Saturday, November 29, 2008
13:53 by FoxTwo
Problem is, Casios can last pretty damn long. I still have the original $20 Casio watch I bought when I was a young strapping lad of 19 going into the army. After numerous battery changes through the years, I decided to stop spending money on that watch to change the battery back in 2005 when it ran out. Since then, I've stopped replacing batteries for my watches when they run out, one by one.
So yeah, now I'm left with a drawer full of watches with dead batteries.
Nowadays though, I'm more eco-friendly. I only buy watches that are solar-powered or kinetic powered. In other words, no need for battery changes. Um ok I admit, it's more like I'm lazy to bring the watch in for battery replacements :)
So anyway, currently I own a Seiko Kinetic watch, and a Casio Tough Solar watch (not a G-shock). Both of these are "dress watches", suitable for office. Recently though, I was thinking that I wanted a third watch, for weekend and rough wear. Casio, through the years, have steadily increased their prices till they are no longer the "cheap" and "throwaway" watch brand anymore. Also, the G-Shock range have very limited solar-powered watches in the lineup which I like. Even if I do like the watch, I don't like the price.
Thus I went hunting for the next best alternative - Timex Ironman series. Yes they are the "G-Shock" of the Timex line. Timex have typically been cheaper than Casio, and thus I found what I wanted - a rugged solar-powered weekend rough-wear watch, the Timex Solar Dual Tech T5G7019J. Checking around in Singapore, my jaw dropped at the asking prices - typically in excess of S$250!
Now, converting the RRP of US$110 listed on the Timex webpage, it should cost no more than about S$170 even with a conservative exchange rate. After rummaging through the Internet for abit, I realised that watches can be bought very much cheaper from the Internet, than I could by going to a watch store like City Chain.
I located a US company that sells the model I wanted, for only US$60. Yes, only US$60! Even after adding shipping to it, it was US$80. That means I pay only like S$120 or so. Yup, I went ahead and ordered it. No it wasn't on ebay :) Truth to tell, the people selling them on ebay was asking for more than US$60 for it anyway. So yeah, ebay is not always the cheapest place to buy things.
Amazingly, the watch arrived in only 5 business days. Less than a week! I'm impressed!
Now, being a Casio user for most of my life, owning a Timex watch is similar to suddenly switching from a Nokia to a Sony Ericsson phone. While the buttons and functions might be similar, the way to operate and set the watch is ever-so-slightly different. For example, you need to press-and-hold the button to reset or perform some operations. Also, for the stopwatch function, the start and stop buttons are 2 separate buttons instead of the same button. That threw me off slightly, because I'm so used to pressing the same button for start and stop.
The other thing is that the word "SOLAR" which you can see in the picture, is actually printed on the watch glass, at the 9 o'clock position. That means that if it's 9 o'clock, you can't see the hands, or at least not the hour hand. It's hidden behind that printing. It also means that at any hour and 45 mins, you also can't see the minute hand.
That irritated me slightly. Timex shouldn't have made such a boo-boo on a watch this way. Why have hands when it's going to be obscured by printing?
What I do like about the watch is that when it's being charged (which is nearly all the time), and the battery isn't full, you can see a blinking battery icon, so you know that it's being charged. If it isn't blinking, ie not being charged, it shows the battery power level, like on a mobile phone. This is better than on my Casio, which only shows "Hi, Med, Lo" for the battery power level, and does nothing to indicate when the watch is charging the battery up.
Yeah to charge the watch, just face it to a light source, like an open window, or towards a light bulb.
Coincidentally, the Timex uses the same rechargeable battery as the Casio - ML2016.
I'd probably have to replace the batteries on the watch some time in the future, but I'm thinking it won't be anytime soon. Rechargeable batteries can last for a pretty long time, even decades.
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13:53 by FoxTwo
My New Timex Solar Dual Tech Watch
Problem is, Casios can last pretty damn long. I still have the original $20 Casio watch I bought when I was a young strapping lad of 19 going into the army. After numerous battery changes through the years, I decided to stop spending money on that watch to change the battery back in 2005 when it ran out. Since then, I've stopped replacing batteries for my watches when they run out, one by one.
So yeah, now I'm left with a drawer full of watches with dead batteries.
Nowadays though, I'm more eco-friendly. I only buy watches that are solar-powered or kinetic powered. In other words, no need for battery changes. Um ok I admit, it's more like I'm lazy to bring the watch in for battery replacements :)
So anyway, currently I own a Seiko Kinetic watch, and a Casio Tough Solar watch (not a G-shock). Both of these are "dress watches", suitable for office. Recently though, I was thinking that I wanted a third watch, for weekend and rough wear. Casio, through the years, have steadily increased their prices till they are no longer the "cheap" and "throwaway" watch brand anymore. Also, the G-Shock range have very limited solar-powered watches in the lineup which I like. Even if I do like the watch, I don't like the price.
Thus I went hunting for the next best alternative - Timex Ironman series. Yes they are the "G-Shock" of the Timex line. Timex have typically been cheaper than Casio, and thus I found what I wanted - a rugged solar-powered weekend rough-wear watch, the Timex Solar Dual Tech T5G7019J. Checking around in Singapore, my jaw dropped at the asking prices - typically in excess of S$250!
Now, converting the RRP of US$110 listed on the Timex webpage, it should cost no more than about S$170 even with a conservative exchange rate. After rummaging through the Internet for abit, I realised that watches can be bought very much cheaper from the Internet, than I could by going to a watch store like City Chain.
I located a US company that sells the model I wanted, for only US$60. Yes, only US$60! Even after adding shipping to it, it was US$80. That means I pay only like S$120 or so. Yup, I went ahead and ordered it. No it wasn't on ebay :) Truth to tell, the people selling them on ebay was asking for more than US$60 for it anyway. So yeah, ebay is not always the cheapest place to buy things.
Amazingly, the watch arrived in only 5 business days. Less than a week! I'm impressed!
Now, being a Casio user for most of my life, owning a Timex watch is similar to suddenly switching from a Nokia to a Sony Ericsson phone. While the buttons and functions might be similar, the way to operate and set the watch is ever-so-slightly different. For example, you need to press-and-hold the button to reset or perform some operations. Also, for the stopwatch function, the start and stop buttons are 2 separate buttons instead of the same button. That threw me off slightly, because I'm so used to pressing the same button for start and stop.
The other thing is that the word "SOLAR" which you can see in the picture, is actually printed on the watch glass, at the 9 o'clock position. That means that if it's 9 o'clock, you can't see the hands, or at least not the hour hand. It's hidden behind that printing. It also means that at any hour and 45 mins, you also can't see the minute hand.
That irritated me slightly. Timex shouldn't have made such a boo-boo on a watch this way. Why have hands when it's going to be obscured by printing?
What I do like about the watch is that when it's being charged (which is nearly all the time), and the battery isn't full, you can see a blinking battery icon, so you know that it's being charged. If it isn't blinking, ie not being charged, it shows the battery power level, like on a mobile phone. This is better than on my Casio, which only shows "Hi, Med, Lo" for the battery power level, and does nothing to indicate when the watch is charging the battery up.
Yeah to charge the watch, just face it to a light source, like an open window, or towards a light bulb.
Coincidentally, the Timex uses the same rechargeable battery as the Casio - ML2016.
I'd probably have to replace the batteries on the watch some time in the future, but I'm thinking it won't be anytime soon. Rechargeable batteries can last for a pretty long time, even decades.
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