Basic wristwatch with multi-hour stopwatch

May 1, 2024 5:20 AM

Can you please suggest a cheap and cheerful watch that has a stopwatch function that measures in hours?

I have a Casio F91W and its stopwatch reads like MM:SS.ss so it wraps around after 99 minutes. I would like to time events that can last hours so I'm looking for a watch with a display like HH:MM:SS for the count-up feature. I don't need the hundredths of a second displayed, but I do need two digits for hours.

I'm looking for an inexpensive watch that I don't have to worry about beating up or losing, but ideally from a real brand like Casio or Seiko and not a made-up amazon trash brand. I think I paid $7 for my current Casio several years ago. Something under $20 would be ideal. Mens or unisex.

It needs the basic watch functions, including day of week and day of month, 24h display mode if digital, backlight, and of course the stopwatch. That's more or less all I need. Stopwatch needs to be operable in the background while the face is displaying the time but every watch does that, afaik. Would be nice if it had multiple simultaneous count-up timers but I am probably not going to find that for $20. I don't want one of those watches with the giant bumpy face where they try to cram in six thousand gimmick features for diving and navigating and telling the phase of the moon or whatever. Basically an F91W but with this one change would be ideal.

I don't have a particular preference regarding analog/digital for the main time keeping function, but it needs the HH:MM:SS digital display for the stopwatch.

Zero interest in anything having to do with smart watches so please don't.

Thanks in advance.

posted by Rhomboid to Shopping (9 answers total)

If you go on the Casio website and click on a particular watch's page, then on Specifications, and then on Watch Features, the Stopwatch description will tell you the Measuring capacity (59'59.99" for the F91W-1 vs. 23:59'59.99" for the AE1200WH-1A (World Time (or "Casio Royale" to aficionados))).

You could also look at the Timex Ironman or something -- should have hours for marathoners...
posted by peachfiber at 6:41 AM on May 1 [2 favorites]

Maybe this one:

https://www.casio.com/us/watches/casio/product.W-800H-1AV/
posted by peachfiber at 6:47 AM on May 1

You don't mention a smartphone, but there are numerous apps; it may be built in. You can also use Siri/ Alexa/ Hey Google.
posted by theora55 at 8:18 AM on May 1

I couldn't find a watch that meets the entire brief, but you mentioned multiple count-up timers, and I thought of this countertop option - the thermoworks TimeStack, geared towards professional kitchens. 4 count up/down 99 hours 99 minutes 99 seconds timers on one dedicated face, with easy-set buttons and recordable alarms. ~$60 USD.
posted by enfa at 10:11 AM on May 1

The CASIO CA-53W calculator watch has a stopwatch with 24 hour range. $22 on Amazon. It's either "bumpy and gimmicky" or a perfect icon of late-80s nerd chic, YMMV.
posted by Klipspringer at 10:25 AM on May 1 [1 favorite]

The Timex Ironmans should do this, but that'll exceed your price range (I think they get down to about $40).
posted by hoyland at 11:30 AM on May 1

Casio is absolutely still the brand you want for value bulletproof watches; the one peachfiber recommends would be what I'd go for but pretty much anything that's a step up from their F91W watches will do a 24 hour stopwatch. The Casio website has manuals for their watches linked from the store pages, so you can double-check that the operation works for you.
posted by Aleyn at 4:45 PM on May 1 [2 favorites]

(On Amazon the W800H-1AV is almost exactly $20 btw)
posted by Aleyn at 4:56 PM on May 1

Response by poster: Thanks for the tip about the Casio site. I was able to navigate by "All Watches" -> "Price low to high" and then methodically going through the whole list clicking on each one to check its specs page.

Also appreciate the pointer to the W800H-1AV, it is 99% of what I want. The only sticking point is the stupidity of how they did the alarm indicators, where you have to stare at the words SNZ / ALM / SIG forever even if the pips next to them aren't lit. (Just make the words the indicators?!?) Using the above search method I also found the W96H-1BV which seems to be a newer revision of the same watch, with the same indicator design so I guess whoever designed it did not see it as a mistake.

But then I found the F201WA-1AV and now we're talking. Perfect! Has everything I need for about $20, no stupid SNZ staring at me, and best of all the count-down timer has an auto-repeat feature, that's amazing. It also seems to be not terribly larger than the F91W; I think this is the winner.

One last question though: As it seems that Casio does these generational design updates (e.g. W800H -> W96H going from silver buttons to square black buttons) does anyone know if there's a F201WA that has the silver style buttons like the W800H and F91W? Thanks.
posted by Rhomboid at 5:50 AM on May 2 [1 favorite]