Addressing the reader's comment that a quartz watch is more practical than an automatic, Jonny writes:
Spending more than 30 bucks on a watch isn't practical. For most of my adult life I'd spend $30-50 on a watch and it would last 4-5 years until it broke or was lost. Over the last couple years I've mainly spent $150-300 on watches and most of them I've lost interest in and are sitting in a box.
The differences in more expensive watches become more and more invisible, less and less tangible and practical. Watch aficionados like to say otherwise, but the vast majority of people wouldn't be able to tell the difference between a $300 Seiko and a $10K Panerai, in a similar way that people not into rap music can't tell the difference between A Tribe Called Quest and Biggie Smalls (which in the world of classic rock is probably as large a difference as Pink Floyd and Black Sabbath).
All hobbies and interests have a developed and refined sensibility, and it rarely has to do with anything easily quantifiable.
I also bought one of the Casio MDV106-1A watches, which I received yesterday. Here are my initial impressions.
Pros
- It's nicer looking in person than in the pictures
- The chrome outlines around the hands and lume markers look classy
- The dial has a "sunburst" reflection when held in the sun
- The 120-click, unidirectional bezel works well
- The band is softer than the resin bands on some other Casio watches I've seen
Cons
- The lume is a little weaker than I'd like and is applied unevenly, giving the hands a "mottled" look in the dark. (Actually my Casio AQS800WD-1EV solar watch has better lume, and it's not even a diver watch.)
- The second hand alignment varies a lot depending whether the watch is horizontal or vertical. When horizontal it's just slightly fast. When vertical it's very fast (about a half second) when the hand is moving down, and pretty accurate when the hand is moving up.
- There seems to be a lot of slop in the second hand mechanism. Often when it moves forward one second it bounces back a bit. Perhaps this is just a problem with my sample or maybe it's typical of this movement.
- The 6 o'clock lume marker is not aligned with the minute marker just below it
Notes
- I measure the case at 43 mm without the crown, and 46 mm with the crown
- It's heavier than I thought it would be
I'm still deciding whether to keep it or return it for a replacement or a refund. Perhaps others who bought it can weigh in on the second hand cons noted above, so I can determine if they are typical or sample defects.