The Casio F91W is, at first look, as innocent as a watch will get. Launched in 1991, it’s a fundamental black digital timepiece, the type you discover at airport kiosks, petrol stations, and tucked into hipster wrists beside oat milk lattes. However beneath its retro attraction lies one of many strangest and darkest reputations in horological historical past.
This $20 digital watch has been worn by everybody from Barack Obama to Napoleon Dynamite. It’s additionally been discovered on the wrists of ISIS operatives, al-Qaeda bombmakers, and, most infamously, Osama bin Laden himself.
From On a regular basis Important to Proof
In the course of the early 2000s, pictures surfaced displaying bin Laden a Casio F91W. Whereas the picture sparked curiosity amongst civilians, intelligence officers noticed one thing else: a possible purple flag.
In line with declassified paperwork and first-hand accounts from the sphere, this watch wasn’t only a coincidence. It was a device.
The F91W had develop into recognized in nationwide safety circles as “the terrorist watch,” a time period rooted in subject proof. At Guantanamo Bay, over 50 detainees have been discovered carrying both the F91W or its steel cousin, the Casio A159W.
A good portion of these people have been reportedly skilled in explosives. CIA memos even famous that possession of this watch was thought-about a marker of potential terrorist coaching.
Why This Watch?
It wasn’t simply availability that made the F91W the go-to alternative for jihadist networks. It was performance. The watch’s lengthy battery life, dependable digital alarm, and rugged plastic casing made it excellent for timing units in improvised explosive units (IEDs).
With the addition of a 9-volt battery, circuit board, and fundamental wiring, bombmakers may create easy however deadly timed fees.
In 1994, al-Qaeda bomber Ramzi Yousef used an F91W to detonate a tool aboard Philippine Airways Flight 434. The bomb exploded, killing a passenger and proving the watch’s lethal potential.
Years later, Ahmed Ressam, higher referred to as the “Millennium Bomber,” was arrested with 4 explosives timed with F91Ws as he tried to enter the U.S. His goal was LAX. His arrest led to one of many largest terrorism investigations in North American historical past.
Observations From the Area
One former intelligence officer, writing below the Watches of Espionage challenge, recalled a go to to a makeshift jail throughout a brief deployment in a battle zone. Among the many “pocket litter” confiscated from an ISIS detainee have been two Casio F91W watches. Whereas not definitive proof of wrongdoing, they have been sufficient to lift suspicion. A CIA targeter on website reportedly remarked, “It’s a standard watch utilized by bomb makers as a detonation timer.”
But it surely’s by no means black and white. The officer went on to notice that the identical watch can also be worn by U.S. troopers, CIA operatives, and even mountain shepherds in Turkey. Just like the AK-47 or the Toyota Hilux, the F91W is a ubiquitous device, sturdy, low-cost, and practical. That’s exactly why it’s develop into a dual-use image: a tool that, on the floor, is innocent however can simply be weaponised.
Bin Laden’s Wristshot
Regardless of his anti-Western ideology, Osama bin Laden appeared in a number of propaganda movies carrying branded wristwatches, specifically the Casio F91W and a Timex. These have been reportedly the one Western client merchandise he commonly wore. Some analysts noticed this as hypocrisy, others as pragmatism. Both manner, it cemented the F91W as a part of trendy battle iconography, worn alongside AKS-74Us and lengthy, sand-coloured robes.
It’s no exaggeration to say the watch turned a visible marker for Western intelligence businesses. It additionally turned a topic of satire, conspiracy theories, and cult standing. The absurdity of a $20 watch being listed in detainment justifications at Guantanamo Bay says as a lot in regards to the surveillance state because it does about uneven warfare.
A Legacy of Paradox
Right this moment, the F91W stays in manufacturing, nearly unchanged. Casio reportedly manufactures as much as three million of them a 12 months.
You should buy one for lower than the value of a pub lunch, and tens of millions of bizarre individuals put on them on daily basis.
Some do it for type. Others for nostalgia. And a few, maybe, as a result of while you’re working in a world the place smartphones are GPS trackers and digital silence is survival, a easy wristwatch is the most secure device in your package.
Just like the Rolex Submariner or Omega Speedmaster, the Casio F91W is now a cultural image. However not like these Swiss giants, its legacy is rooted not in luxurious or precision, however in contradiction. It’s a watch that tells extra than simply the time. It tells a lethal story from the low cost aisle.
