Buy my kid a watch

September 8, 2012 1:23 PM

I would like to get a watch for my 10 year old with the following specifications:

1) Fairly easy to read and use. She had a watch with no numbers printed on it and that was very complicated to program and she couldn't understand or use it.

2) Cute as defined by a 10 year old girl.

3) Has alarms, preferably more than one. She's very spacey and she thought a watch with alarms and/or a timer feature would help her to remember to do certain tasks.

Thanks for your help hive mind, I'm useless at shopping.

posted by latkes to Clothing, Beauty, & Fashion (7 answers total)

I liked Swatch watches when I was that age, and I believe they are making a comeback. They tend to be old-school/analog style rather than digital, but a lot of their models have easy-to-read numbers, at least. They're available in a ton of different styles, many of which are very cute-as-determined-by-tweens.

The only thing is the alarm. Some of them might have alarms, but the Swatch schtick is very simple, stripped down, and analog, so I'm not sure.

They're also waterproof to 10 meters (possibly deeper nowadays?) and pretty much indestructable.
posted by Sara C. at 1:28 PM on September 8, 2012

The womens's timex ironman watches are pretty indestrutrable and easy to use. I've only gone through 4 since I was your daughters age or so (20+ years ago) and I've worn one almost everyday in that timespan. They've all had big digits, multiple alarms, waterproof, etc. Not sure about the cute factor, but I'd check amazon to see if there's anything there she'd like.
posted by cgg at 1:47 PM on September 8, 2012

I don't have a clue what a ten-year-old girl thinks is cute, but the Casio Baby-G line of watches might also be worth looking at.
posted by box at 4:48 PM on September 8, 2012

Seconding Casio Baby-G or Timex Ironman. Both are insanely durable, usually have timer/alarm functionality, and are super-legible. As for cuteness, I'm not sure . . . maybe it's time for a shopping trip with your daughter?
posted by tellumo at 6:06 PM on September 8, 2012

The swatches my kids have had all got damaged within 1-2 years, and weren't worth repairing. They're very pretty with cute designs, but rarely have alarms/timers. I've also bought cheap $10 cartoon watches, but those vary - one lasted a year, others broke within weeks. I have this skinny blue timex. I bought it because like your daughter, I hate fiddling with programming watches but needed an alarm/timer. This is just a couple of buttons and easy. It comes in several other bright colours and as a bonus has no sharp edges (I had been scratching the baby's face with my other watch). My 12-17 year old kids have borrowed it from me at times and the wrist goes fairly tight.
posted by viggorlijah at 7:56 PM on September 8, 2012

This watch is kind of, um, retro looking but it is FANTASTIC. Yes, it is a dorky digital watch but the countdown timer is spectacular. If you are at all scatterbrained this watch will change your life. Seriously. You press one button a few times and you get a timer that counts down from 1,3,5,10,15,20, or 30 minutes. So if you want to focus on one task for 15 minutes you just press the button 5 quick times and your timer starts counting down. Press it once for the 1-min timer, twice for the 3-min timer, three times for the 5-min timer and so on. No switching modes or anything.

The feature is called "countdown timer" and I've only seen it on this watch and one or two others. The ironman might have it but it is harder to use. I saw this one at Target recently. There was also an Armitron one (I think) in the women's section where the ironman watches are that had it. Right now I have on a different casio that has it. I have never seen it on any other watch.
posted by selfmedicating at 9:27 PM on September 8, 2012

Response by poster: We ended up getting a timex sport watch which we came to through the suggestions in this thread. Thanks, she loves it!
posted by latkes at 1:56 PM on September 26, 2012