CasioIlluminator AE1500WH Series | 10-Year Battery | LED Backlight | 5-Alarms | 1/100 Sec Stopwatch | Men's Digital Watch

After reading all the reviews for other watches like this one, I obviously chose this one. For just over $20 you cannot beat this little watch. I think that the most appealing review was that the battery lasts over 10 years. Other aspects were that it operates almost like the Iron Man watches that I had back in the 80s and 90s. It is pretty much completely waterproof. I have already tried it out swimming laps in the pool, and not thinking about it, I accidently brought it into the steam room and into the hot tub, which they say not to do. It is still ticking.For a simple little watch that keeps time and day and week and has these other options, you can't beat this thing. It has alarm, timer, and countdown functions.I've been wearing this watch since I bought it a few months ago. It stays on my wrist. I have no need to take it off. I recently took it off and placed it somewhere and went to do some yard work. It was weird not having it on my wrist, and it took me some time to remember where I put it, but I found it and put it back on. I have my iPhone and clocks all around to tell the time, but this little watch is still useful for at the moment time and date and day of the week.

I have used my cell phone instead of a watch since about 2001. Decided to start wearing cheap, quartz watches again because I often find myself without my cell phone within reach at rehearsals, recording sessions, lawn-mowing, or work from home situations. Picked up a few Timexes and Casios around the same time. So far, I like this model the best for general use. The size of the time display is so easy to read that I have already started preferring it to comparable analog models. I will mostly be looking to buy digital watches like this with big, simple displays from now on.I’m not James Bond, in spite of what you may have heard. I don’t want an expensive watch on my wrist that might make me a potential target for theft/robbery downtown or on a subway. If I get some paint on this one or it breaks while I’m trying to remove an oil filter, it would be no great loss.Use is fairly intuitive and it hasn’t lost or gained time in the few weeks I’ve owned it, unlike a Timex expedition analog model I got at the same time. After only a couple of weeks, the analog Timex expedition has lost about ten seconds already, which I admit I was surprised by.The only complaint I could possibly make about this watch is that the two LED’s are quite poor in comparison to Timex’s indiglo or the backlight used on much more expensive G-Shock models. But for how cheap and functional this model is, that is a completely unfair comparison. The lights work perfectly fine for me to see if I wake up in the middle of the night but can’t roll/reach over to check my phone due to a sleeping dog contorting my legs at the foot of the bed. Or if I fall asleep on the couch.I have mostly avoided getting it wet up until now, but I did accidentally leave it in the bathroom with the shower running a couple of times and no condensation formed on the inside of the face at all even though there was plenty of water vapor in the room. I also leave it on when washing my hands with no ill-effects.I’m very impressed by how simple and functional this watch is. These cheap, digitals are light years ahead of the Timex Ironman I owned as a kid. But it should be said- that $25-$35 Ironman I bought sometime around 1995 went body boarding, surfing, in the pool with me, and I showered with it on. That thing was basically water-PROOF and never had an issue in water less than 20ft. deep. I swam in Atlantic/East-Coast hurricanes with that thing and it even got tossed around in the salty surf with me. Also used it to time lap-swimming in Olympic-sized pools. I do not have the same confidence in this model, though I have no real rationale for that.The rubber strap was very uncomfortable on the old Ironman models and used to cause some really annoying, visible, skin irritation. I found G-shock straps of that era to be almost just as bad. That is not the case with these modern Casio polymer straps.I also despise those weird circles Casio, Armitron, etc. put on watch faces and take up a quarter of the face of the watch. This watch has NONE of that BS going on. The info on the watch face is SO bold and easy to read that I would definitely prefer it to all the G-shocks with those damned, senseless circles taking up so much of the display. PV cells excluded because they actually do serve a purpose. But here’s my view on all that: if the watch battery lasts even close to ten years, it will already outlast the battery/operation of the solar-powered, $150 G-Shock I once owned by a factor of YEARS. So I would still prefer this because legibility is far more important to me than photovoltaics.After a few weeks getting used to wearing a watch again for the first time in twenty years, I’ve really appreciated not having to dig my cell phone out of my pocket just to check the time/date. A weirdly subtle difference I would never have thought would matter. But it does. I’m starting to really like Casios!I also like the hourly chime because otherwise I get lost and completely lose track of time while recording/producing. That could only backfire if the chime goes off in the vocal booth and ruins a take. Hasn’t happened yet, though.I’m also glad they make it in the desert-sand/beige color because I’m fair skinned so it doesn’t look like a giant thing on my wrist.At some point or other I will wake up exhausted and forget to take it off before I get in the shower. At that point I will update this review if water penetrates the buttons/gaskets/seals.Again, I am in disbelief at how excellent this watch is for the price. I hope they never discontinue this model until an identical “20 Year Battery” model is available. But by then we’ll no doubt have flying cars, rocket-skates, jet packs, and digital, tattooed watches with veinous, indiglo epidermis. Or more than the current, standard-issue, two to three computer chips implanted into in our visual cortex at birth.Just pick the color you like and buy the damned thing!

This Casio AE1500H series is a perfect series to own, this one listed as blue in color is the last in the series for me to buy as I liked them so much I purchased them in all of the different colors. This blue is more blue/gray, leaning more to the gray than the blue, but still a nice color. The watch feels good on the wrist and is quality built for the price point. Doesn't feel cheese like some I've tried, like the F108WH series. The watch has all the functionality you'll need day-to-day, time display (hour, min, sec), month, day, stop watch, count down. timer, 5 alarms, a snooze feature, hourly chime, second time zone display, and a good light. Battery life advertised at 10-years ... what's not to like. Highly recommended.

Great for its use. Reliable and works in all weather. Good water resistance, I have swam in many different setting and it continues to work like a charm. Love it!

I had to buy a second one only because I put the first one through hell in all kinds of weather and it finally wore out. I try not to spend more than up to 30$ on watches. At under 25$ I wasn't expecting too much, even though Casio is a decently reliable brand (see the brand on other peoples' wrists at times). It took the beating for as long as it good and kept on giving. So a bare bones type watch with alarms (beep isn't that loud), stopwatch, dates, timer, etc. Good all around watch for runners/cyclists/swimmers, though no GPS.