I don’t mean people who genuinely collect Casios, grew up with them, or simply like cheap digital watches.

I’m talking about the very specific watch-enthusiast ritual where someone with a five-figure collection feels compelled to tell everyone that their F-91W is actually one of their favourite watches.

Casio makes fantastic watches. They’re cheap, reliable, iconic and often objectively better at telling the time than the mechanical watches we obsess over.

But I suspect a lot of the exaggerated Casio worship in enthusiast circles is basically anti-snobbery as a form of snobbery.

“Look at me. I own expensive watches, but I’m enough of a REAL watch guy to appreciate a $20 Casio.”

At some point, conspicuously loving the cheapest possible watch becomes its own kind of flex.

Hot take: plenty of watch nerds don’t love Casio nearly as much as they love what liking Casio says about them.