Casio Royale "Duracell" SKXmod kit

It's taken me a little while to warm up to the Casio Royale. I've been in the hobby for a few years now and as much as I appreciate Casio, the ones I've bought have never really earned much wrist time. The F91-W is almost exclusively worn when gardening or cleaning the car and the A168 (which I love) barely gets a look in.

I'd always liked the Royale, especially due to it being a little less diminutive than the two models I previously referenced, but I didn't fancy another metal look plastic case and slightly mismatched bracelet. Enter the AE-1200WH-1BVDF with it's black plastic case, resin band, retro-looking LCD and gilt markings. I got one in and actually started wearing it. I found myself picking it ahead of my Seikos, Orises and even my beloved Farer some days.

In truth, I think I always intended it to be modded if I gelled with it, having seen numerous reviews and how-to guides on YouTube highlighting the SKXmod kits, how easy the mod is and the quality of the end result.

I can certainly attest to the simplicity of the mod. The kit contains everything you need and it took me around 15 minutes. Pop out the screws from the donor Casio caseback, take out the module and face plate, drop them into the new case and then close back up with your original caseback and supplied replacement gasket and screws.

The range of options available on the SKXmod site is impressive, with various finishes and case text options. They also have bracelets, leather straps and the FKM band that I went for. I spent quite some time perusing their site, YouTube and Instagram before selecting the rose gold sterile case with black bezel and I'm pretty chuffed with how it turned out. It's a bit like a sterile 5AVCF in hindsight but I really think the slightly more retro-looking face plate and LCD make it a little extra awesome.

If I had any complaints it would be that there's no rose gold buckle available for the strap, so I've had to source some options separately from AliExpress which should show up at some point. Hopefully. And personally, I'd like the strap to be about 10mm shorter as I have puny wrists.

But, in short these kits are great. Delivery time was good to the UK via FedEx and I'm really pleased with the end result.

Now to look into one of those Vario straps...