Casio 2014 Illuminator Digital, F108WH-1ACF
“The watch to be tested”
My name is Ryan, and I’m currently 13 years old. My dad let me write an article about my watch on his website, so here I am.
Specifications
- Model: 2014 Casio Digital Illuminator
- Reference: F108WH-1ACF
- Retail Price in 2021: $22.95 USD
- Movement: Quartz Movement, Digital Display
- Power Reserve: 7 years with CR2016 battery
- Dial: Digital LCD Display
- Case: 40.66mm x 42.82mm plastic case, mineral dial window
- Thickness: 10.26mm
- Crystal: Resin Glass
- Lug Width: 18mm
- Water-resistant
- LED light
Acquired: Nov. 22, 2021, from Amazon.ca for $20 CAD or $14.70 USD.
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Why I Got It
I inherited the Casio mainly because I have had previous Casio watches. Also, I bet my old watch, the F-91WM-1B away to my sister since I couldn’t solve a Rubik’s cube in under a minute. I realized that the look caught my attention, the lightweight feel, and how tough the F108WH-1 was the more I wore it.
It is also a fairly casual watch and I always want to wear it when I’m going out, because of its durability. If I had to describe why I like the watch, It would be how it helps give a reminder of the time, and when school ends. Thanks to the built-in alarm I can also remember things I forget.
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How It Wears
The F108WH-1 has a nice feel while being efficient for everyday use. It is a watch that is comfortable on my wrist and simple to understand. It is also water resistant so I can go swimming or get the watch wet, without worrying about it being ruined or beyond repair, like dress watches. All things considered, I have gone through 2 or 3 digital watches throughout my life, and so far the F108WH-1 is my favourite.
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Watch Features
A Casio watch is a good place to start if you’re considering watch collecting as a hobby, mainly for its simplicity and digital specifications.
Resin Glass
The resin glass is suitable for rugged activities and is resistant to shattering.
Dial
The digital dial shows the date, time, and other features such as the alarm.
Modes
The watch has a mode feature that allows you to change the dial to an alarm, stopwatch, or digital clock. There is also a light that makes it easy to check the time.
Water Resistant
The watch is pretty water-resistant good for swimming but not diving.
First, the modes:
The Alarm has 2 features, which you can change by pressing the “START/STOP” button on the watch. The alarm can switch from daily to hourly, meaning you can choose for the alarm to ring every hourly change, or at a set time of day. There’s also a Stopwatch mode where you can again, use the “START/STOP” button to as implied, start or stop the timer. If you wish to reset the stopwatch time, you can press the “LIGHT” button.
Then there’s the dial and resin glass:
Both pieces of the watch are durable in quality, although the resin glass is more so than the dial. This makes the watch an ideal pick for recreational fun or rugged activities thanks to those two elements.
Finally, there’s the water resistance:
The watch is very water-resistant you can even wear it in the shower! (Although I don’t recommend it lol). There is a limit though, which is 50 metres deep.
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Under the Loupe
Hover over the adjacent image to see the details.
The first Casio watch was called the “CASIONTRON”, which originated in 1974. They decided to switch from computers to digital watches because the computer market became extremely competitive at the time. They saw an opportunity in the digital watch market and decided to start making their own inexpensive, and durable watches. It became a complete success in 1974, the same year it came out because it was the world’s first digital watch to have an automatic calendar. And they have come to make a best-selling watch known as the F-91W-1 (which was my first Casio watch), it then went on to become one of the most sold watch in history. Then over 100 million units of the F-91W-1 were sold, showing how profitable it was for Casio to change its brand direction.
The Casio brand has made celebrity cameos as well, such as Ryan Reynolds wearing it in Free Guy, Kevin Hart donning it in Jumanji, Bill Gates, Barack Obama, Pope Francis, and the list goes on and on. That brings up another reason I like the brand so much, because it is deeply enriched in history. Not only that but my dad has worn some Casio watches throughout his life, so I felt honoured to receive the digital watches from him.
Now that you know about Casio’s legacy, I can go more in-depth about how and why they made the F108WH-1. My watch was inspired by other Casio watches from the 1980s explaining its classic look, like the rectangle dial on the watch, true to the aesthetics of other Casio watches. Casio wanted to mass produce a cheap and highly affordable watch for people to buy and use. This is how the F108WH-1 was created, both a more modern take on a Casio watch while keeping to the originals.
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Closing Thoughts
I enjoy Casio watches for the digital design and other details, but I would have wanted to make some changes to the F108WH-1 I wear.
- The case is bulky (In comparison to the previous watches I’ve owned such as the F-91W-1)
- I would make the light brighter
- One of the mode buttons is called “LIGHT” and you have to hold the button down which is inconvenient
- Changing the time is a pain because the buttons are small and adjusting the time is confusing
Those are my main issues with the F108WH-1 although even stating the downsides, I still think of it as an improved version of my first watch.
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What Watch I Want Next
The watch I would want next would be the Casio A158WA-1 because the design is sleek and classy. I feel nostalgic because it’s very similar to the F-91W-1, and I like how inexpensive it is ($33.13 Canadian on Amazon) while still being a good looking watch.
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