Review: Casio "World Time"A500WEA-1EF

Picture this: it is well past midnight in Bangkok Suvarnabhumi airport, you are tired and looking forward to your Emirates flight that will bring you to Dubai, where you have a short 2 hours 20 minutes layover to connect to your flight onwards to Brussels at 8:20 according to your boarding passes. Important business is awaiting you there on arrival, so you can’t be late to your appointment. That’s three important time zones to keep track to. You are attending business matters on your phone, calling partners in the USA, your hands are full, and it is inconvenient to go back and forth to the built-in world clock function. If only there was a solution for that...

The solution is on your wrist in the shape of a Casio A500WEA-1EF. The Casio Royale? No, the other one. The one you can actually confidently wear to these business meetings in Brussels. A discrete and wearable piece with an inbuilt functionality that could save the day when dealing with matters across up to four time zones. These can be accessed at the touch of the finger, beating therefore the three time zones you can track with a Rolex GMT-Master II.

Case and Bracelet

The Casio World Time is a retro-inspired super compact watch that feels at home in small and medium wrists. The silver resin square-shaped case is 34 mm across (excluding pushers) by 40 mm long, with a height of about 9 mm. Behind the LED screen you will find a trusty Casio quartz module 3437. The watch can take 18 mm width straps in case you decide to exchange the bracelet for something that rips less hairs off your arm. Casio on a leather strap anyone?

This bracelet is inspired in those late 70s and early 80s Seiko Grand Quartz watches, and it is period-accurate by being made of cheap stainless steel folded links, exactly as those bracelets were made back the days. By own experience I can say that this Casio World Time bracelet can be a ruthless hair puller if you are not careful. A sliding buckle allows an easy adjustment with the help of a flat screwdriver or a similar tool, and I would recommend wearing this watch on the tighter side to avoid hair pulls.

Fit and Finish

At the end of the day, a $50 Casio feels like a $50 Casio. But this means that reality meets expectations one to one and this watch manages to avoid disappointment well. It is not high horology, and it does not pretend to be. The case is made of resin, and it will accrue plenty of scratches during your travels, no questions asked. It will sure take less of a beating that a F-91W. Given that the bracelet links are brushed, scratches are much less noticeable there. Still it is a solid feeling piece with solid-feeling springbars that won't let you down.

As previously said, this is a watch for the medium and small wristed among us with a taste for the late 70s and early 80s aesthetics. It is a versatile piece that will look good on you no matter your gender or your age. For the gold-tone lovers out there, this watch is available in gold with the reference A500WEGA-9EF.

Functionality

The biggest selling point for the Casio World Time is, besides being an attractive watch, that it packs a lot of features in such a small package. In normal operation, just using the Search button, you can rotate through four different time zones in the memory, represented by different major cities of the world of your choosing. By pushing the Mode button, you can rotate through the world time function (where you can choose what cities you want to have in the main screen or simply rotate through all cities available, this includes UTC time), 5 alarms, a countdown timer, and the usual stopwatch function with an accuracy of 0.01 s. All at your fingertips, leaving your phone free to do other more important things. Or in case your phone runs out of battery in transit or in case it is not convenient or advisable to take the phone out to check the time.

The orange backlight is a weak point, but it will get the job done when the cabin crew dims the cabin lights. It can be set up to light for 1.5 seconds or 3 seconds.

Granted, setting the different time zones and daylight saving, and calendar won’t be straightforward. The included manual explains the procedures well, and sure you will find plenty of YouTube videos explaining how to set this specific model up. Soon you will learn the functions and make the most of this watch’s functionality.

Price

Some would say that $50-60 for a Casio is already a steep asking price, although other variants of this same model, like the similar-looking grey-bezel A500WA-7DF, can be found for lower prices if you look well. It might be a high asking price for a Casio, but it is a retro-inspired watch that can be seamlessly worn in a rotation, or when the circumstances do not make advisable wearing the Rolex GMT-Master II out and about. Depending on your lifestyle, it might be a piece that experiences a surprisingly high amount of wrist time, and that will make the purchase price worth it.