Why This $20 Casio Forester Is Watch-Snob Approved

I will admit to being fairly hard to please when it comes to my watches. After a decade in watch media and several more years as an enthusiast, I’ve seen and handled just about every type and brand of watch out there, so, yeah, one gets a little jaded. But every now and then a watch comes along that is truly appealing with a price that isn’t accessible or affordable but actually just cheap. This Casio Forester is such a watch.

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Amidst the countless tributes to late U.S. President Jimmy Carter a few weeks ago, I noticed a photo I had never seen before in which he was wearing an ana-digi watch. After some sleuthing I learned it was a Casio Forester FT600WB-5BV, a watch I have never really thought about or even worn. Still I was intrigued by its Presidential provenance and got to Googling and, while the ana-digi seems to be discontinued, I was even more pleased to see a very attractive contemporary Casio Forester listed at just around $20 at several sellers including Amazon and Walmart. So I said, “What the hell?” and bought the FT500WC-3BVCF, which comes in a black and forest green colorway. I was tempted by the other two offerings as well: the all-black FT500WC-1BVCF and the brown/tan FT500WC-5BVCF.

I’ll be honest and say my expectations were pretty low. I mean, we’re talking about a $20 watch in a resin case. Well, to my surprise, I kind of fell in love with it as soon as I opened up the packaging. The quality of the leather and velcro strap is perfectly decent and so easy to size. The Forester logo and branding adds a nice touch to the entire thing, as well.

Still, all the praise in the world means nothing if a watch can’t handle what the world has to throw it. So, I did what anyone would do: I absolutely bashed the hell out of the watch with a hammer and took the sharp edge of a pair of scissors to the strap. And guess what? The watch came out fine! So, that’s one bar cleared. Now on to the Forester itself.

At a weight of just 31 grams it was easy for me to forget I even had a watch on my wrist. The case is pretty well-sized at 40mm wide and 12.6mm thick, with a 43.9mm lug-to-lug height. It definitely wears smaller than its specs due to the substantial bezel surrounding and protecting the resin glass dial. It’s also water resistant to 100 meters, unlike its closest competitor, the Timex Expedition, which has 50 meters of water resistance.

I love the straightforward and highly legible dial with skeletonized hands that don’t cover the date window or the 24-hour track markers. Yes, that means there is no lume, but the Illuminator is way more functional if you need to check the time in a hurry in the dark. The pusher at 3 o’clock activates a bright orange LED light from the 6 o’clock position in the case for about five seconds (see the second image above). Of note, there are two batteries in this watch: one for the analog timer and one for the light. Both should last about three years with the light being tested at 9 seconds/day of activation.

It’s a simple dial otherwise, with large and easy-to-read Arabic numerals and a date window at 3 o’clock. I saw some comments saying that the seconds hand doesn’t really align with the markers on the seconds track, but I stared at it from just about every angle under a loupe and it looked pretty darn aligned to me.

The aforementioned Timex Expedition is definitely something of a darling in the watch/EDC community. And that makes sense: it’s a no-nonsense, rugged field watch that can be purchased for $40-50. That said, the smartly designed “Field Watch” aesthetic we’ve seen on pieces from the Expedition to the Hamilton Field Khaki is so ubiquitous that it’s just…well, ubiquitous. The Casio Forester is available just about everywhere, and you can learn more about it on the official Casio website here.