Casio A158 Vs A168: Clash Of The Retro Titans!

In this week’s Vs, we are comparing the Casio A158 Vs A168. Both of these watches capture the retro look that was popular in Casio watches during the 80’s and 90’s. Well Casio, ended up bringing this retro style back!

This led to an increased interest and new appreciation for these styles, as it brought back older customers who liked the styles in the past, and new younger customers who were not already acquainted with these styles.

So whether you’re old enough to remember these styles from before, or you are a newcomer to Casio’s retro style, I’m sure you can appreciate the modern take on the retro look. Speaking of, we recently did a review of the highly popular retro inspired Casio W86, which you can check out here.

Anyway, there are 2 watches that gained popularity among the retro line: the A158, and the A168. In this comparison, we are going to take a look at these two watches, to see if we can determine, once and for all, which one is the better Casio retro styled watch!


Casio A158 Vs A168

If it’s not already obvious from the numbering of these two watches, the A158 was the first one to release, followed later on by the A168. So the question is, if you already have the A158, is it worth upgrading to the A168?

Or better yet, if you don’t own either one of these Casio watches, which one should you get? Well we’re here to help answer those questions!

We’re going to compare these two watches side by side looking at the design, functions, and pricing of these two watches to see which one has the edge.


Design

These watches both feature a digital display, and use quartz (battery powered) movement. The overall design is pretty simplistic. They are both silver, and each of them sports a resin case, and stainless steel band. The bands on each of them have the chain link design. Even the clasp to secure the watch, is the same on both of these. The buttons are located in the same places as well.

Now the A158 is ever so slightly smaller than the A168, but not enough to make a reasonable difference. The A158 is 33mm in diameter, and 8.5mm thick, while the A168 is 35mm in diameter and 9.8mm thick. You really don’t see much noticeable difference in appearance until you look at the watch face. It is here, that you will notice that the A168 has more colorful, text on the front.

This may be a downside to some. Personally, I prefer the more low profile nature of the text on the watch face of the A158 versus the loud bright text on the A168. But for many, this may not be much of an issue.

The A158 has pretty dull looking text, that just describes the watch functions. The A168, on the other hand, has bright, texts that pops, and is easy to see. Like the A158, the text on the A168 also describes its functions, but it emphasizes the fact that it is an “ElectroLuminescence” “Illuminator” (more on that later).

So we’ve seen that any differences in the appearances of these watches are superficial at best. But what about functions? We’ll take a look at that next.

Functions

Both of these watches are water resistant enough for splashes and rain, but I wouldn’t recommend swimming with them, or otherwise submerging them in water. Aside from that each of these watches have the same basic features.

They both have a 12 hour and 24 hour time format. They have a day and date calendar, as well as an alarm. Both watches also have a 1/100 second stopwatch, which is great for lap times in sporting events.

The next feature we will look at is the one that is actually different between the two watches.

The backlight is the distinguishing factor between the Casio A158 vs A168. As we have already mentioned, the A168 has text describing its “ElectroLuminescenece”. And it is described as an “Illuminator”. Well this is for good reason.

The backlight on the A168 is noticeably brighter than the A158. While the A158 has a dull, hard to see backlight, the A168 is bright, vibrant, and really pops at night or in dark settings. It really stands out against other Casio watches that do not have this electroluminescence feature.

Price

So the next question is, what are the price differences? Well Casio has a reputation for producing inexpensive watches. That reputation is on full display here, as both watches are around the same price.

These are bargain bin prices that shouldn’t set you back much, and could fit into just about any budget.

And on that note, let’s take a look at the key points we’ve learned from these two watches.


Casio A158 Vs A168: Key Points

A158

  • subtly smaller than the A168
  • text on the watch face is low profile and doesn’t stand out much
    • backlight a bit dull and dim
  • dirt cheap

A168

  • subtly larger than the A158
    • text on the watch face is loud and vibrant
  • backlight bright and luminous
  • dirt cheap

Casio A158 Vs A168: Final Conclusion

So what is the verdict then? Which watch is better? I would have to say that, since both watches are extremely inexpensive and about the same price, it really just comes down to a couple of factors.

What it really comes down to is the bright text on the A168. As I stated earlier, I’m not a fan of that, compared to the less prominent text on the A158. However, I do like the backlight of the A168 vs the A158, so there is a tradeoff here.

If I was only going to get one or the other though, I would go with the A168, for the backlight. The brighter text is a bit off putting, but not really a huge deal. The backlight is a big deal though, to me.

So if you were going to pick only one of these, then it would be up to you to decide which of these factors is most important.

And that wraps up our comparison of the Casio A158 vs 168! I hope you enjoyed this comparison. And if you want, you can check out some more of our Vs comparisons here.

Please follow and like us:

Leave a Comment