Yeah! I Bought It Also!

I was on leave on 24 November. A check with the calendar, I must confirm the price of my desired toy – Casio Protrek trekking watch – before my runner friends go to Singapore for the Singapore International Marathon on 7 December. What has buying a watch got to do with running a marathon?

I went to the same shop selling watches in Pertama Complex where I have bought two watches before. It is a small shop lot but there are many watches inside. The moment I went in, a guy shop assistant came to attend to me. So I asked for model 110 – straight to the point.

After inspecting the watch, it was time for pricing. After he punched a few numbers in the calculator, he said RM 850. So I told him my friend (PK Chan) bought one in Singapore for SGD 260. And I punched a few numbers (for currency conversion) and that was RM 626. As you can see, it was almost RM 224 in price different.

After keenly negotiating price for a while, I beh ta han liau. I got excited and cannot wait to ask my runner friends to buy in Singapore. In the end, we agreed at RM 720. To justify that I am paying the extra money, I told him that even though it is more expansive in Kuala Lumpur, I would still prefer to buy here because of the warranty issue.
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Casio Protrek 110T (for titanium strap)
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Later, I realized that PK Chan's SGD 260 was for normal (rubberized strap) whereas I am taking the titanium strap, which should be RM 100 more expansive. So the price is almost the same as in Singapore, if not slightly cheaper. Imagine the watch shops in Mines and Sunway Pyramid shopping complex, the price is almost RM 1,000 for the watch with titanium strap.

Functions and feature of this watch: Digital compass, Altimeter (for measuring height), Barometer (for measuring atmospheric pressure to detect impending rain), Thermometer (for measuring coldness), and the standard feature of timekeeping (world time), stopwatch, countdown timer, daily alarms, etc.

The watch is big and round, almost covers my wrist. It looks very sophisticated and yow yeng (got style), and I shared the same excitement with PK Chan when he first bought the watch a few months ago. Some more, inscribe on it is ToughSolar, I see also I feel very tough when wearing it… :-)

The operating manual booklet is 2.5 cm thick. I think I need some time to understand the operation of the various features. At this moment, I do not have the time to read the operating manual yet. So, it is merely for timekeeping use – just like another digital watch.

A lady runner friend told me that the fashion nowadays is to wear things big. I am not sure whether that includes bra also. After understanding the fashion requirement, looks like I have got the right watch - big and complicating one.

Since not many people will see it in the jungle (other than the monkey may be), I better wear it around... err... to show off a bit. I shall wear it to office to impress my lunch kaki and office colleagues.

Anyway, the best story came from PK Chan that he wore it for running to measure the height of Double-Hill, and not his running speed… :-) PK said, “I found the highest point at the first hill was only 140 m (above sea level) whilst it measured 220 m at the 4-leg junction of the Bukit Kiara Jogging trail.” After returning from Annapurna Base Camp, obviously, we are comparing it with the altitude of 4,100 meters, and the next trekking trip to Everst Base Camp (5,500 meters). Click here or Click here for stories and photos of ABC.


Click here to read the previous stories on Casio Protrek Watch.

Written by KC Leong