Casio Duro Review | The Legendary Affordable Dive Watch
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Whatever you collect, there are usually a few choice items that every enthusiast either has or wishes to have one day. For us watch collectors, I think I can say it is usually a basic Casio G-Shock and the Rolex Submariner, respectively.
Since many of us aren’t too keen on wearing $20,000 on our wrist, never mind out in the world, we usually look elsewhere for a similar budget-friendly aesthetic as an alternative to the more expensive pieces. Don’t get me wrong, you can always have your expensive watch, but I think it compares to the collector car you only drive on the occasional clear, warm day, while the daily driver must do regular combat with the rain, snow, salt, potholes, mud, and whatever else.
For dive watches, most offerings from Seiko are usually our budget conscious choice for a years-long daily wearer, but if you’re not even keen on wearing $300, there’s still hope. For a tough, daily dive-style beater watch, how does $50 sound? In this small bracket, Casio has offered the “Duro” or MDV106, sometimes also referred to as the “Marlin”. With several colorways being offered, it will certainly give the aesthetic of the classic diver, while not merely copying any other watch.
Finding faults with a mostly original and certainly capable dive watch at such a consistently low price was definitely a challenge, but I’ve done my best. So please keep in mind, this is not a piece that competes “in specifications” with many ISO-rated dive watches from more expensive brands, but it certainly offers you far beyond what $50 buys you elsewhere. Conversely, you can buy a much less capable piece for much more money.
That is what makes this Casio special. It is “basically free” for the capability and build quality you receive. As dive watches go, you’ll find this piece to be one of the most sensible and practical choices you can find and even though it is cheap, it doesn’t mean it will fall apart. I believe the overarching and foremost design theme of this piece is “trouble-free functionality”, which seems to be working out for Casio since this model has been selling well for many years.
Availability
Another plus of this piece is its availability. Almost every online retailer has this model in stock. You can even still find them in department stores and at mall kiosks. Sometimes when a branch location of Walmart or Target decides to move or close their jewelry/watch counter to make space for other products, you can find this piece at a clearance price. Recently, the Mad Watch Collector’s Facebook feed even showed these on sale for $11 at a lucky viewer’s Walmart. I believe he bought several to simply give away to friends and family. This particular piece I’m reviewing was bought directly from Amazon.com for ($48 USD) with free prime delivery.
Amazon and other retailers also carry a series of other colorways with the same stainless steel case, which are:
Black dial / bezel, red seconds hand (the model I’m reviewing)
Black gold gilt dial / black gold gilt bezel, all gold hands
CONSTRUCTION
The case is constructed of solid 316L stainless steel throughout. For $50 you’d expect a cupronickel case, which Timex is perpetually guilty of, but no. Finishing on this Casio is also very good, with mirror-polished sides and beveled upper edges.
The top of the case is a very fine and consistent linear, top-to-bottom brushing. Amongst the underside, you’ll find a circular brushing from the edge of the case continuing to a matching circular pattern upon the screw down case back. Out of the supplied box, having found no knicks or inconsistencies in the case finish, it certainly holds its own on the finishing front.
The case does not feel cheap or rushed through production. It’s evident that all the parts and pieces of this model are not simply stamped by a machine and then dumped via a conveyor into a giant parts bin but seem to be “worked individually” and kept isolated on a parts board during production. Too often in this price bracket, we find parts with knicks or scratches on them which is an indicator of having “tumbled” through production. Well done, Casio!
The screw down case back is unassuming and gives a flat feel without sacrificing the usual information we watch collectors need to see. I cannot tell if the information is stamped into the case or engraved, but I found it to be legible and very evenly applied.
In the center is the trademark Marlin, lending to this model’s niche customer to be the dive watch buyer. Though I can’t say I’ve ever seen an actual marlin while diving. Beneath the trophy fish, you’ll find printed “CASIO, Japan Mov’t, Cased in China”. Around the edges of the case back is printed “Stainless Steel, Water Resistant 20 Bar, 2784, MDV-106”. One element of the design that some of us may find to be a bit of a turn-off is the size. It’s bordering on too big. Maybe too big for those of us with a wrist under 7-inch wrist.
The case diameter comes in at a substantial 44mm (47.25 with crown), with a lug-to-lug sizing of 49.3mm. But the case height is only 12.4mm, which makes the sizing of this piece more tolerable and not top-heavy. Speaking of tolerable, the weight is also a mere 93 grams, which is largely due to the quartz movement that resides inside the case, plus the lightweight rubber strap.
Sadly, I couldn’t find any information about this piece being ISO-rated for diving, so I’m going to assume it is not, although the build quality and features are certainly there.
MOVEMENT
Yes, the movement is quartz. As some of us already know, you can’t obtain a decent watch equipped with a reliable mechanical movement without spending at least ~$85, and that’s usually for a poor-quality automatic movement from a questionable source. But that’s part of the charm of this Casio. It doesn’t pretend to be expensive. It only promises to keep accurate time without a fuss. Bill Gates can attest to this. He’s been wearing this exact watch for YEARS.
Inside this piece is the well-tested Casio 2784 quartz module which claims -/+ 20 per month and a battery life about approximately 3 years. The movement is basic, with a standard 3-hands analog display, plus a date indicator at the 3’o’clock position.
When needed, battery changes shouldn’t be difficult with the screw down case back and the easily obtainable SR626SW battery. Just make sure the case back gasket isn’t mangled when you close the case back up. After a few weeks, I find this movement to be off by only a couple seconds. I was also very happy to receive a piece in which the seconds hand hit all the minute marks, albeit only a few ticks were slightly off-center. Certainly a welcome sight for someone who will shy away from budget quartz watches because the seconds hand alignment is usually very bad at this price point.
This is also being very picky, but I’ve noticed the seconds hand does not show any “bounce back” with each tick like other watches will (Timex, again). The seconds hand moves sure and solid and stops where it is supposed to.
CRYSTAL
Fortunately, you get an actual mineral crystal instead of an inferior acrylic material, lending further to this model’s capability as a capable tool watch. The crystal is simple, flat and clear with no distortion at the edges. I don’t believe there is any application of anti-reflective undercoating on the crystal, but it’s not a deal breaker for how basic this watch is.
The space between the crystal and the dial is also just right, without the need to look down “into” the watch. So the crystal may be basic, but it doesn’t inhibit your ability to quickly read the time at a glance.
Bezel & Crown
The aluminum bezel insert is basic as well. Although, it is the same style and format as the Rolex Submariner with the same aluminum-on-black font for 10-minute increments and “per minute” tick marks from 1 to 15. But Casio isn’t the first to offer a bezel insert in this well-recognized format and most certainly won’t be the last.The bezel insert does have a mildly raised luminous pip at the 12’o’clock position as seen of almost all dive style watches. Although the style of this bezel insert may not exactly be original, it’s certainly classic looking, which helps this piece blend in with any attire.
The uni-directional action of this bezel is a surely seated 120-clicks with only a very subtle degree of back play. Alignment of this bezel is spot on; better than some other pieces costing multiples more. The actual bezel ring is polished to match the sides of the case. The knurling is what you could call “medium” with the ability to turn the bezel easily with bare or wet hands, but it is not sharp or super-grippy. Just right.
As this piece possess a water resistance of 200 meters, you’ll find the crown is screw down style as well. As with the bezel, the polished crown, which sits at the classic 3’o’clock position, has just the right amount of grip for everyday use. But being a reliable quartz, you’ll rarely need to manipulate the crown unless to adjust the date as needed. The crown is well protected with integrated crown guards built into the case. The crown also sits low and almost flush with the tops of the crown guards, so they won’t dig into your wrist.
DIAL Design
In keeping with the rest of the watch, the dial is basic but nicely finished. With a brushed sunburst finish emanating out from the pinion, it catches the light in a pleasing manner while outdoors and indoors.
The applied lumed-filled indices are finished with silver borders. The 12’o’clock position has a flared, double-stick design. The 6 and 9’o’clock have single stick indices. The 3’o’clock has a half-stick indice to make room for the date window in order to maintain the symmetry of the dial. Classic circular indices are found at all the remaining hour marks.
As alluded to, the date window isn’t intrusive upon the dial, has a subtle white border around it, and exhibits a basic black lettering upon the white date wheel. The date display window sizing seems a little small for this dial, but the dial symmetry is kept intact nonetheless. One plus of the date function is that it snaps to the next date right at midnight. It doesn’t “crawl” to next day as the hands move between midnight and 3am.
The white printing upon the dial is also subtle. Between the pinion and the 12’o’clock position is printed “CASIO” in the sterile, trademark font. Between the pinion and 6’o’clock position is the printed marlin logo synonymous with this watch. Just below the marlin is printed WR 200M in a Garamond-style font (very small). Even smaller is printed at the 6’o’clock edge of the dial “JAPAN MOV’T”. I’m glad Casio didn’t go overboard and try to oversell this watch by printing too much info on the dial, for it keeps the classic look intact.
From further reading I’ve done, it seems the marlin logo on the dial is going to be discontinued in the newer models. Personally, I hope they keep it, as it lends to the unique dial and look. The chapter ring between the crystal and dial has a modest thickness and a subtle white mark for each minute. Said marks are double weighted at each 5-minute increment/indice.
HANDS & LUME
The silver metallic hands are aptly-sized and legible as well as matching with the finish of the indices. With the larger dial, large hands are an absolute must. For configuration, you’ll find a sword-style hour hand with a thin fence-style minute hand. The silver seconds hand is an arrow-end with red finish on the front end. With indices that are equally sized, the whole dial comes together with all the elements complementing each other without any single aspect standing out of place. But it's not all good news.
Yes, we have to mention the lume, or almost total lack of it. For $50, I guess you don’t get strong lume that lasts more than about 50 seconds. Green glowing when charged up, it vanishes almost immediately. By the ten minute mark, the lume is completely gone. Normally with a more expensive dive watch, the lume will last a strong 20 minutes, with fleeting but adequate legibility thereafter.
In our opinion, this Casio does not offer adequate lume for what it appears to be. A real pity because this watch is a winner in almost every other respect. If Casio went the extra mile and re-formulated their lume on this piece, it would be more than worth the money. I’d even be so bold as to say I’d pay an extra $10 if I knew this lume was going to be competitive with my other watches. So even though this watch looks the part, you’ll be disappointed if you take this watch camping or night fishing. I hope Casio is listening.
BRACELET
The 22mm rubber dive strap is basic, but comfortable. It has adequate and subtle ventilation which lays flat against your wrist. I didn’t find that it had any stiffness that would create any uncomfortable hot-spots on your skin. For those of you who already have a basic G-Shock, you’ll find this strap exhibits the same flexibility, but a slightly softer feel. In short, it’s rubbery, not plasticy and will definitely hold up to everyday abuse.
The stainless steel, polished buckle is also basic and nearly the same as on the G-Shock 5600 line. But unlike the G-Shock, the buckle on this piece doesn’t clash with the actual watch. The strap-end keeper also stays in place nicely. So as with the rest of the watch, the theme of this strap is utility.
PACKAGING & WARRANTY
As with most Casio watches under $50, you get the standard, thin blue cardboard box with the plastic display stand. As a added bonus, you get instructions and a tag…. The packaging is destined for the bin, not the collector’s pile.
Casio also includes a 1-year warranty, but unless some major and unlikely defect in manufacturing has occurred, you won’t need it.
The Good
Classic look
Solid materials with good finishing
200 WR is always a plus
Dependable and accurate quartz movement
Value for money is unbeatable and vastly available
Potential strap-monster
The Bad
The lume is bad. Very bad.
May be too big for wrists under 7 inches