
The best watches are the ones that are worn. This is how icons are born. Think about it, ‘Paul Newman’ Daytona, Heuer Monaco, Seiko ‘Willard’, Seiko ‘Arnie’ and the Omega ‘Moon watch’ are desirable because they’ve been worn by heroes and survived real (or made up) adventures. The heroes that wore them didn’t intend to make a watch an icon, nor did they wear it as a tribute to former heroes. They wore them because that’s the watch they wanted to wear, and the halo effect these watches have benefitted from as a result of it is just a side effect.
I don’t buy a watch because it’s associated with a celebrity or historical event. I buy and wear watches I like aesthetically and functionally. My watches create their own history through the life I lead. The Casio MRW-200H-1BVES is a good example of this.
This £20 watch is the only watch anyone can ever need, except for formal occasions. It’s a true beater watch without the post-rationalised beater features people tell themselves they need in order to justify a £100+ beater watch. It popped up on Amazon one day and I liked the look of it. For £20 I thought I’d get it and see how I felt about it. And I really like it in it’s simplicity.

Casio MRW-200H-1BVES is the only sports watch you need
It’s made from plastic and resin, but has a steel case back and crown, offering an impressive 100M water resistance. It’s super legible with the white print on black, has a lovely day-date function and even has a friction bezel for timing things. I love the red detail on the bezel. It’s obviously Quartz, and I’ve replaced the battery once after my purchase in 2022. Timekeeping has been immaculate with this little guy.
With a £20 price tag, there is a liberating sense of carelessness with wearing this beater. Scratches are to be expected, and will only give the watch more character. Should I trash it or lose it, so be it, no big deal. That being said, this became the obvious choice for a watch to do sports in.
Casio MRW-200H-1BVES is my kitesurf watch
And when I say sports, I mean kitesurfing in particular. Kitesurfing is one of my big passions and I take every chance I get to do it (I even moved to a place right on the sea font so I can go for sessions with little notice). Out on the water, you don’t want to be wearing an expensive watch. Salt water is taxing on any man-made material, and on top of that there are violent crashes, sandy beaches and rocks that will do their best to cause dents and scratches. In short, you need something sturdy that you aren’t too precious about. The Casio MRW-200H-1BVES is a perfect choice consequently. It’s also slim enough to be out of the way and the strap is long enough to use it on top of the wet suit when wearing gloves in the winter. Oh, and with the day-date function, it’s perfect for my kite trips as well, making sure I don’t forget when I need to catch my flight back home.


How watch icons are born
Casio MRW-200H-1BVES is probably the coolest watch in my collection. Why? Because it’s the watch I wear when I do what I love. If I ever were to become an influential celebrity, people would look at my style and try to emulate it (at least that seems to be the way it works with iconic watches and the celebrity halo effect). Surely, the watch I chose to wear doing action sports and traveling the world would carry more status than watches I wear at home, going shopping and doing other mundane life stuff.
But you see, this is the paradox in watch collecting: if you’re not living a life worth living, the watches you wear will never be cool. And it doesn’t matter what other people think about your watches, but they won’t even be cool to you, at least not for the right reason. They might be cool to you because that particular model benefit from the celebrity halo effect, but that’s borrowed coolness. Wouldn’t you prefer if your watch was cool, because you are cool? Because it comes along when you do cool stuff and life a cool life? Well, that’s what I’d prefer anyway. To each their own.

