in the world, but nobody had maintained them and they were comically different.

Ah, but I digress…back to the Casio.  It has a stopwatch and a countdown feature.  I can set it to military time or a normal 12-hour time.  It has an alarm clock.  And a backlight, so I can use it to find my way to the bathroom at night without waking up my wife or tripping on the way there.  And (get this) it has a 10-year battery!  Did I mention it goes for only $22.50?

More good news:  As you have already seen in the photo a few paragraphs up, you can get the same Casio watch in blue, and the blue Casio goes for only $20.48.  I’m tempted to buy one, but hey, I’m not made out of money.

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More product reviews (motorcycles, cars, guns, accessories, watches, books, movies, politicians, etc.) are here!

The Omega Speedmaster

I mentioned my Bulova Lunar Pilot watch (one we’ve done a blog on before) to one of my gun buddies, and he told me that he had the Omega version of that watch.

The Omega Speedmaster on the left, and my Bulova Lunar Pilot on the right. The Omega is a tiny bit smaller, which I prefer.
A closer shot of the Omega. It has a curved crystal, which made photographing it without glare a bit of a challenge.
The back of the Omega. It’s a classy watch.

Actually, it would be more appropriate to call mine the Bulova version of the Omega watch, as the Omega was the first in space and the Bulova came later almost accidentally.  You can read that story here.  Also, my Bulova is a reissued, modified design of the Accutron watch astronaut Dave Scott wore on his Apollo flight.  My buddy’s Omega is a faithful duplicate of the original Speedmaster worn on the Moon. The Omega is a much more expensive mechanical watch, and it is a very classy item.  The Omega Speedmaster sells for thousands of dollars; I paid $275 for my Bulova.

Ah, we’ve got a lot of good stuff coming up on the blog.  Most significantly, Uncle Joe is thinking about getting back on the Zed resurrection.  Send us your comments; we need to keep the pressure on Arjiu to make that happen.

More good blog stuff is in the works, too.  Good buddy Don wrote and asked about the .257 Weatherby No. 1.  I have that rifle back from Ruger.  The boys in New Hampshire put a nice piece of Circassian walnut on it to replace the cracked stock, and it shoots great with a load good buddy Mississippi Dave recommended.   Watch for that story soon.  I’ve got more fun in front of me sorting the Garand’s habit of throwing the first shot of each clip low left, and I’ll write about it here.  And a story requested by good buddy James on the XP100 Remington (I actually owned one of those in the 1970s chambered for the 30×223 cartridge).  And here’s another gun-related topic: We’re thinking of a postal match…you know, a match where you shoot your target and mail it to us.  If you’re interested in participating in something like that, let us know.

We’ve got a movie review coming about The Great Raid (spoiler alert…that movie was great), and a book review about A.J. Baime’s The Arsenal of Democracy (it’s the best book I’ve read this year).  There’s the always moving to the right YooHoo review (hang in there, Fred; it’s coming).  There’s more watch stuff coming, too.  I love my Gear’d Hardware watch, and I’m becoming a real fan of the Casio G-Shock watches.

There’s more motorcycle stuff in the works, too.  I’ve been dreaming about getting back to Baja again, either on one of my CSC bikes or perhaps something different.  I want to look at the Triumphs again; I’ve always loved their motorcycles.  I think I can talk CSC into letting me take a WIZ (whoa, that doesn’t sound right) for a ride.  I won’t take a WIZ to Baja (it’s an electric scooter), but it looks like it would be a hoot to ride locally.   The challenge is finding one; CSC sells them as soon as they get them in stock.  It seems everyone wants to take a WIZ.

We keep talking about making a political comment or two, but hell, no matter what we say we’d upset half our readership.  We had one guy actually bitch about one of the pop-up ads that appear on our site mentioning President Trump, and he had his shorts in a knot about that (off to your safe space, Snowflake, and that ain’t here).  For the record, we don’t control the pop-up ads (the ads appear based on the site’s content, your location, your prior website visits, and other secret stuff that goes into a supersecret algorithm that only God and Google know about).  It’s interesting but unknowable for us mere mortals, but in any event, if an ad appears talking about something that pisses you off, don’t blame us.  And if you really get upset, hell, click on the ad.  Then they have to pay.  And do you know who they pay?   It ain’t Trump!

Well, maybe all this is too controversial.  I’ll go to a safe topic and not ruffle any feathers.  Maybe something about Indian motorcycles and their lineage.  Yeah, that’s the ticket.