I’ve been on a quest for a fun retro watch in yellow gold tone. I started with the Casio analog digital AQ230. It’s a fantastic watch, but in the end, it wasn’t quite the look I was going for. I also tried the Casio A500 world time in gold, but felt that gold really didn’t suit the character of that watch as well as silver did. I considered the Casio A168 in gold, but couldn’t get past the plain silver/grey LCD screen. This seemed like pure laziness on the part of Casio—they have golden/amber LCD screens, they use one in the A159, for example. Why not use it here? And, speaking of A159, I considered that one as well, but something about it—maybe the bracelet design or black bezel just turned me off. Striking out with Casio, I tried the Timex T80 (TW2R79200). This is the resin body version in gold with gold bezel around the screen. This one was a let down in terms of the hue of fake gold. It was too orange. So now we’re here with this T80 (TW2V18900YB). It rocks. Advantages -It’s very easy to miss this fact, but realizing that this one has a brass body instead of resin, made me wonder if Timex would have reformulated their gold coating to make it work. Apparently they did, because this gold tone is much better. It’s much closer to the real thing. I also appreciate that they coat all sides of the bracelet, and all parts of the clasp. Casio can’t seem to pull that off. Even with a full bracelet coating, they still leave 1/2 of the clasp in plain steel. -As to size, this one is a little wider, thicker, and heavier than my Casio A158. That, combined with a longer bracelet, would make this a good choice for bigger wrists. My wrists are about 6.75 inches, and this works fine for me as well. -Unlike the odd unfinished look of the plain grey LCD screen in the Casio A168 gold, the Timex day-glo LCD is great, although perhaps not as easy to read in all lighting conditions. Color-shifting from amber to orange to green, it’s a nice compliment to the gold case and bracelet. The green bezel also pairs nicely. I like it better than I thought I would. And speaking of lighting conditions, have no fear of the dark with this one. The Timex indiglo is as bright and vibrant as ever. -The bracelet is easy to size -The alarm is loud Quirks and Issues -You’re going to need to download and read the instruction manual for this one. The module is unlike anything you’ve tried from Casio or later Timex, like the Ironman. This is the first watch that has stumped me in a long time, when came to activating certain features. For example, pressing the upper right button in time mode simultaneously activates the hourly chime and turns on button tone. The only way you know the hourly chime is activated is that the colon between the hour and minutes changes from on to blinking in time with the seconds. Also, 24 hour time display is activated in time setting mode by pressing the lower right button, while you have hours selected. There is no obvious step in the setting process to do that. -My two complaints pertain to a couple of display quirks. First, while the day of the week is displayed, it’s nearly microscopic. It would have been better if they enlarged it and placed it in the upper left box where the active alarm symbol resides. They could squeeze the alarm symbol elsewhere. Second, the typical slanted, italicized font that Timex uses messes with my eyes sometimes, making me wonder if the display is ever so slightly crooked. But honestly, that’s my watch OCD kicking in and I still can’t tell if it’s actually crooked or not. It never looks crooked when I glance at the time, only when I really start scrutinizing, and even then it seems perfect sometimes and sometimes almost perfect. All in all, this is an excellent contender for the fun retro gold watch I’ve been after. Timex has an all steel 36mm T80 out there that might be fun to try, but it’s significantly more expensive. I think this brass-bodied version is one to get.
