(2023-07-10) So, you only have $100 for a watch... What to choose? ------------------------------------------------------------------ Imagine a situation that you moved to a different country, and the customs confiscated your entire collection you tried to import with you, and you can't afford any watch except the cheapest ones. Or a simpler scenario: you just want to buy your first wristwatch but don't want to spend a lot on it. And on top of that, let's imagine you really want something lightweight (under 50 grams) to not burden not only your wallet but also your wrist itself. So, what do we have in this domain? While the digital part of the watch world seems simpler as I can only advise Casio AE-1200WH (39g) or W-800H (37g) or DB-36 (27g) or the new LF-20W (23g) or anything on the 593 module (including but not limited do the famous F-91W that weighs 21g, and its JDM cousin, F-84W) for the sub-$100 price and sub-50g weight, the analogue part looks more complicated, especially these days with crazy watch price divergence around the globe. The first thing that comes to my mind is Casio AW-80 (34g). While not strictly analogue and rather ana-digi, it has everything you might need and even more (like a Telememo phonebook I have dedicated an entire article on the chronovir.us blog to). It's pretty much hackable as well and one can resolder its jumpers to have a scheduler instead of the telememo (sorry, I don't know the exact jumper config yet). However, I'm hesitant to advise this watch as the most preferrable choice because of two reasons: first, the analogue part is rather old-school and the hands only can move in a single direction, second, the glass is domed acrylic and picks up scratches like crazy. Another, this time not so obvious choice would be Casio HDA-600. This is still very lightweight (39g) and rugged like a G-Shock, but that comes at a cost of looking and feeling very outdoorsy. Those bullbars it comes with make it especially uncomfortable for indoor wearing, and if you take them off, it looks even weirder. The watch itself is as simple as it can get, and very legible too (especially for its dial size), just not for the 24/7 wrist usage. If we take a look in a different direction, we can also find the Timex Expedition Acadia series. I don't know much about it but I had owned one of those watches, and it weighed about 33 grams or so. Again, the major problem with it is the domed crystal. Probably acrylic too, but I'm not so sure. Also, Timex quartz movements tend to be noisy in terms of ticking and not so accurate in terms of timekeeping. That Indiglo tho... Finally, what I personally would be looking for if I ended up in such a situation would be something based on the Miyota 2035 movement. Ever heard of Casio MQ-24? Well, this is it. Its 7B2 version dial design is purely iconic. But beyond that, there is MQ-71, which is basically an MQ-24 with lumed hands and which I have recently measured to only have -2s/month deviation. Maybe I got lucky but who knows. These small beasts only weigh about 19 grams and you can't even feel them on the wrist. And most recently, I have got a Bertucci A-1R, which is basically an upgrade over these Casios adding a better casing with an easier to operate crown, extremely comfortable single-pass strap, better lume and better glass while being powered by the same movement. And it weighs under 33 grams on the stock strap and about 16 grams without. Since yesterday, this A-1R definitely is my new daily driver. I guess I'm going to have a separate post about it after measuring its accuracy too. And no, I don't mind the second hand missing the marks because that's something to expect if you deliberately rotate the movement 30 degrees clockwise to put the crown against the 4 hour position. Yes, I know that 2035-based watches don't even have a date display window. But again, why would you need a date on the watch if it doesn't have a proper auto calendar to move it at the end of the month and you need to remember to move it manually every two months or so, having the potential of accidentally stopping the second hand and thus messing up the time (which happened to my Seiko)? And for the sub-$100 price, no purely analogue watch will feature an auto calendar (even the much more expensive SSB401 doesn't), so either go digital or scrap the date entirely. The only negative side for this movement is being powered by a small SR626SW battery which is rated for 3 years of runtime, and since you can't do much on this type of watches other than set the time, I reckon this might be a realistic estimation. I do have two SR626SW battery blister packs and I don't believe this battery type will disappear anytime soon, but... Why not CR2025 or even CR2016? That would easily have ramped up the runtime to 10 years or more! Maybe Citizen (which owns the Miyota subbrand) just doesn't think as much about the practical aspect anymore as Casio still does. With that said, my top-10 of sub-$100 sub-50g watches (both digital and analogue) looks like this as of now: 1. Bertucci A-1R 2. Casio AE-1200WH 3. Casio W-800H 4. Casio AW-80 5. Casio MQ-71 6. Casio LF-20W 7. Casio F-84W (or F-91W if you can't find it) 8. Casio MQ-24 9. Casio DB-36 10. Casio HDA-600 I know I didn't touch some cool Seiko subbrands like Lorus or Alba yet, but remember I only talk about the watches I can personally get my hands on. If and when Lorus and Alba are available here, I definitely may update this list. --- Luxferre ---