Customer Reviews

Casio Men's AMW320D-9EV Ana-Digi Alarm Chronograph Dive Watch

5 star:		(75)
4 star:		(13)
3 star:		(3)
2 star:		(4)
1 star:		(7)

 

 

After about seven years of great service, my wrist now bears a dead AMW320D (great name, eh, really trips off the tongue). I went in for my third battery replacement and the jeweler told me that corrosion had eaten away at the movement. The first time I replaced the battery I learned that the seal had to be broken and the watch might no longer resist water. The soft rubbery plastic strap died long ago, replaced by a superior twist-o-flex-style metal wrist band.
Now you might think I'm dissatisfied. But I intend to order another the minute (or so -- I don't have a working watch) I finish writing this review. Why? It has been a great watch. Analog plus digital gives me easy-to-read intuitive time checking, along with all the bells and whistles of silicon: multiple times, alarm, stop watch, and calendar. The outer ring on the face lets me rotate the "north" arrow to a future time, say 45 minutes from now, and I know time's up when the minute hand gets there. (I have no idea why the face ring has compass points and degrees marked on it -- to fool one's friends?) The watch has been rugged, holding up to the shock of using hoes and axes, although I didn't push my luck if I remembered to take it off.
I'm looking at my old friend, now motionless and blank, and figure he had a pretty good run. Time's up for this timepiece, at a cost of a little more than $10 per year. Since I bought the last one on display at Mervyn's, I didn't get a box or manual and didn't even know what it was called AMW320D until looking it up on the web just now. AMW320D I didn't even know your name all these great years together.

This Marine Gear has become one of my favorite watches of all time. And take this from an enthousiastic collector who's tried out quite a few watches. If you're like me, you might like to alternate at times between analog and digital watches. I find myself using an analog watch about 60% of the time because they look great and it's easy to see how much time you've got left. On the other hand, digitals get about 40% of my wrist time, especially when I'm in a casual, sport, or technical mode.

Well, here's a watch that's the best of both worlds. With this Marine Gear, Casio has a real classic "diver" watch both in form and function.

In function, this watch has all the classical functions I like in in the digital line-up: stopwatch, alarm, hourly beep, and date. The digital time and dual time has come in handy, especially travelling. In fact, with the analog hands, you can have three time zones on your watch at once. Also, it is easy to synchronize the digital and analog seconds. In the analog department, the hand are the easy to see-at-a-glance oversized diver fashion. The hour markers are made to show up in the dark. My only disappointment is that the luminosity lasts only for an hour so in the dark; it won't get you through the night. But that's only a minor let-down.

As to form, here's a real classic look in the world of water sport and divers watches. I've found that the hefty steel case, elapsed-time ring, canary yellow dial, and wide black divers strap make a really attractive and tough-looking wrist accessory that get lots of remarks like, "great watch!" from friends.

I first noticed this Marine Gear in about 1989 and immediatly thought, "Wow, gotta get this watch!" (In those days, the first Marine Gears has the function pushers at 8 and four rather than at 8 and 10 on the latest models.) Even though that watch is still working fine after about 15 years, I got a couple of others too. In the mid-90's, Casio put out a models with black and white dials and steel band. I like them too, though I wear them with the the black divers bands which still seem readily available as replacements. However, after all, I think the Yellow dial model is still the coolest.

Take it from a watch freak who thinks the bigger the better, if you're into the divers style in watches, you'll come to like the size and heft of this Casio and its tough indesructability and maybe come to think too that is one of the greatest of all time.

This is my third purchase of this same watch in the past ten years. I am very hard on watches and beat the heck out of them. I keep forgetting to remove them when working on Airplanes and auto engines etc. I dropped one and the second hand fell off which jammed the works. The other two still work but look like heck. Bands are lousey and break in short order so get a new band to replace it and keep it handy. Price from Target was $20 cheaper than Wally world and that included shipping. Some complain of not getting a good seal when replacing the battery and that will allow moisture into the watch and fog up the crystal. If you are VERY carefull and use the tinniest bit of vasoline to hold the O-ring in place when reinstalling the back it will seal just fine. Also, don't open it up on a wet and humid day.

too funny that the other reviews were much like my own opinions.

i own a $6000 rolex, but my casio died recently when the time adjust went awry. i wore this watch for essentially 14 years, and wore it on all sorts of different occasions.

for the price, and for the value, it is second to none. you need a big wrist tho, as its a big watch. i have looked at hundreds of watches since then, but keep coming back to this one.

I bought this watch about 10 years ago and it has been on my hand about 99.99% of the time - including in rivers and in the ocean. It recently started to give me some problems with the digital display fading out from time to time.

I was amazed that this model is still available and I am gong to buy a new one.

The analog display looks good and the digital window allows me to display the date all of the time. Unlike mechanical watches that only have a date/day display this watch does not have to be reset every month that does not have 31 days.

After replacing the battery for the second time (they last about 3-4 years), my watch had a moisture problem and I couldn't get the fog out of it... the o-ring probably wasn't sealed well. So I gave that one up and bought another just like it. I've had this one for about 4 years now and still think its the perfect watch. It has the digital window with dates, alternate times, and stop watch yet still has an attractive traditional watch style. The only drawback to the standard features is the band... I've found that it lasts only about a year and a half before it breaks... you will definitely want to get a fabric sports band when the stock one gives out.

- edit 9feb06 - Just wanted to edit this post (nearly two years later) to let readers know I am now on my third one! My second one is now about 6 years old I guess and had some scratches on the glass and bezel and was looking a bit too beat up to be wearing out on the town. My wife was looking for another Christmas gift for me and saw that I had this on my Amazon wish list so she got it for me. I noticed when she gave it to me that it had a slightly more dark golden face with significantly more luminescent hour markers than my old one. I don't know if this was a tweak by Casio or because my old one just faded. Either way, I really like the new look. So now I have one for the field and one for the town. I still think its a great watch.

And to answer a comment by another reviewer about the compass dial, it can be used with the sun and your hour hand to help find direction. Point your hour hand at the sun and half way between the hour hand and 12:00 is, roughly, south (in the northern hemisphere). The compass dial can be used from there to get approximate bearings. Google "survival and finding direction" and you'll get a better explanation than I can give I'm sure.

I have had this watch for ten years.
When I was in military service, it is the only watch I trust. It wakes me up, withstands lots of abuse, and never lets me down.

What can you say?
A 60 dollar something watch for 10 years?
I will purchse this watch again.

Watch is beautiful and looks good in an adventurous or casual environment with it's gold face. It is a bit heavier than many sport watches (i.e. Casio, Suunto, etc.) with resin bands. As far as the resin band, it tends to split after months of use necessitating replacement. I've owned two of these watches in five years and have cycled through 6 watchbands.

Overall, the watch is a good value, and even after battery replacements waterproof integrity has not been compromised.

Give us a more durable band Casio. If you did this, the AMW320D-9EV Analog/Digital Watch would be a superlative watch.

I just bought one of these watches. It is a nice watch and feels solid and is well-built. The rubber-type strap is decent and I can't see anything bad in it. I like all the functions on this watch (date, alarm, chronograph, diver bezel, etc., etc.). Has it all. The metal base or housing piece is solid too. All-in-all a nice, solid watch (you can't of course tell from the web site how heavy the watch is, but it feels more solid than the image might suggest, and to me feels similar to my $ 250 Casio dive watch, albeit a not quite as heavy. In other words: perfect for summer, when you want something a bit lighter on your wrist. One thing I noticed is how BRIGHT it is in the dark. I pulled into the parking garage and literally said, "Wow !" out loud the first time I saw it in the dark. It has a luminosity that rivals that of my Luminox tritium watches. Very impressed by that.

I first got one of these when it was issued to me in the Air Force back in the early 1990's. As a fighter pilot (former) I've busted more watches in cockpits than most but this one held up. Now that I'm in the more sedate confines of an airline cockpit, I still wear it. It has dual time zones and an alarm, perfect for international travel. Beware, it's a BIG watch! If that's not your style, you may want to see one in person before you buy. The only drawback... the plastic/rubber band will crack after 2+ years and need replacement. I put a nice leather band on mine and even had a passenger compliment me on my "Breitling". When I told him it was a Casio and cost $4950 less, he wanted one too.