I’ve always had a bad relationship with time. It’s not that I’m bad at keeping appointments, it’s more that I struggle to correctly identify its importance. This manifests itself in two ways – I misjudge how long something with take to complete, and I fritter time away on inane things, effectively letting it slip through my fingers.
It is my hope then, that my recent purchase of a Casio GXS-900 will at least partially improve my ability to view time as an asset. I had been trying to get by with an incredibly clunky Fossil watch, but its functionality is limited to a barely legible timer.
The path to the Casio started with an info-ad in Wired on the Casio GW-400j, an absolutely insane watch of limitless personal metadata, all in a wonderful yellow. Too bad then that it’s a Japanese Import available for $229US—not exactly the amount I wanted to spend. I completely bought into the G-Shock brand though, and set my sights for something available locally.
I went around to all the local department stores, trying on a bunch of G-Shock watches, before finally settling on the GXS-900. It was the cheapest I found, at $45CDN, but was the only watch I found for under $100 with all the features I wanted: Countdown timer, multiple alarms, multitasking. It was also the one that fit the best, the others feeling too big on my wrist. Funny thing is, only after buying it did I realize it was a kids watch. The little animated figure should have been a giveaway.
After the week with it, I’m definitely glad it’s mine—the usual feeling of buyer’s remorse is nowhere to be found, I’m incredibly happy with it. I do have a couple gripes, but they’re minor: the light doesn’t stay on when switching modes, the button to turn the light is inconsistent, my wrist is a half size between holes in the strap.
As to whether the watch will have any effect with me and time, I can’t be sure. I certainly play with it enough, but still find it difficult to remember that it’s on my wrist. I’m sure once I grow used to it, I’ll be forever timing how long it takes me to do everything.
For instance, this post took me 25 minutes.
Does it have a calculator?