MegaSack DRAW - This year's winner is user - rgwb
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Anybody got any recommendations? He’s requested waterproof, analogue and durable. I’ve found this Casio; AQ-S810W-1A2VEF which seems to be a women’s/kids watch and ticks the boxes, but I’m not entirely sure whether it’s small enough not to look daft, and it’s listed as ‘men’s collection’ when you click on it on amazon. I reckon it’s a typo, but I’m not sure.
Budget is £20-£40. Thanks in advance!
I've been at my front window for seven hours now, watching for this eight year old. Can I go to bed yet?
£3 eBay. Lasts 6-12 months each.
Swatch - the women's ones are smaller than the men's. Their Flic-Flac range are attractive, depending on how 'young' he is (I would have hated them, but my son would have liked them at the same age).
I've had a couple of the Timex Expedition ones - some have a backlight which was handy although they may stretch your budget.
Pick up one of the 80s era Tag Heuer F1 off eBay - they tend to sell for about £100 to £150. They were quite small at 34 or 36mm and work well as kids/women’s sporty watches, especially on the rubber strap. Worn bezel numbering is common, due to rubbing on cuffs, but you can still pick up replacement bezels.
There’s a few listed now...
https://www.ebay.co.uk/b/TAG-Heuer-Formula-1-Wris****ches/31387/bn_9986540
Realised after I’d posted that my suggestion was way over budget - by way of apology, here’s a list of possibilities on Creation Watches. lots of nice Casios in a variety of styles:
http://www.creationwatches.com/products/search/results.html?pto=150&sort=3a&page=2
If you’re after something sporty, this one caught my eye and isn’t too big at 34mm
This one is slightly larger, but I reckon you could swap it onto a blue rubber or fabric strap to make it look more ‘sporty’, and lose the weight of the bracelet for him.
Jump to page 8 and 9 of the listing, and there are some nice looking Swatch options around the £40 mark...
http://www.creationwatches.com/products/search/results.html?pto=150&sort=3a&page=8
My lad has this one, seems to work ok, and he's been swimming with it on and it's fine. Nice light as well and kids love that shit!!
https://www.amazon.co.uk/Limit-Analogue-Display-Plastic-5591-24/dp/B00VC6ZKBA
Casio MQ-24. £7.99 at Argos. Simple, slim, easy to read. Listed as 30m water resistant but my son has been wearing them since he was about six, ten years now and it's been fine in shower, sea, water parks. I think he's had about four or five in ten years, usually the straps go rather than the watch.
Argos Casio and if the strap dies, get a cheap NATO strap from eBay
Those TAG Heuer F1’s are good watches, they come from when TAG were just starting out their partnership with Hueur, who had always been rather ‘traditional’ in their styling, and needed to up their game in the sports watch scene, which was just getting started. I bought a Series 1000 ‘Night Diver’ around ‘85, and I remember watching ‘Manhunter’, the first Hannibal Lechter film, and I noticed William Petersen, who played Will Graham was wearing one. I’ve also just discovered that Tim Dalton wore one on The Living Daylights, so prices of original ‘Night Diver’ TAGs are now starting to creep up. Mine cost me £250, I’ve seen well-worn examples going for nearly £1000. Those early TAG Heuer watches are starting to appeal to collectors looking for something a bit unusual that’s a reasonable price, the F1 series could well go the same way, it might be a nice thing to get for the lad, they’re pretty tough watches, a bit different, and could easily start to appreciate in value, they were about half the price of a Series 1000 back then.
I’ve just fitted mine with a NATO strap, in the correct colours that Bond wore in Goldfinger and Thunderball, which have always been assumed to be black and grey stripes, but it’s actually dark blue and olive green stripes with red edging, which looks rather nice on my black PVD cased TAG.
Times Expedition, well under the £40 budget.
The back light dial is really handy, us it all the time.
APF
Still got gastly 80s Swatch watches from when I was a teen 😀 (I've checked, they're not really worth that much, especially used).
This was my favourite watch though.
"... an utterly insignificant little blue green planet whose ape-descended life forms are so amazingly primitive that they still think digital watches are a pretty neat idea." (Douglas Adams, Hitchhikers Guide to the Galaxy)
what kind of eight year old requests an analogue watch?
What's wrong with 38 world time zones, 47 countdown timers and 208 alarms?
Young people can't tell the time using analogue clocks. https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/education-43882847
what kind of eight year old requests an analogue watch?
Ha! The kind that is the only kid in his class that can tell the time with one, and is pretty proud of it. See above!
That Timex looks just the ticket; the right balance of nice and affordable. Thanks all!
I just went cheap.... anything waterproof enough to not take off and with analogue and digital.
It's a balance between them losing it and something strong enough and I'm not paying for a sapphire crystal face for something he'll lose.
I paid a tenner for the last one after he ripped the last one up in a crash and nothing but a very expensive watch would have survivied and even my expensive TAG would have had the bracelet wrecked/scratched.
It seems to lose a second a month but that's good for him to have learn to synch.
It's also got a digital and day/date and stopwatch... and when he wrecks it or loses it it's not a drama.
what kind of eight year old requests an analogue watch?
What kid of person recommends a Tag Heuer for an 8 year old kid??!
My lad's first watch had a helicopter that went round n round
Pick up one of the 80s era Tag Heuer F1
I have the resin cased version from the first year. Still have it and wear it now and then. Tiny little thing and so much smaller than my Forerunner 235.