CasioGeneral Men's Watches Data Bank DBC-32D-1ADF - WW, Grey/Silver

This is an excellent watch offering many useful functions for the money. In the timekeeping mode, the display shows the time in hour:minute:second format in the center of the LCD screen. Above this is the Day of Week shown in 3-letter abbreviation, such as MON for Monday. In the third line, the date is displayed in YYYY-MM-DD format.Other display modes include DB (Database), CAL (Calculator), AL (Alarm), ST (Stopwatch), and DT (Dual Time). No matter in which mode, the current time will always be displayed on the third line of the screen.In DB, the watch allows you to store 25 sets of three lines of alphanumeric characters. It is slightly difficult to enter the data because of keys have multiple functions. Unless you need to constantly update or change stored data, it is acceptable.In CAL, the watch turns into a 8-digit basic arithmetic calculator, for those times you do not have access to a regular calculator. The keys are not tactile, and you must use your fingernail to "depress" the keys. Pressing a key, in addition to showing the corresponding digit on the screen, the watch provides an audio beep when your input press is registered. The AC (All Clear) function is on the side of the watch that is denoted the "C" button.In AL, the watch allows the setting of five different alarms. One can be a snooze or one-time alarm, while the other four only one-time alarms. You can set the hourly time signal function, so that the watch will beep every hour on the hour.In ST, the watch becomes a stopwatch that can track two finishes by using the Split function. The watch displays the tracked time in HH:MM:SS format in the center line of screen. On the lower line, another two digits shows the hundreds of a second time.In DT, the watch will display the time of another time zone. Because the AM/PM indicator is pretty small and thus hard-to-see, I recommend using a 24-hour time format (set this in the timekeeping mode)so that when you check the time of another time zone, you won't inadvertently misread the time by 12 hours (for example, reading 3 PM as 3 AM).All in all, this is a great watch given the plethora of features for the low price of less than $35.The watch itself is plastic with silver metallic paint, while is watchband is metallic.In order to adjust the size of the watchband, you need to remove some links. The watch manual does NOT provide any information on how to do this. I don't want to spend $10 or more to get a $35 watch sized to my wrist, so I decided to do it myself. This particular type of watchband has links that are more difficult to remove, but it is still do-able at home.You need a small (1.4 mm or smaller) flat blade screwdriver and a small hammer (or something metallic and has some weight). Turn the watchband so that you can see the inside surface (the side that touches your skin when you wear the watch)of the links. There is an arrow embossed on each link. This arrow points in the direction that you should hammer out the "link pin" that, when removed, looks like the letter "L". Place the screwdriver tip against the "nipple indentation" of the link that you want to remove on the watchband, in a 10-15 degree angle, in the direction of the arrow, and lightly hammer it. The fitting is tight, so it won't come out too easily. If the link pin protrudes out enough after some hammering, you can use a plier to help getting it out. You should try to remove the same number of links from each side of the watch unit. Only links with embossed arrow indication is removable.It took me a long time to remove the first link because I didn't know how the links are constructed. I didn't know how to go about removing the link pin. After I figured out that the "nipple indentation" is the place to hammer, and you must hammer it using the tip of a small screwdriver, in a 10-15 degree angle, in the direction of the arrow. If you understand the above statement, the rest is easy. Good luck and you just saved yourself some money, plus it makes you feel good that you can do this without a watch professional.By the way, if you have the need to adjust the watchband of many types of watches, I would recommend buying a "watch band tool". Just search for the aforementioned term on Amazon.com, and it will give you lots of product options. I recommend the "16-Piece Deluxe Watch Opener Tool Kit Repair Pin Remover"; it's pretty cheap and it makes working on this much easier. It does NOT come with instructions however; you'd sort of have to figure it out yourself.

I had been thinking about throwing money at a retro Casio watch for years. Never could really pinpoint the one I wanted until last night. I was watching Office Space and noticed they all have the calculator Casio watches. This one looks like the one Milton Waddams has (the guy with the red stapler)! Such an underrated movie. And such a great watch! Super lightweight. You can update time very easily with the number keyboard. Looks great and feels great! I love it!

I've had a pair of Databank watches for quite some time... a 150 and a 300 version. I made the fatal error of taking my 150 to a "watch repair shop" to get the battery changed, at some point, and then next time did it myself (as I usually do). And I discovered that the repair shop had failed to replace the o-ring seal... which I knew would eventually result in the watch failing.Well, recently, it did. The 150's module is totally non-functional. And my 300 is almost too valuable to wear anymore. I wanted something new. This watch is the last version which is (mostly) compatible with those earlier watched. It comes in several variants, so I bought a silver one and a black one. This review relates to both versions.This is a pretty decent watch, comparable to the older (and better) versions in most ways. It has a lot less available data memory (which seems odd, doesn't it?) and no longer has the "Indiglo" electroluminescent backlight) which is wonderful, instead merely using white surface-mount LEDs to reflect light inside the case. And, of course, it loses the "countdown timer" function (which I almost never used, anyway).But the calculator functionality is equivalent to, and in one way better, the earlier models. This has a built-in "currency conversion" mode (really just a single memory which you can multiply your entries by) which does come in handy if you travel a lot.The "dual time" mode is less capable than the earlier version. In that case, you'd set it based upon whatever time zone you might be in, and you could step through timezones (say, from London to Cairo) without having to reset the time itself. In this case, you simply have to reset the watch time for a second entry... not quite as nice.It does have a "daylight savings time" option which helps a bit, since you don't have to reset the watch twice a year (you only turn DST on or off).The reduced "databank" feature set means that you no longer have the calendar display at the top of the screen (which was nice... you'd see a darkened box on days when an event was set, or a blank if nothing was set). However, this is replaced by a LARGE text box which tells you the day of the week, so it's probably a improvement in the eyes of most people.The keypad is actually an improvement over the prior versions in terms of ease of pressing of the buttons. There's a triangular "pyramid" atop each button, in clear plastic, with the printed label underneath. Unfortunately, they removed the "three letters" (in addition to the number) from each button. This is supposed to make it easier to see the numbers, I guess, but it makes text entry a lot more challenging (if you don't have the num-pad text entry scheme committed to memory).Basically, Casio has severely hamstrung the "databank" portion of this device, to the point where it's largely not worth it to use except as a conventional watch or a calculator.But that's OK, for most of us, as not many people probably made full use of the older version's feature set. It's still the best option out there.Soon, practically-sized "smart watches" may become an actual reality. The i-Watch is not really what I mean... it's just a first step down the path. It's pretty much useless without an iPhone, and a watch should be a stand-alone device, or at least be capable of being a stand-alone device. The Samsung "smart watch" is a great concept, except that it's HUGE. But until real, practical smart-watches arrive (in a few years) this remains your best option, in my opinion.This particular watch is the "silver tone" version. The band itself is metal, but the case is silver-painted plastic (which is disappointing... I'm sure that eventually the case will become scratched and will look ugly after that point). The band is pretty easy to use... a standard steel-link watch band... but you may need to either figure out how to remove links or, more probably, get someone to do it for you. Unless you're HUGE... you can't wear it as-shipped. (I had to remove 4x links to make it fit perfectly.)

I love the look of this Casio. It’s super retro cool. The wrist band is WAY too large for my average sized wrist and I had to YouTube a tutorial on how to separate the links so I could get it to fit properly. The band isn’t a standard linked band and there were no instructions about how to adjust the metal band in the tiny novel of a manual that it came with. The actual watch isn’t metal, it’s silver plastic which does make the watch feel light, so if you don’t like wearing a heavy feeling watch then this is perfect. All the functions work very well and It keeps great time. I like the ability to switch from standard to military time as I use a 24hr clock for documentation at work. It does get a lot of attention from people when I wear it and that’s fun. All in all it’s a good watch that I wear regularly, but I was hoping for a watch that was all metal with a band that was way easier to adjust so that’s why I gave it 4 stars instead of 5.