How Old Is My Casio Mtd-1045 Watch
The Casio A158W, looking great on my hairy wrist.Scott Stein/CNETHere's a retro tale for you: I wear a watch again. To be more specific, I wear a Casio digital watch, the. Sporting an aluminum wristband, beeping buttons that can't be deactivated, a chronometer, and a cheesy green microlight-no fancy backlighting for you-it's a carbon copy of '80s wrist fashion. I got it at Duane Reade on my street corner for $20.For a while, I tried to go without a watch. It's been commonly written lately that watches are passe, having been replaced entirely by cell phones. After my last watch's wristband broke, I tried to go phone-only for the time.
How Old Is My Casio Mtd-1045 Watch Bands
I'd worn a watch for so long that my wrist had developed a permanent tan line. My left wrist is even slightly thinner from years of watch-wearing. It's a little scary (but not as scary as the hair that sprouts from my arms like fur).One problem: I have a baby. And I live in a city with no car. Every morning, I commute with a baby strapped to my front and a backpack on my back as I head to daycare before work.
Reaching for a phone in my pocket to tell the time is not just difficult, it's dangerous.I got the Casio because I realized that practically no stores sell watches anymore. The few I found were high-end retailers, and so I settled for the local Duane Reade, where an embarrassingly lost-in-time selection of watches lay trapped in a white plastic display. Rather than go halfway with a cheapo brand or modern digital, I went whole hog by picking the most ridiculous throwback in the display, a model that looks like it could actually have been in the store since 1984.The watch is, in fact, a current model, created for its retro classic appeal. (Casio's own site doesn't list this particular model, but does have the very similar.) And you know what? The numbers are nice and large, the glare is minimal, and the microlight is low enough to not wake up my kid when he's going to sleep.Do you wear a watch? If so, what do you sport?
If not, what would get you to wear one? I say the retro watch needs a comeback.
Leave that phone in your pocket where it belongs.
How old is my watch? This is probably the most common question watch collectors have. Sometimes it is easy to answer, and sometimes it is impossible. The reason: There have been a lot of watch manufacturing companies that have come and gone over the years. Many have gone out of business, while others destroyed records to save space.
Some companies (as with the Gruen Watch Company), even lost rocords to fire or other natural disaster. The companies are not to blame. I am sure they had no idea that their timepieces would someday be collected. There are several ways to get an idea of when your watch was made. You will notice that there are many numbers stamped at various locations inside and outside your watch. They all mean different things.
(See my section on to learn how to get inside your watch). With the exception of BULOVA, the numbers on the inside and outside of the CASE ITSELF are ONLY for identification purposes - they mean nothing.
The number you need is the serial number stamped on the MOVEMENT (i.e the inner workings). Write this number down and compare it to the charts on this website. This will give a good idea of the manufacture date. It will NOT tell you the actual date the watch was acquired. Many watches spent years in warehouses before being sold.
Keep this in mind. In the 1930's there was a style change from highly engraved cases to smoother cleaner lines. Notice that the watches from the early 1930's still have engraved cases. By the late 1930's mens watches were more masculine. Thin tank watches became fashionable. This was made possible by the advent of square movements.
Until then all movements were round, limiting the designs. The Bulova and Hamilton stepped cases shown here on the left are a perfect example of this. Men were preferring tank watches, however only round movements were available, therefore the case was stepped to accomodate the movement and make the watch APPEAR to be square.