Timex and Casio are both answers to the same question — what is the most watch you can get for very little money — and they answer it in almost opposite ways. Casio's instinct is to add function and armour: digital modules, 200m ratings, resin cases built to be dropped. Timex's instinct is to subtract until only a legible analog dial is left. That is why the two brands rarely make the same watch, and why the decision between them is usually a decision about what kind of object you want on your wrist.
Analog or digital: pick this first
Casio's best work is digital. The DW-5600 square and the F-91W are the two most recognisable cheap watches ever made, and both are digital modules in resin. Casio does make analog watches — the MTP-S120L solar on this page is one — but the brand's reputation rests on the digital line. Timex's best work is analog: the Expedition Scout, the Weekender, the Expedition North. If you already know you want hands rather than a readout, Timex is where you should be looking, and the digital argument is covered separately on best digital watches.
Water resistance: Casio, by a distance
This is the least close row on the page. The DW-5600 is rated 200m. The Casio Duro, the brand's famous cheap diver, is also 200m with a screw-down crown. The Timex Expedition Scout is 50m and the Weekender is 30m. Timex closes the gap only with the Expedition North Field Post Solar, which is 100m with a screw-down crown and caseback — a genuinely good spec, at a higher price. If the watch is going in water regularly, Casio wins at every price under a hundred dollars. What the ratings actually mean is on watch water resistance explained.
Reading it in the dark: INDIGLO against a backlight
Timex's INDIGLO lights the entire dial from behind at the press of a button, which is still, decades on, the most useful night-reading system on any cheap analog watch — better in practice than the luminous paint on watches costing ten times as much. Casio's digital models light the display rather than a dial, and on the newer LED generation they do it brightly. Both beat lume. If you want to understand why luminous paint disappoints people, what is lume on a watch explains the charge-and-decay curve.
The strap question nobody mentions
This is the difference that matters most on a site built around straps, and it decides the comparison for a lot of people. The Timex watches take standard straps. The Expedition Scout and the Expedition North are 20mm, the most common lug width there is, so every leather, canvas, nylon and mesh strap we rank fits them. The G-Shock does not. The DW-5600 has no lug width at all: the resin band slots into the case on a proprietary fitting, and there is no standard strap on this site that fits it. The Casio MTP-S120L analog is the exception — it is 22mm and plugs straight into the drawer.
If part of the appeal of a cheap watch is changing its character for twenty dollars, that rules out the square G-Shock before any other spec is considered. Start at the watch lug width chart to see which watches take what.
Toughness and finishing
Casio wins toughness outright; that is the whole design brief of a G-Shock, and the resin case that makes it survivable is the same resin case that makes it informal. Timex cases are steel, plainer, and more likely to pass as a serious watch with a shirt. Up close, neither brand finishes a case to the standard of a Seiko, and neither pretends to. You are buying function per dollar from both.
The verdict
Casio for the beater: anything wet, rough, outdoors or at work. Timex for the watch you want to look at: analog, restrappable, 20mm, and at home under a sleeve. If you can only own one cheap watch and you cannot decide, the tiebreaker we would use is the strap — the Timex becomes four different watches for the price of three straps, and the G-Shock stays a G-Shock.
The model-level questions
If the shortlist is already down to two watches, these settle it: Timex Expedition vs Weekender for the cheap Timex pair, and the DW-5600 review or the GA-2100 review for the two G-Shocks worth owning.
Both brands in full
Our rankings are best Timex watches and best Casio watches. If the budget can stretch past either brand, Seiko vs Timex is the next comparison up, and best watches under $200 ranks everything in this price range together regardless of badge.
What we are not claiming
We have not dropped a G-Shock or swum with a Timex. Every number above is a published manufacturer specification for the listing linked, and the spec table shows a dash where a figure could not be verified — the DW-5600 has no lug width because it genuinely has none, not because we failed to find it. Our method is on how we review.
