Casio AQ-321 Ana Digi Watch (Module 309)

18/10/2023

Hello fellow Casio Watch enthusiasts from around the World.

I hope you are all well.

In this post, I will be showing you my old, battered, bent and scratched Casio AQ-321. The watch also suffers (as many of these watches do) with an inaccuracy of the mechanical hands. The problem is, the mechanical hands run about 2 seconds a day slower than the LCD part. It may not seem a lot, but over time (yes obviously) the gap increases constantly. However, that doe's not bother me as I love this little watch. I say little as it is quite a small piece even on my small wrist. I would say about the size of a Casio F-91W only a lot thicker and heavier. 

Ana-Digi (analogue & digital display) watches and their history.

I have been a lover of the Ana-Digi watches since their release in the 1980's, especially the Casio versions. All the major watch manufacturers had an Ana-Digi watch in their collections such as Seiko, Limit International, Citizen, Lorus, Timex, Alba, Pulsar and even some higher end Swiss watch makers. Each manufacturer made, will have made hundreds of thousands of these types of watches and most of them were very expensive at that time. For example, an Ana-Digi Seiko model would have cost around £250 in the 1980's. Whereas a Casio equivalent would be a maximum of £60, therefore it makes sense, Casio would have sold many more units than Seiko. Bearing this in mind, the owners of the Seiko watches would have cared for the watch and looked after it, whereas the Casio owner would not be as motivated to look after the watch because it was cheap and could easily be replaced. 

I was led to the above conclusion when I started collecting Casio Ana-Digi watches. You would naturally think, because Casio sold more watches, there would be many, many second hand examples still to be found on the market. That is not the case my friends. The fact of the matter is, there are very few vintage Casio examples on the market, whereas for example there are many Seiko or Citizen Ana-Digi watches still available to be purchased. They are still expensive, but their build, materials used and quality are far beyond that of Casio. 

With the conspiracy theory and small history lesson over, let us look at my battered old 

AQ-321, that is in the picture above. As I said, I have loved the Casio Ana-Digi watches, and I bought the watch from an online auction site back in 2017 and paid £16.00 for it. It didn't look as clean as it does now as I have deep cleaned as much as a dare on the watch. As you can see the glass has some deep scratches, the strap has a bend in it and the back case seal is missing. I did polish out a lot of the scratches from the glass but it really needs replacing. It also needs a rear seal, but again these parts are difficult to find. 

Again when the watch arrived, inside it was missing the battery compartment screw, battery holder, rear seal and the main plastic spacer/battery insulator. The battery was held in place with some sticking tape. After complaining to the seller, he kindly gave me a full refund. I then found a really smashed up 

AQ-340 on EBay for £4.50 and used it for parts. The only thing my AQ-321 needs now is a rear seal. Beyond the rear seal, I would like to replace the bent strap and the scratched glass.

Other than the aesthetics of the watch, it is a fully functional example. All the buttons work perfectly as does the alarm, chime, stop watch and all the LCD segments are highly visible.

I also replaced the battery of the AQ-321 in February 2023 at the same time as my AQ-340. Both watches have the same module and therefore use the same battery, which is an AG-3. I obviously replaced the batteries with Duracell, which have a great reputation for not leaking. The yellow arrow is pointing to the AQ-340 and show's the raised glass from the bezel. The green arrow is pointing at the AQ-321 and show's the glass is flush to the bezel. There is a definite difference to the shape of the watch face, of which I like and defines them apart. Other than that, the watches functions are identical. BTW, my AQ-340, is in very good condition, and has none of the issues of the AQ-321. The AQ-340's mechanical and digital displays are in perfect time, it has a real seal and all it's internal components are present. Happy days! 

Finding the parts for the AQ-321 will be a long process, if not impossible but I will keep trying. But in the meantime, I will show you the functions of the watch and why I love the Casio AQ-300 range rather than the AQ-200 range. It's a tiny difference but it is very important for all my Ana-Digi watches.

I will now go away and corelate all you want to know about the Casio AQ-321.

Please stay tuned for the rest of this post. I will update ASAP!

Thanks for reading Guys!

Casiotribe.com 2023

18/10/2023