Casio Duro: The Sub-$70 Cult Classic That Begs to Be Modded
There is a short list of watches that punch so far above their price that the whole hobby has agreed to stop being surprised. The Casio Duro sits at the top of it. For under seventy dollars you get a real 200 meter dive watch with a screw down crown, a unidirectional bezel, and the little marlin on the dial that gives the watch its other name. Bill Gates wears one. Not a special edition, not a loaner for a photo shoot. The plain black dial MDV-106 is his actual everyday watch, and the man can afford literally anything on Earth. That tells you most of what you need to know.
The Duro has been a cult classic for years now, and the cult is the fun part. It is the watch people recommend first, beat up hardest, and then refuse to sell. Owners do not stop at one. They end up with a row of them in different colors, and then they start taking them apart. The one on the cover of this article started life as an ordinary Duro. The pink mother of pearl dial is a swap. Nobody leaves this watch alone for long, and that is kind of the point.
On paper it reads like a watch that costs three times more. The case is 44mm of stainless steel with 22mm lugs, the movement is a quartz that ticks along at about twenty seconds a month either way, and you get a mineral crystal, a date at three o’clock, and a screw down crown and case back doing the real work behind that 200 meter rating. If you want the full sermon on what a rating like that actually means in the real world, I wrote it here. The stock resin strap is the one place Casio clearly saved the money. Hold that thought, because it matters less than you would think.
Part of the fun is that the Duro comes in a pile of colorways, and the community named all of them like sneakers. There is the Batman in black and blue, the straight Black, the Starbucks in green and black, the Pepsi in red and blue, and the Smurf in blue on blue. Prices wander by color, and two of them are sitting at full list right now, so it pays to check before you buy. When I checked for this article, the Black was $59.26, the Starbucks $61.99, the Batman $65.34, and the Pepsi and the Smurf were both at their $89.95 list price. The full price check with sources is at the bottom of this article, because Amazon prices move. The right answer to which one to buy is mostly whichever bezel makes you grin, because you are probably going to change half the watch anyway.
Making it yours
The mod scene around this watch is the real story, and WR Accessories is the shop that built a whole catalog around the Duro. The first stop for most people is a bracelet, because the stock resin strap undersells the watch. Their Oyster bracelet has solid end links and runs $42.90. The Jubilee bracelet is $39.90 and dresses the watch up more than a watch at this price has any right to be dressed up. Both fit the MDV-106 and the MDV-107. WR set me up with a reader code for the site, so use CHRISSECREST at checkout and it takes 10 percent off.
Next is the bezel insert. The stock insert is fine, and fine is the problem. The fully luminous ceramic sloped insert glows like a torch and turns a budget diver into something you notice across a room. It is $42.90 in black or blue, and at night the whole bezel lights up to match the dial.
The crystal is where it gets genuinely fun. The stock glass is flat mineral and it looks like it. WR sells a flat sapphire crystal with red AR coating for thirty dollars and a single domed crystal with blue AR coating for twenty, and the colored anti reflective coating does something photos barely capture. It throws a wash of color across the dial at certain angles, so a plain black Duro suddenly has depth. It really does take the whole watch to another level for the price of a pizza. They also stock chapter rings and hand sets, which is where the builds stop looking like strap swaps and start looking like one off watches built by a person with opinions.
The two tricks that make it easy
None of this needs a watchmaker, and two cheap tools do most of the work. The bezel insert is glued in at the factory, which sounds like a fight until you learn the trick. Soak the watch head in golf grip solvent overnight and the adhesive gives up by morning. The insert comes right off, no prying, no swearing, no gouged bezel. The new insert presses in and you are done.
Crystals want a watch press, which sounds specialized and costs about what lunch does. The old mineral glass comes out with slow, even pressure, the sapphire goes in exactly the same way, and there is a reason nearly everybody in the Duro community owns one of these. Glass changes become a breeze instead of a prayer. Work slow, keep the gaskets seated where they belong, and the watch goes back together the way it came apart.
If you want to see how deep the rabbit hole goes before you spend a dime, spend an hour scrolling r/DuroGang. Dial swaps, hand swaps, full builds, fifty dollar watches happily wearing two hundred dollars of parts and somehow making sense. It is the best inspiration folder this hobby has, and it will absolutely cost you money.
That is the Duro. A first real diver for somebody new. A beater that shrugs off actual abuse. A blank canvas for anybody who likes a project. Under seventy bucks in and every door is open. That is not a good watch for the money. That is a good watch, full stop.
Price check, October 24, 2026, 12:52 AM CT. The Duro prices above were checked against the Amazon product pages, with current prices tracked by CamelCamelCamel: Black, $59.26; Batman, $65.34; Starbucks, $61.99; Pepsi, $89.95; Smurf, $89.95. The WR Accessories prices were checked on the WR product pages linked in this article the same night. Product prices and availability are accurate as of the date and time shown here and are subject to change. Any price and availability information shown on Amazon at the time of purchase will apply to your purchase.