Today we are looking at the Casio W-59 which is the brother of the iconic F-91W. Both watches are very similar and offer you a lot of watch for a very small amount of money. This watch is a great 1980s style, no nonsense digital classic from Casio.
Model – Casio W59
The model is the Casio W59. It is a small watch at only 36mm in diameter and 9mm thick. It is also super light at only 22 grams and it wears fantastically well on the wrist.
It has that 1980s digital watch charm that we just love. This watch will very easily remind you of your childhood.
It also has 50m water resistance, which is actually an improvement on the F-91W.
Brand – Casio
We hopefully all know the Japanese powerhouse that is Casio. They are famous for their simple, but high quality digital watches that offer excellent value for money.
(You can read more information about – Is Casio A God Tier Watch Brand?)
Movement
Inside is the Casio 590 quartz movement.
Being a digital watch it allows you to see the time in both 12 and 24 hour formats. It has the day and date displayed.
There is also an alarm and a stop watch and backlight.
It’s simple, but effective.
Dial
The display is very simple and easy to read on the Casio W59. It has the rectangle digital display in the centre and it clearly shows the time, showing the hour, minutes and second as well as the day and date.
As is customary with Casio watches, they like to cover the dial in information about the watch. On the W59 it tells us that the watch is water resistant to 50m and used a lithium battery.
Overall the dial is very simple and is very similar to the F-91W. Both watches have combinations of blue, red yellow and white text and boarders. From a far you could mistake the two watches, but close up you can see the subtle differences.
Bezel
As this is a digital watch, there is no bezel.
Crystal
The crystal is a flat mineral glass. This will scratch, but Casio’s are pretty tough and you will really have to bang it about to scratch it.
The good news is that the scratches can be easily buffed out with some poly watch if they start to annoy you.
Case
The case is 36mm in diameter, 37mm lug to lug and 9mm thick. It is made of a plastic resin and is black.
It has 3 pushers to control the watch functions. Two on the left and one on the bottom right
The case back is made from stainless steel and screwed down so it is easily removed to change a battery.
Lume
The watch comes with a backlight. It is a single LED on the left and side of the screen and it does a pretty poor job of lighting things up.
It will show you the time when you need it, but is pretty underwhelming and is really the only let down of this little watch.
Strap
The watch comes with the classic black resin straps that are so commonly seen on Casios. These are totally fine. They are comfortable and look okay.
However, they do have a habit of breaking. This does take a few years, but eventually they will start to crack, mostly where they are getting bent and coming into contact with the buckle. It makes sense; this is where the most pressure is applied all day when you are wearing it.
The watch I have started to crack after about 4 maybe 5 years. I picked it up one day and the end of the strap just came off.
You can easily buy a replacement strap, but I had a spare Nato strap, so I thought why not.
Using a Nato can be a bit of a mission. The lugs are pretty tight. I used an 18mm strap and I would say the lug width is about 17.99mm. The lugs are also very close to the watch, so there isn’t much space to thread a Nato through.
The best way to do it is to remove the spring bars and place the watch on the Nato where you want it to be. You then need to put the spring bars in place. This is a pretty tight squeeze and you are effectively going to be clamping the Nato in place, so make sure you have its position right. The only way this strap will come off is to remove the spring bars.
Also they are not really spring bars …more just bars. The watch has lug holes on the outside and you actually feed the bar through these holes from the outside, then across to the other side.
How Much Does The Casio W59 Cost?
I bought this watch from Amazon for £8 in 2014. I bought it for my wife and thought I was buying the same watch that I had (the Casio F-91W) but I didn’t realise it was actually a different model.
So it was an accidental purchase as such, but it worked out okay as it meant we could easily tell the two apart while also looking like total watch twins to the untrained eye.
This watch seems to have doubled in price since I bought it, but for £16, it’s still a bargain.
Overall Opinion
I love this watch. Its small, it’s got a cool retro look. It’s robust and has all the functions you would ever need from a watch and is incredibly cheap. You could easily only own this watch and be happy with it.
It is also so similar in looks and function to the f-91W, which is a very loved watch. This watch doesn’t get as much attention, but it deserves all the same praise that its brother gets.
(You can read more information about – Are Casio Watches Worth Collecting?)
Ian is the main writer at Horology Dream and is a lover all things watch related.
He has been a watch collector for over a decade and brings his knowledge and experience to this site to help you on your own watch collecting journey.
You can connect with him on Social media and talk anything watches or read more about him on his Author Page.
