The humble Casio F91W has been an iconic watch since it was first made in Japan back in 1989. Upon its release, it was sold for around $20 making it one of the world’s first affordable digital watches. Today, Casio still produces over 3 million of the F-91W every year.
The Casio F91W is known for its resilience. Run it over with a car, smash it with a hammer, drop it in boiling or ice-cold water; the damn thing won’t die.
Watches tell a story and man o man the Casio F-91W has one hell of a story, or should we say reputation. Not only is the Casio F-91W an iconic digital watch, but it’s also referred to by some as the ‘terrorist watch.’ Here’s why.
What Watch Did Osama Bin Laden Wear?
While Casio evolved further into ruggedized watches through its iconic Casio G-Shock line, the F91W remained the true battlefield watch throughout modern warfare. Aside from the iconic weapons of its time, the Casio F-91W is the only branded accessory that Osama bin Laden was ever seen wearing in the open.
Al-Qaeda was reported to hand these watches out to recruits at their terror training camps across Afghanistan and Pakistan throughout the 1990s and early 2000s. Thus, it was al-Qaeda and bin Laden who arguably started the “terrorist watch” trend surrounding the Casio F91W.
During the height of the Global War on Terror, it didn’t take long for the US government to spot the prevalence of the Casio F91W among terrorists. In 2011, Wikileaks released a document labeled the “Matrix of Threat Indicators for Enemy Combatants” which was intended to assist staff at Guantanamo decide which detainees are more likely to carry out suicide attacks.
According to the document, wearing an F-91W was the biggest indicator of a serious terror suspect alongside ownership of a sat phone, a radio, and large quantities of cash.
However, this wasn’t just paranoia on our part. Other documents released by Wikileaks revealed that around a third of the inmates being held at Guantanamo were captured with an F-91W on their wrist and had a known correlation with explosives. The F-91W watch appeared over 150 times in the piles of leaked Guantanamo prisoner assessments.
It’s not just Jihadist terrorist groups that wear the watch. Subcomandante Marcos, who led the Zapatista National Liberation Army (EZLN) in Mexico was pictured in an iconic photo on horseback while smoking a pipe and wearing, you guessed it!
Why Do Terrorists Use Casio Watches?
The Casio F-91W is not only the terrorist’s timepiece of choice due to its ruggedness and reliability. Due to its long-lead timer, it also doubles as a bomb-making accessory for various terror groups around the world from Afghanistan to Chechnya.
Deadly usage of the watch has been well documented through various case studies.
According to US intelligence officials, the watch doubles as a bomb timer as its alarm can be set beyond a 24-hour period.
In 1994, Ramzi Yousef used a Casio F91W to blow-up Philippine Airlines flight 434. Luckily the explosion didn’t destroy the plane, allowing it to be safely landed in Japan. However, the watch proved to be brutally effective at remotely detonating bombs.
Al Qaida began handing them out at training camps across Pakistan, including Murad who would test the device on a packed theatre in Manila in 1994.
In September 1999, a series of bombs were detonated inside four Russian apartment buildings in the cities of Moscow, Volgodonsk, and Buinaksk. The blasts killed 367 people and injured over 1,000 others.
Russian investigators concluded that the attackers had been trained in terror camps being run by Ibn al-Khattab inside Chechnya which had recently gained unstable independence following the First Chechen War.
Investigations carried out inside Chechnya discovered that the bombs used in the attacks were comprised of ammonium nitrate and aluminum powder, with plastic serving as an intermediate explosive.
The detonator? A combination of a Krona battery and a Casio F-91W.
Casio F-91W Specs
- Diameter: 34mm
- Depth: 8.5mm
- Lug to lug: 38mm
- Weight: 20g
- Water resistance: 30m
- Movement: Casio digital 593
- Case material: Resin
- Lug width: 18mm
- Warranty: 2 years
- Price: ~$20
While this watch prioritizes function over form, the F-91W is an absolute essential for the watch enthusiast. Whether as a first watch or just as a cheap daily beater; there are many reasons why this watch has legendary status.
In Conclusion
If there’s one thing that’s to be said for international terrorists, they know a thing or two about choosing reliable products for waging war. The F-91W joined the ranks of other terrorist accessories like the Kalashnikov and the Toyota technical because it’s common man priced, solid, and reliable. Add to that, the battery life, which is an astonishing 7 years!
Guardian News reached out to the PR department of Casio hoping for a statement on the widespread use of the F-91W by global terror groups. All they got was a generic response: “Casio is not making any further comment on the F-91W watch at this point in time.” Ouch…
So there you have it. The iconic Casio F-91W digital watch! If you want to own a piece of weird watch history, you can pick one up on Amazon for around $17.
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I just read your blog post about the Casio F91W watch, and I have to say, it was a fascinating read. I had no idea that this seemingly innocuous watch could have such a controversial and dangerous reputation.
Your thorough research and analysis of the various ways in which this watch has been linked to terrorism and espionage were particularly enlightening. It’s incredible to think that something as small as a watch could have played such a significant role in global conflicts and intelligence operations.
I appreciate how you presented both sides of the argument and allowed readers to form their own opinions about the watch’s potential dangers. It’s important to consider all perspectives and not jump to conclusions based on limited information.
After reading your blog post about the Casio F91W watch, I must say, it was very interesting. It never occurred to me that a seemingly innocuous watch could have such an unsavory reputation. Your thorough investigation and analysis of how this watch has been implicated in terrorism and espionage were particularly insightful. The role a watch played in global conflicts and intelligence operations is astounding to think about. In your article, you presented both sides of the argument and asked readers to form their own opinions about the watch’s potential dangers