In the previous post, I mentioned that I prefer to wear ‘dumb’ watches over the weekend, mainly for reasons related to mental health and hygiene.
At that moment, my one and only weekend watch remained a wonderful mechanical piece from Hamilton, Khaki Officer Mechanical, with truly old-school ETA6497 movement originating from pocket watches. I had it for over ten years for sure, wore it exclusively for over half of those years.
They work nice as a weekend watch, or a camping watch, or a city break watch - any environment where I don’t want to bother with notifications and want to focus on ’living in the moment’. The only downside, if I can find any, is that they are rather big and heavy, which is not a big deal for me.
So why is the post named ‘Modding my Casio Royale’ and how did I end up with a second weekend watch?
It all began when I saw a modded Casio AE1200 ‘NASA Royale’ in this Adam Savage’s Tested video. I instantly fell in love with the retro aesthetics, and the fact that it could be easily modded piqued my interest.
Given that the watch costs like a takeaway meal for two (I bought mine for ~40EUR), it was a simple decision to get myself a Casio AE1200 (commonly known as Casio Royale as it resembles the Seiko G757 watch worn by James Bond in one of the movies) and mod it.
I loved it even in the default form - it’s retro, lightweight, and functional (I use the multiple timezone and timer functions all the time).
Still, I wanted to mod it, make it even better!
My modding idea was simple - I wanted a stainless steel case, along with basic de-lettering, all complimented by a leather strap. AE1200 only comes with a resin case, which in one of the options is plated to look like steel, which is not acceptable to me.
There is an impressive number of mods for AE1200/1300 series, mostly from SKXMOD. But I live in Ireland, and they are located in the US, which makes a $100+ steel case even more expensive with the shipping and import taxes.
Solution - AliExpress! Luckily for me, there was a nice stainless steel case with a mineral glass from Jeraland for only 30EUR, including shipping and taxes.
Once it arrived, I did the de-lettering myself. Somehow none of the popular solutions (like alcohol or eraser/rubber) worked, so I resorted to a very fine sanding paper, which made the procedure a bit more involved.
Still nothing complicated, especially compared to the scale modelling I do as a hobby.
Anyway, the result in my opinion looks absolutely superb, and exactly how I wanted.
I removed the ‘10 year battery’, ‘WR100’ and ‘5 Alarms’ text from the faceplate, which helps to achieve a minimalistic yet still very retro look. And with the real stainless steel case and a leather strap, the watch looks much more expensive than it is.
I’m quite happy with the watch and the mod. It’s tailored to my taste and needs, very few people have similar mods, and I did the modifications myself, which adds to the satisfaction.
As a result, now I have a second weekend watch, allowing to choose between more ‘dressier’ and ‘retro 80s’ style.
