I’ve been looking for a new watch for a while now, but can’t seem to find what I am looking for. I’ll run down the features, hopefully you can help. Thanks in advance
-Atomic timekeeping/Bluetooth/radio controlled (for the purpose perfect timekeeping only)
-Analog or Analog/Digital (analog preferred with day/date window at least)
-Solar (not a requirement but strongly preferred)
-Numbers (1-12) on face
-Dedicated second, minute, and hour hands
-Smaller than a G Shock
I'll show what I have and tell you what I like about it. It doesn't meet all your druthers, more on that later.
Casio Lineage LCW-M300D-1AJF
A closer shot of the whole subdial.
The obligatory lume shot.
Casio and Citizen make watches like this, and most but not all of them are Japanese domestic model (JDM) watches which are exported but not by Casio and Citizen.
I wanted a watch dial with numbers instead of marker bars, and I considered Casio WVA-M630B-3AJF which sells in the USA for $80–$90 shipped.
As you can see, the buttons are plastic and I wanted an all metal watch. Casio's Lineage watches are all metal and the next step up: mine sells for $130–$160 depending on the merchant and the time of year. I guessed that two LCDs would be easier to read than one, and (for me) that guess turned out to be correct. This watch has no second sweep hand, but with seconds on the bottom LCD I don't consider it a loss. Next step up in Casio's product line are watches with sapphire crystals and titanium cases which are out of my budget.
My watch's circular subdial is an analog indicator to help you keep track of the digital function you are trying to use. WT is World Time mode, AL is Alarm mode, etc. JDM watches comes with Japanese manuals, so the first thing to do is to download an English language manual from Casio's web site. Check this out and see if it's what you'll be comfortable dealing with.
https://support.casio.com/storage/en/manual/pdf/EN/009/qw5110.pdf
The second thing to do is to read the manual and switch the watch's display language from Japanese to English.
Now for some Casio marketing jargon. This watch is an Illuminator. That means it has a tiny orange light bulb at 6 o'clock which illuminates the analog display but not the digital displays. It works and it conserves electricity, compared with a backlit dial. This watch uses more electricity than most. Casio's luminous paint
will not glow for more than an hour, but the tiny orange light bulb will light up the dial for one second.
This watch is a Multi Band 6 Wave Ceptor. Wave Ceptor means its time and date are set by WWVB, a radio station near Fort Collins, Colorado which is operated by the National Institute of Standards and Technology (NIST). Multi Band 6 means it can synchronize time and date with the Fort Collins station and five other mediumwave transmitters: two in the EU, two in Japan, and one in China. Multi Band 5 watches were designed before China began radio timekeeping.
https://www.casio-watches.com/technology/en/technology/multi-band6/
The U.S. really needs two or three mediumwave radio stations, but they seem to be things which no one wants in their backyard. Fort Collins works in the lower 48 unless you're in Maine or the wrong part of Manhattan. If you're more than 1000 km out, you cannot manually set your watch to its signal. I can't in Chicago, but if I leave the watch on a window ledge facing west, it automatically resets itself every night. It checks for the Fort Collins signal four times between 1 and 4 AM.
World Time means the watch digitally displays the current time in one of 48 cities (29 time zones) around the world. A simple operation swaps your Home City with the currently selected World Time City. What use is this? Well, let's say you're on vacation in the Café Hill Street Blues on Warmoesstraat in Amsterdam. Remember when people used to travel and take vacations? You want to call home, but you're too stoned to remember the time conversion. Presto Kadiddlehoppers! Your watch can display the time back home, plus the date and day of the week.
Tough Solar means it has a photovoltaic cell which recharges a rechargeable battery. Rechargeable batteries don't last forever and they're expensive to replace, but in 10 years when it's replacement time, maybe you'll be ready to spring for a new watch. And I just love Casio's advertising copywriters. Tough Solar! If our beautiful G2V yellow dwarf Sun were a red dwarf, no doubt they'd be selling us Piddly-ass, Poncified Solar (PPS).
Bluetooth is let your watch communicate with your smartphone, something my watch can't do. Theoretically, this would be a way for your watch to synchronize time and date outside the mediumwave radio grid — in Alaska, for example, or the entire southern hemisphere. Timex made a cheap watch that did just that, but they didn't keep it in production long. Most people looking for a watch that communicates with their smartphone are looking for a smartwatch.
If you order a JDM watch online, make sure you understand exactly what you're buying. Some of Casio's JDM radio watches and all their radio clocks can only synchronize with Japan's mediumwave stations in Kyushu and Fukushima.
