Wristwatch Roulette I of XII: R-Shock

Wristwatch Roulette #

As I gazed upon a bustling tub of burgeoning envelopes, my eyes settled on the invitation to a new game.

Welcome to Wristwatch Roulette, where I’ll be furnishing my forearm with two fancy finds a fortnight, from fan-favourite Ali Express, market of choice for my 2023 series Shenzhen Safari, and 2024 series Shenzhen Sojourn.

R-Shock: Proving red and green should never be seen is a terrible rule of style/thumb #

Can you imagine my delight at opening my first Wristwatch Roulette envelope to this bizarre timepiece.

A shiny, jelly-feeling strap that is oh-so comfortable and non-sweat reactive.

A case so large that the display swallows a “Casioak” body.

Diamond-textured push-buttons with tactile, resistant, but pleasingly spongy action.

It looks good and is worth every penny of the less than THREE POUNDS asking price, based on daytime looks alone.

Light up my life #

But what’s this? Long-pressing the light button changes the colour of the backlight!? And there’s seven colours, plus a fast-pulsing Disco mode. Wow.

This has to be seen to be believed, but the photos do a pretty good job. Look at the sharp, legible and gorgeous depth of these greens, ambers, pinks, and blues.

Each so bright, clear, and legible.

Sounds like Assertion #

A pleasant feature of most digital watches is the hourly chime/signal/bee-beeb. From the 14th century, time has been kept by the mechanised chiming bells. Indeed, the hammer and gong was miniaturised into pocket-watch format in the 16th century and wrist-watch format from the late 19th/early 20th century. In the elite world of luxury 1,000+ piece mechanical wrist-watches, hammer and gong persist resoundly, with ear-splittingly luxuiously pitched pricing. Read more about that here

But the bee-beep affordable Casio has been torturing folks for decades. And the R-Shock has an interesting take on the hourly signal repeating chime. No waspy, needy bee-beep here. Just a single, low-timbre, definitive, sweeping monotonic beeeeep.

Regal, Red, Rex, R-SHOCK #

Might is right. And what could be more right than the shining red beacon of horology. A strong double-toothed buckle, secures the R-Shock to your wrist. You know the day and time at a glance. Each hour is gravely and respectfully intoned. Surely the R-SHOCK belongs in every Johnny-come-watch-enthusiasts collection. A priceless artifact of design ingenuity.

Priceless…yet yours for less than £3 ($5).

Fund my expensive taste in watches; get your R-SHOCK here,
or click here to emotionally impoverish me further by non-affiliation link.

• Read the next post: “Wristwatch Roulette II of XII: Robocwatch”
• Read the previous post: “Discarded. Unloved. (Happy Ending.)”
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