Casio AE-1300WH-8AVCF Illuminator Digital Watch

There’s just something uncanny about Casio’s. Almost like you could see one someone and they’re inexplicably familiar to oneself. Whether personal of your own past or present. maybe even the first time you laid eyes on it and yet think, “hey I remember owning when I was younger”, “my friend had the model with calculator in grade school”, “my camp instructor wore that same watch”. It’s just ingrained in us, socially aware, “Golden Arches is to McDonald’s“ as “black bezel watches are to Casio” or timex but for the sake of topic I’ll keep it Casio.

Looks-
This watch looks and feels great, I normally like nothing bigger then a 38mm face watch, think, smaller of the Apple Watches for comparison. And this feels about that size. The band is what one would maybe leave to be desired but there’s plenty of options online to make it you own and swap bands out whether for durability or just looks.

Feel-
It’s not it’s armorered up like some G-Shocks but it’s definitely made well. Plus that, timeless heir this watch has feels great on your wrist and is just a great everyday carry.
I haven’t used it in water yet so I can’t speak on it’s behalf but looking at its build, regardless the claims I’m sure it’ll probably resist at least solid hand dunking in water .

Functionality-
Definitely is chaulk full of all those features a majority of us have not once ever used in our lives. I would say, the beep…. is loud …… very loud audible it makes up on first use, but hey turn it off if that’s not your rodeo.

Value-
Watches seem to be a thing of the past as we transition into the future and even then to say a watch is acquired more for functionality then it is fashion these days would be a lie. But for around $15-20 it’s a steal, to be able to comfortably own an item that simply needs no introduction, it is what it’s known to be, does what we need it to do, and just has existed beside us since it’s inception, quietly (or loudly beeping) partnering alsong side us through the years, good and bad events in life, quietly supporting us and yet wants nothing from us but a wipe off and a new battery every 10 years, something such a part of our daily lives granting us its wisdom throughout life it’s knowledge on the one thing we wish we the ability to control yet truely never have enough of, all within its inner workings reminding us each day we look down at our wrist, or when we get that vanishing age old question…. “Do you have the …. Time”

Casio is always a good choice
Easy to use
It took me 5 min to program it
It’s a good quality , batterie 10 years
I had one before just wanted a new modèle
And the price is very very affordable

This is a very unique watch with some useful features that are hard to find. I bought it specifically for the auto-repeating multi-step interval timer. Most digital watches don’t have an interval timer at all, let alone multiple intervals with the option to repeat. The AE 1300 can hold up to 9 intervals but I only used 2. This watch is an ideal timer for the pomodoro technique: 25 minutes of work followed by 5 minutes of rest, then repeat. You can set both timers to auto repeat so it will keep cycling through pomodoros until you turn it off – VERY helpful in keeping on task if you struggle with ADHD like I do. The alarm is decently loud without being pushy.

The stopwatch function is… quirky. When you stop the timer, the large main clock keeps running while the time you stopped it at is displayed in the smaller digits above. I don’t use the stopwatch a lot so it wasn’t a big deal, but it isn’t an intuitive function for most people. It’s actually quite a robust chronometer and has a number of extra functions you can read about in the manual, but I never bothered to figure them out because I had no use for them.

The other feature this watch has that you’ll have a hard time finding elsewhere is the preset timers. Sometimes I used the 10, 12, and 15 minute timers for baking things in the oven. It was easier and quicker than having to set a timer manually.

I rarely used the alarms or world time, but they functioned well and I could see them being useful. I actually found the watch had too many functions for me, and cycling through them all to get back to regular time could be annoying. Fortunately, when you have the button beep turned on, the watch emits a higher-pitched tone when it returns to regular timekeeping mode, so you don’t have to be looking at it to know you’re back “home.”

I think it looks great, and even my wife who doesn’t care about watches noticed it and said it looked nice. The three circles with their steadily animated segments don’t serve any useful purpose, but they add an indescribable element of cool to the design. It took me a couple months to figure out why they looked so familiar, then it hit me: they look like the TIE fighter cockpit glass from Star Wars! Not exactly the same since they have 5- and 10-segment dials and the TIEs use 8, but it’s pretty darn close and it looks awesome. The backlight is a very pleasant orange glow that lights up the whole face of the watch. It’s brief, but the battery life is claimed to be 10 years so it’s an understandable sacrifice for efficiency’s sake. The acrylic lens does scratch fairly easily, but I was able to buff mine to like-new condition with some toothpaste and a cloth.

For the three months I had it, it kept very reliable time and I enjoyed looking at the watch daily. It really did bring me a little bit of joy every time I looked at it, which is more than I can say for most $15 purchases I’ve made. The interval timer got near-daily use and it became my go-to digital watch over my G-shock DW9052 and F91W pretty quickly. Maybe if I wasn’t working from home in a pandemic I would have changed it up a bit more, but the AE 1300 was my watch of choice for much of the quarantine.

But one night recently I was taking it off in the dark as I was going to bed and I just missed setting it on my dresser. It fell about 4 feet onto the hardwood floor straight onto the face with a loud clack. The next morning when I went to put it on, I noticed the screen was blank and it was unresponsive, although there wasn’t a scratch or crack anywhere. I opened it up and poked around for a while, removed and replaced the battery, but the LCD just displayed some random marks and never returned to life.

I don’t fault Casio for this necessarily, since it’s not advertised as a shock-resistant watch. There’s a reason I have a G-shock, because not every watch can handle a drop on the floor. I just hoped this one would be a little tougher. I’ll miss this watch and I might even buy it again someday, but I decided to give another watch a try first to see if it’s tougher. I bought a Timex Command 47 mm in white for its two-step auto-repeat interval timer and its good looks. So far it’s been a good experience, but the Timex cost 4 times what I paid for the AE 1300, so time will tell if it’s worth it. A 10-year battery isn’t worth much if a single drop from waist level is enough to kill the watch. Overall, I’d recommend this watch even given my experience, because it looks great, has awesome features, and the ultra cheap price makes up for it being so potentially fragile.

Bought this watch on Amazon and mailed to where I was as I was out of town.
I’m sold on the reliability of Casio watches, this is no different. I prefer watches with the World time features as I use them often, I have enough AE1200 type watches back home so wanted something a little different. While this doesn’t have the four preset world time zone features, this will keep track of two plus having quite a number of preset timer features. A great looking watch, inexpensive and so far has been very durable.

Best value by far! 30 yr sports official and this watch has been my most used and durable tool.

Hafif ve güzel

It’s a decent watch at reasonable price. Bought this to be used during sports activities. It has all the functionalities one would need during the activity such as stop watch, timer etc. Looks well made with promising long last battery life.