With no excuse needed, I decided to pick up a brand new F-91W as well as an A158W (which is essentially the same watch but with a steel looking case and steel bracelet). I’ll admit that I was more excited for the arrival of these two Casio’s than I was for the Seiko Recraft SNKN01 (which I was due to receive at the same time). This is not meant as a knock against the Recraft: the Recraft is a fine watch (and, frankly, superior in basically every way), but it doesn’t carry the incredible nostalgia factor that these Casio digital watches do- it also costs 12-15 times the price.

On my wrist, which has shrunk quite a bit as I’ve cut down from 225lbs to 190lbs, the Casio actually feels right at home. Yes, it’s on the small size, but its rectangular shape makes it feel a bit bigger on your wrist than its diminutive case size would suggest. It sits square in the center of the wrist, and its shape allows it to make good use of the available real estate.

The LED screen is always easy to read so long as there’s light. In the dark it’s a pain to see, despite its backlight, though it’s not impossible. The backlight will allow you to tell the time… barely.

When I was a kid I remember my F-91W’s alarm going off every night at 9:15 pm (eight year old me’s bedtime)- an alarm that would serve to haunt my mother every time it went off for nearly a decade. It’s incredible how quickly a lost watch can get found when it makes 20 seconds of racket once per day every day. This took place because nobody in the house could be bothered to figure out how to disable the alarm. Well, adult me figured it out sans manual in about 2 minutes. In fact, I figured the entire watch out about a minute after that. A 3 minute learning curve isn’t bad for a watch that can do many of the things that makes a smartphone appear smart.

I will admit this: I wear the A158W about three times as much as the F-91W. Even though they’re effectively the same watch, the steel case and bracelet of the A158W give it the stylistic edge (it also matches my wedding ring perfectly).

What I’ve come to love about this little Casio is how unpretentious, unapologetic, and unromanticized it is. My colleagues didn’t mention it – not even once – and they know that I’ve got something new on my wrist every week. Most watches get inquiries, but this one gets the silent nod instead. Respect.

For $25 or less the F-91W and its siblings simply can’t be beat. Nothing touches them. They set the standard for the class, and in many ways, Casio has demonstrated how to make buckets of money year over year by doing something simple really, really well.