Modifying a Casio F-Series Digital Watch (2020)

Summary

39.3K Written by: XEONIQ [Instagram | Tumblr] Contents 1.0 Background / Intro2.0 Clear Screen Modification Guide3.0 Negative Display Modification Guide4.0 Crystal Re-Painting Modification Guide5.0 Styling for Urban Technical Looks 1.0 Background / Intro I’ve always liked the aesthetic of the Casio F series watches. They are lightweight with a slim case making them more subtle to wear than your average G-Shock or metal diving watch. The most famous of the F series line is the F-91W, identified by military intelligence as the calling card of Al-Qaeda time bomb makers. One thing that has always put me off the Casio F series has been the colourful markings on the screen, which to me are well designed on the watch but detract from an overall minimal aesthetic when worn, especially in all black outfits. As someone who ascribes to the Cayce Pollard Unit (CPU’s for short) ideology of brand aversion made famous in William Gibson’s Pattern Recognition, I could not see myself wearing a F series watch with its stock markings. A popular YouTube channel, n-o-d-e, was promoting and selling Casio F91-W’s that were modified with a clear screen, a negative display, a re-painted crystal, and then an LED light upgrade and NFC module. N-o-d-e seems to have discontinued this service but luckily the aesthetic modifications are simple to do at home with just a few tools. I acquired an F-84W YJP for ¥300 ($3) brand new in box for my first watch to try this modification and later a F-94W for ¥500 ($5) for this Shell Guide, both using Zenmarket as a proxy to purchase off Yahoo!JP auctions. This article includes three step-by-step guides on how to do simple aesthetic modifications to any Casio F-Series digital watch. With the popularity of my Instagram post on doing the minimalist mod to a Casio F84-W, I received dozens of messages from people who were modifying their own F Series. However, a few had additional questions or issues in completing the modification, so I felt it would be useful to...