Perfect for swimming and snorkelling: the watch is water resistant to 10 bar according to ISO 22810.

While that watch is a classic that packs immense value, I've realized that my "watch wants" had shifted. There's a whole sub-culture of people that modify Casio watches, and for me, I'm just scratching the surface. It can be modified easily, and has a cool look, beckoning to the classic Seiko watches of the 1980s. Like all really great tool watches – the classic Mark series pilot's watches, for example – the AE1200WH-1A gives every indication of not having been designed, per se, at all, but like the Mark series, its pragmatism in design and execution manages to transcend simple functionality, and achieve an aesthetic all its own. The water resistance rating is significantly better on the AE-1200WH, while the F91W is strictly water resistant, not rated to a depth.On a very cold night in July of this year, the orange glow of the backlight was a great comfort while I was freezing my buns off. Well, the AE-1200WH is something that I've enjoyed more than the big G-Shocks, and more than the tiny F91W. The plastic case and mineral glass crystal, as it turns out, reward closer scrutiny with a surprisingly rich display of somewhat muted but strangely elegant geometry, and while the AE1200WH-1A doesn't have the broad-shouldered tough-guy vibe of the G-Shock, it has another kind of retro-tech appeal that while not apparent at first glance, becomes more pronounced and more enjoyable the longer you wear the watch. The really delicious feature of the watch is the world map display – this is found right above the main digital display of the time, and the current local time zone is in black.

Doing some looking online, it turns out that a simple pencil eraser will remove that text, so I did it.The time zone that we have actively selected is darkened on the map, which makes it easy to see which one you're in.

On the watch, we select the time zone by selecting cities within the time zone, named using three digit airport codes.However, I've found that spending a little more money has lead to a watch that I like a whole lot more. Its design appears to be derived from, or at least related to, the Casio F-91W, which came out in 1991 and is also still in production; both watches are in the Classic Collection. I can't put this watch on without vivid memories of a time in horology when this sort of tech represented absolutely the last word in practical and functional timekeeping technology, long before terms like "tropical dial" and "ghost bezel" had arisen, to trouble the world.