The Registry · No. 02 of 42
Casio
23 files in the archive carry a Casio. Everything here comes from the people who wore them.
Seen more than once
Models named by more than one person, exactly as they wrote them.
The files
DuroCasio Duro
A Coast Guardsman at Air Station Kodiak, just back from a search and rescue case.
GD350 8Casio GD350-8
A Marine with an SSTA platoon, photographed in the dust at Twentynine Palms, a radio handset in his fist, notes strapped to his wrist, boots and rock in every direction. The occasion was SLTE 4-26, and his post was a hide site, "monitoring a duration suppression," which is the kind of phrase that tells you everything by telling you almost nothing. The watch has been there for all of it. A high school graduation gift from his uncle, and in his words, "the only piece of kit that hasn't changed over the past 3 years." Rifles change, radios change, platoons turn over, and a gift from family keeps ticking through every evolution. The watch is a Casio GD350-8, bought as a present for a kid finishing high school, now three years deep into a Marine's working life.
G Shock GW B5600Casio G-Shock GW-B5600
A Lieutenant and mechanized infantry officer in the Pakistan Army, wearing a Casio G-Shock GW-B5600.
Duro ModCasio Duro Mod
A Lieutenant and class officer at Navy OCS, a surface warfare officer by designator, wearing a modified Casio Duro.
G ShockCasio G-Shock
A retired Sergeant First Class, formerly a Senior Weapons Sergeant with 3rd Special Forces Group (Airborne), wearing a Casio G-Shock.
DuroCasio Duro
A Coast Guard veteran, now a SWAT officer, laid the Casio Duro across the dark uniform shirt beside the ribbon bar, his nameplate and the team insignia. His watch is the black and gold Duro, the working diver that costs less than a duty belt. His reason for the photo was not the watch at all. In his words: they say the only thing evil needs to triumph is for good men to do nothing. So I'm trying to be a good man.
gshock DW 6900casio gshock DW-6900
Deployed to Jordan for air defense, photographed at Camp Badger right before shift with the two essentials in frame: a G-Shock DW-6900 on the wrist and a cold Jordanian energy drink in hand, the local answer to Red Bull with a wolf on the can. His caption for the whole arrangement: just another day in paradise.
Pathfinder triple sensor.Casio Pathfinder triple sensor.
A retired First Sergeant's photo from Ghazni, Afghanistan, 2010: a Casio Pathfinder on the wrist over ACUs, in a Blackhawk going through the pass to Wardak province, and the number on the screen is the story. 13,180 feet, read straight off the watch's own altimeter mid flight. His epitaph for the model: they don't make them anymore, which is a shame, because it served me well.
DuroCasio Duro
A constable with the Ontario Provincial Police, about a year on the job and into his first summer in short sleeves, photographed on regular patrol between calls and traffic enforcement. On the wrist, a green bezel Casio Duro, the fifty dollar diver that has quietly become the thinking person's beater. Short sleeves in a cruiser means the watch shows, and a Duro is a watch you never have to think twice about showing, or soaking, or scratching. First summer on patrol, first summer the watch gets to breathe.
MDV106 diverCasio MDV106 diver
A Canada Border Services Agency officer at the end of a long shift, the duty belt on the table telling the day's story: baton, OC, cuffs, and the gloves still on. The shift log he described includes wanted criminals, drug lookouts, currency seizures, and illegal weapons, everything that tries to cross an international border in a day. On the wrist through all of it, a Casio Duro, the seventy dollar diver that shows up, does the work, and never asks for credit.
World TimeCasio World Time Watch
Two wrists from one patrol squad in a South Alabama agency, both wearing the same customized Casio World Time, the squad's unit watch, photographed over the cruiser laptop while sharing intel on gang members and dope dealers in their precinct and planning the day's proactive work. His words: worn pridefully by arguably the best squad in the department. Simple, reliable, and effective, just like the squad. A unit watch does not need a four figure price tag. It needs everyone wearing it to mean it.
Maratac LSA 20MM and DuroMaratac LSA 20MM and Casio Duro
An aircraft mechanic who came up turning wrenches on UH-60 Black Hawks, first in the Army and then as a contractor overseas, and now runs with an Aircraft On Ground team, the crew that flies to wherever a jet is broken and gets it moving again. He earned his A&P license in 2020, and a watch has been on his wrist for the work in Afghanistan, Kuwait, Dubai, Canada, the Bahamas, and a stack of states in between. Here the Maratac LSA rides a NATO under a Mechanix glove on a Challenger and a Citation flight line, and glows red over a maintenance manual full of handwritten rigging figures at altitude. The Casio Duro is the one that went in the ocean off Marsh Harbour on the downtime. Tools, used as tools.
DuroCasio Duro
A transit officer in Hampton Roads, headed to a morning judo class before an evening patrol shift, the blue Casio Duro resting on his folded gi and brown belt. Fifteen years on the job, and his grappling has always been an asset. Most recently it was more than that: a passenger pulled a knife on him at the light rail platform, and he took the man down and made the arrest, in his words, without incident. The Duro is his first tool watch and the first name on a list he is now building. A good place to start.
3529 DW 6900TUCASIO 3529 DW-6900TU
First deployment, 5th Fleet, aboard USS Portland, LPD 27, photographed in the mess during Operation Epic Fury. Before leaving, the submitter did what few watch buyers admit to: he researched which watches actually carry an item number in the military supply system, found this G-Shock at the Navy Exchange in San Diego, by his research a MARSOC issue reference, and bought it as his deployment beater. Then he named it after the operation: Epic Fury. A fifty dollar Casio with a service record and a call sign, which is more than most watches ten times the price will ever have.
DuroCasio Duro
An investigator with the Annapolis bomb squad, photographed in the truck right before explosive detection K9 training, the unit's multicam cap sitting where the sun hits it. The watch is the Casio Duro in its blue and red bezel, two hundred meters of quartz diver for the price of a range day, riding a wrist that works around things demanding steady hands. Bomb technicians and their dogs train the way they work, methodically and often, because the job allows no bad days. The Duro just shows up every time, which is all anyone asks of it.
G Shock DW9052Casio G Shock DW9052
A Marine with Battalion Landing Team 1/5 at Twentynine Palms in 2023, deep in the predeployment workup for the 15th MEU, holding up the Corps' unofficial standard answer to timekeeping: a Casio G-Shock DW9052. The display reads Saturday, 1815, under camouflage netting with the gun line staged behind it. Yuma done, the Combat Center underway, the MEU itself the following year. He found this account and went digging through the archive for this frame, which is exactly the kind of dig this office endorses.
MDV106 1ACasio MDV106-1A
A patrol officer on the north end of the metroplex, photographed mid evidence processing after a Fourth of July stop turned up an intoxicated subject carrying cannabis and a concealed handgun. While the neighborhood shot fireworks, he and his shift were out making sure everybody got home. On the wrist above the nitrile glove is a Casio MDV106, the Duro, a 200 meter quartz diver that has become the honest answer to how much watch a working wrist actually needs. The pistol goes into evidence, the report gets written, and the Duro just keeps running, the way it always does.
G shock GA 1000 2B ORIS AQUIS 39.5mmG-shock GA-1000-2B, ORIS AQUIS 39.5mm
A patrol officer with the Korean National Police Agency, two watches laid out on the desk before a shift, the agency lanyard and a can of SABRE Red beside them. One is a Casio G-Shock Gravitymaster, the beater with a compass and thermometer built to shrug off the job. The other is an Oris Aquis in oceanic blue, a Swiss automatic diver for the days that call for it. Two ends of the tool-watch spectrum, one wrist, same shift.
18 of 23 on the desk