A Casio and its evil twin

uhrensohn

I reported a while back that I got duped with a fake Casio on ebay and ever since then I was curious how the fake compared to the real deal. In the picture, you see them side by side, the real one on the left. The model in question is the B640WD.

First: the prices were very similar: the fake was 26.95 Euro (from Ireland, thus the Euro price), the real thing was £29.39 on amazon. The ebay seller still sells the thing, for a higher price now (32.34). I gave them negative feedback explaining the thing was a fake. Anyway.

The fake came a little scratched - there was no protective film on the display. The display on the Casio is crisper. As a way to claim newness the fake was attached to a piece of cardbord, with this sticker:

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BTW the sticker claims 3 bar water resistance, the watch case inscription bumps this up to 5. I doubt the fake has a 12/24 function, at any rate I failed to second-guess it, as there was no instruction booklet. The actual Casio came in a (thin) Casio box, with a (thick) instruction booklet for the module, etc.

Visually, the two are difficult to distinguish, but there are a few differences if you care to look:

  • the case thickness differs; the real Casio is is 9.45mm thick, the fake 9.84mm
  • the case of the Casio is brushed, the fake's one is polished
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  • the bracelet has a little bit more spiel on the fake, its lugwidth seems to be a tad wider (18mm vs 17.8mm)
  • the pushers on the right seem to be just a tad further apart on the fake than the Casio
  • the real Casio claims to be made in China, the fake in Japan; that also goes for the bracelet which says "stainless steel China" on the Casio but only "stainless steel" on the fake.

Where it becomes really clear that something fishy is going on is when you investigate the functionality:

On the Casio, the mode pusher (bottom left) cycles through the modes: alarm, countdown timer, stopwatch - and back to time. On the fake the pusher is more difficult to engage, but we get: stopwatch, alarm, (a mysterious) time with blinking seconds, time. [No countdown timer.]

Setting the time is also different: the sunken in pusher (left top) on the Casio makes numbers on the display blink, which means we can change the time. On the fake, the sunken-in pusher does diddly-squat in time mode, except for the blinking seconds mode. Then you can use it to set the time.

#casio #fake #ebay #comparison
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tiernzwatchbox
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I received an evil twin of a basic f91w a while back from an eBay seller that doesn’t specialise in watches. I reported the fake, received a full refund and the seller removed their ad and stopped ordering this stock. Good to see there’s still some honest people!

The way I told the fake - big one is by looking on an angle to see if the numbers cast a shadow underneath them (If they do then it’s a fake). The screen will also tend to be raised and not sit flush in the resin casing. Finally comparing differences in colour shades and font sizes on those Casios that have a more vibrant face. 

The fake still has a special place in my watch box, as it’s one of the only watches in the world where the fake costs more to make than the real f91w (due to established production lines and bulk material costs). I’ll keep any watch with a story to tell!