CasioWave Ceptor Men's Watch LCW-M170TD

Many people are buying “fashion” watches these days that are marketed via influencers and social media, they tend to cost quite a bit of money for what is a rudimentary watch mass produced in China with a large mark up funding the advertising and profit, nothing is ploughed back into innovation of the products. Often the exact same watch can be found minus the brand name selling for $20 direct from Alibaba! Seldom are these fashion watches made from quality materials despite quite a high price.Then we have manufacturers like Casio who have been around for a very long time and have invested in their own factories and innovation and exist to make watches, rather than invent fashion brands that will be here today and gone tomorrow. Casio may not be some trendy start-up company plastered all over Instagram, but they still do some really nice watches, and for those who don't care what is in vogue at the moment and are confident enough to be different, Casio do some cracking watches and designs.So to this watch (reviewing the black LCW-M170TD model) for not much more than some fashion watches and often for less, this Casio watch is made from premium materials such as titanium along with a titanium strap, this makes it much lighter in weight and is much more skin friendly than other metals, plastic or leather, a reason why titanium is often used inside the body. The crystal is sapphire, this makes it extremely resistant to scratching being 9 on the MOHL scale (diamond is 10, and a typical smart phone screen is around 7), this means the watch will continue looking good over the years.This watch isn’t using a £1.00 quartz movement like many expensive quartz fashion watches, but is using a movement made only by Casio in their factory in Japan. The movement is a wonder of miniaturisation, it not only contains a quartz movement (2 miniature motors are used to move the hands independently) but also contains an LCD display, a radio receiver to receive the atomic time, and a solar panel and charge circuit, this means it should go for a decade or more before it needs a battery replacement, even with the extra demands of the radio receiver. It is truly amazing all this fits into what is a pretty standard sized case that has just enough thickness and size to feel like a man’s watch without being too large for smaller wrists and what you pay goes into the watch, rather than just paying for a name to be silk screened on to the dial.I would suggest doing a YouTube search for this watches model number (LCW-M170TD) to see reviewers move it about in different lighting to see what it truly looks like, as the stock image seems to suggest it has a grey inner ring, but in reality, that is a sloping bezel that reflects the light differently and looks much better in the flesh. The indices float above the watch face and the second-hand sweeps just below the crystal, so it’s fairly 3 dimensional.As is usual for Casio, extra care is made to ensure the second hand hits the indices correctly, and it is somehow quite pleasing when the second hand is at the 3 or 9 o’clock position and lines up precisely with the cross hairs on the dial.The LCD display can show the time in digital format, a different time zone or the day and date, and it gives a bit of a retro look and tells you this watch is different from most others.The best bit about the watch is the atomic time updates. Okay, let’s be honest about it, there are probably few occasions where we need the time on our wrists to be spot on to the second, maybe useful for the start of a 2-minute silence or a New Year’s Eve count down, but if the technology can do it why not? After all time keeping through the centuries has always been about getting better and better accuracy. Also, we have twice a year where the clocks change, and this watch will do that automatically, and so it becomes the trusted time piece to which you compare and adjust all your other clocks and watches. Because it updates every day, then it doesn’t slowly drift off, and so it looks after itself, and no messing about getting the date correct on shorter months.So some tips and tricks:I would recommend before purchase searching the internet for Casio manual 5161, this will give you links to download the instruction manual to become familiar with it, for some people it may all be a bit daunting as it has many features and set up options, but actually in practice you don’t necessarily need to do much to set up, and once done, it’s done.Out of the box these watches are typically set to Paris as the time zone and city, and as soon as the watch wakes up out the box the hands race around to the correct time, and this can mean it appears an hour out. Follow the instructions to set the home city to London (or as required) and the time will correct itself, however it will not be accurate to the second until it has received the atomic time signal, this happens overnight, but you can try triggering it manually.Make sure overnight the watch isn’t close to any electrical items, such as a mobile phone or phone charger as these devices swamp the time signal with interference and it may fail to resync each night.Being solar powered doesn’t mean you have to have it tracking the sun 8 hours a day, it doesn’t need direct sunlight at all. When you first receive it, it would benefit from some daylight to top up the battery after it has been sat in the box, and any nice and bright windowsill will do, just leave it there for a few hours over a couple of days. I would avoid sitting it in direct sunlight as that will only cause it to get hot and UV light benefits few things and simply isn’t required. If you are wearing the watch out and about straight away and it’s not covered under a sleeve then that simply will be enough. Once charged the battery can keep it powered for months and months, so generally just being worn the watch gets enough light to be quite happy. In general use you don’t need to worry about charging it.Sleep mode: this can’t be disabled on these models of watch so if this could be a problem don’t buy this one. After 10pm, if the watch doesn’t see any light, then after a while it goes to sleep. This sleep mode sees the second hand stop at the 12 o’clock position and the LCD display goes off, the hour and minute hands still continue to tell the correct time however. As soon as the watch sees some light, or a button is pressed, it wakes up again.If you are adjusting the strap then it uses a pin and collar system, search YouTube for some tips on doing it yourself, example “Casio Titanium Bracelet Adjustment Greg Anderson”, even if you are taking it to a Jeweller to do, it’s worth watching the video so you can advise the Jeweller as it catches some of them out as well.Above all, enjoy the watch.

I had a Casio Waveceptor watch for many years but lost it when a pin came out of the bracelet. I couldn’t source a replacement at the time because for some reason Casio severely restricts the models available in the UK. So, I bought a Swiss watch without radio setting but never got on with it. I am super pleased with this new Waveceptor. It is light and comfortable to wear and I like to know that it always shows the exact time without me doing anything. The movement is made in Japan but assembly is in China. It comes with the bracelet sized for the Incredible Hulk, so I had to take 6 links out, which was tricky. If you want to do it yourself, I suggest you get one of the full watchmaker’s kits available on Amazon rather than just the pin-pushing tool as I did. There is a video on Youtube that shows the exact method for removing links from a Casio titanium bracelet, or pay a jeweller to do it. Apart from that, it was good to go right out of the box. I just needed to change the city setting from Paris to London following the instructions in the included manual, and it reset to the correct time immediately. It has solar rechargeable battery, stopwatch, countdown timer, and world time functions. So, if you are looking for a light, smart, reliable men’s watch, this is it.

Two main things with this watch: Titanium and TechnologyTitanium:You’re paying more for this exotic metal. You can have the same watch in stainless steel which is cheaper (LCW-M170D-1AER = stainless / LCW-M170TD-1AER = titanium) so what’s the advantage you ask.Weight saving, which translates to wrist comfort. Stainless steel 316L (common watch grade of stainless) is 8.0g per cm3. Whereas pure Titanium is 4.5g per cm3. Although the titanium in watches is usually an alloy as well. Titanium is between 30-45% lighter depending on what alloys you compare. This is my first Ti watch, and I have to say its noticeably lighter and more comfortable on my wrist. Although, this is subjective and some may even compare the weight and feel to a heavier watch and be disappointed. Weight = luxury.Personally though I love the feel, look and lightness of the titanium. It has a dark grey hue and has a slightly more stain look to it over stainless steel (picture for comparison). The only downside I’ve read, which I’ve yet to find out with this watch is scratch resistance. Stainless steel doesn’t scratch nearly as easily as titanium. However, easily scratched usually means easier to polish out.Technology:Initial setup can be intimidating but also rewarding. Download the larger manual from the Casio website, big help. User manual 5161. Then its: 1. Setup the home city (manual section E-12). 2. Request atomic clock sync (E-25) and set to automatic daily sync (E-27). 3. Align the clock fingers (E-64) 4. Play with the other watch features (E-32 towards). There are a lot of features packed into this watch. Once you’ve got the sequence of menus in your memory it becomes easy. I’ve found I am using the features in my daily life. Need a reminder for the evening, set an alarm. Cooking pasta, set a countdown for 18 minutes. Whether this is the novelty of a ‘shiny new watch’ remains to be seen though.Overall:Pros:• Well-made, self-charging, full titanium watch with decent features for just over £200 brand new. Amazing value compared to other watches, which cost more for less.• Accuracy due to the radio atomic syncing. It's on time all the time thanks to daily sync. You can go to the website ‘TIME.IS’ and compare. The watch is to the second, in sync, accurate. If you’re a bit OCD / love precision like me, when this brings such satisfaction.• Elegant. It’s stylish and lovely to look at but it’s also secretly sophisticated due to the hidden features and unusual material. It doesn’t shout too loudly, but it does get attention and opens a conversation when someone asks you about it.• One watch to rule them all. Yes, there are higher-value watch brands out there with similar features, but you’ll pay a lot more. This Casio packs in a lot more than ‘ordinary’ watches and leaves you wondering if you’ll ever need another watch at all.• Titanium, yes, I’ve already used the word numerous times but when I think TI, I think 2,200 mph+ at 85,000 feet+. The SR-71 Blackbird aircraft is 85% Ti. That same stuff is on your wrist!Cons:• The illumination light is an orangey yellow. I was surprised it wasn’t a crisp white LED. Makes this premium watch feel a little less so. Could easily have been white which would have looked more modern and made reading the time by it, easier. Another issue is that the backlight only remains on for 2 seconds at a time. Also, the digital LCD display is not backlit. (picture for comparison).• Strap adjustability requires a watch kit with a punch or pin remover. Fortunately, I already had the kit and experience with adjusting straps. However, Casio used something I hadn’t seen before. Pins with tiny collars that free float in barrels within each link. Be careful, as you can easily lose one of these tiny collars and thus the pin won’t hold when you put the strap back together.• Fell foul of setting the home city to UTC. UTC (Coordinated Universal Time) selection is not linked to an atomic clock frequency, even though UTC is UK time in Winter. I found if you specify UTC as the home city, the automatic atomic setting features won’t work. You need to set the watches home city to LON in the UK and then the atomic sync features will work.• Battery indicator has low, medium, high. Most of the time I’ve seen it on medium. Once on high. A battery percentage indictor would have been useful as well as battery health.• The stopwatch function doesn’t have a lap splitter. It’s just start, stop, resume, or hold to set back to zero.