A glitch in the system...: Ultra rare Casio MD-808 Titanium Diver Illuminator

Ahhh titanium, being in the aerospace and aviation industry I really like this wonder metal. Not only issit strong, but light as well. Used on watches and spectacles it gives ultimate comfort and sometimes you may even forget that you are wearing them.

The stunning Casio MD-808 Titanium illuminator Watch

Recently I was in the hunt for a good casio beater watch. Feeling nostalgic, I didn't just want any casio, I wanted a casio "illuminator" of the 90's. Now wait a minute, whats the difference with the casio illuminator of today? Well today casio uses LEDs for the illumination, although its bright, its usually not very even.

Marble style illuminator, 1/3 the weight of stainless steel

The old illuminator (very much like timex's indiglo) had a cyan colour light and had a " marble stone" like finish and evenly bright across the dial.

So when browsing for a casio on ebay, I stumbled across this good looking Casio Marlin MD-808 watch. The Marlins are usually watches made by casio specifically for sea men, water sports and divers. These watches usually have a Marlin fish logo engraved at the back. Other japanese watches also does this like a dolphin, wave or tsunami logos for the dive watches.

Casio Marlin Logo, Titanium, Serial no. and model number.

Now why do I say this watch is Ultra Rare? well prior to buying any watch I usually do a google search on it wanting to find out what other users think of the watch and when I did, all I found was a link back to the ebay listing that I was watching. If you came here looking for "MD-808" you would probrably find the ebay listing which I won.

Now why do I consider this watch very special? What I like about this watch is:

Watch case and design : The case styling is looks very much like a "Tag". Compared to a quartz tag I would rather get this casio because it has the illuminator funtion. Rated to 200m water resist, lightweight and made from titanium. Casio rarely used titanium for their analogue watches. You would usually find titanium on digital casio watches like the MR-G, Frogman G-shocks and Protrek Triple sensor watches and those are mostly digital. It is very light and comfortable to wear.

Dial : The dial is nice and clean with very nice hour markers that have silver borders. The hands are lumed (not required but just incase the battery runs out on the illuminator) The hour markers are not lumed.

Now no watch is perfect and this watch has its low points. I really wished that this watch had:

1) a bigger size, the small 37mm diameter is a bit small but still the same size as my swatch iron so i guess its okay.

2) a date window. I really wish it had at least a date window. I can live without a day window.

3) A better strap/bracelet. The original bracelet, has folded links and tapers down to a very small 16mm when the lug size is actually 20mm. I have modified it with a more macho 20mm rubber strap.