Watch Paparazzi

Actor Ryan Reynolds spotted wearing Casio

On the set of Free Guy, cameras caught Ryan Reynolds sporting one of the most paradoxically iconic watches in existence: the Casio F-91W. In a film built around the concept of an ordinary person existing inside an extraordinary world, the choice of timepiece — intentional or not — reads as almost poetic costume design.

The Casio F-91W launched in 1989 and has remained in continuous, virtually unchanged production ever since. Its resin case measures 38.2mm wide and just 8.5mm thick, housing Casio's Module 593 quartz movement. The watch weighs a mere 21 grams. Functions are stripped to the essentials: time, date, stopwatch, and alarm, all displayed on a classic LCD panel illuminated by a frontlit EL backlight. Battery life is rated at seven years — a specification that embarrasses watches costing a hundred times as much.

From a collector's standpoint, the F-91W occupies a fascinating cultural position. It has been cited in U.S. military tribunal documents as a component used in improvised explosive devices, which gave it an unintended notoriety in the early 2000s. At the same time, it became a quiet status symbol among tech engineers in Silicon Valley and a go-to choice for heads of state who wished to project frugality. Barack Obama was photographed wearing one. So was Fidel Castro. The F-91W sits at the intersection of utility and iconography in a way no Rolex or Patek Philippe ever could.

Ryan Reynolds has built a public persona around self-deprecating wit and calculated anti-pretension — the Aviation Gin campaigns, the Deadpool press tours, the consistently irreverent social media presence. Wearing a ten-dollar Casio while starring in a major Hollywood production slots neatly into that image. Whether the choice was his own or a costume department decision, it generated attention precisely because it defied expectation.

On the secondary market, the F-91W trades for between eight and twenty dollars depending on colorway and retailer — the grey market and the retail market are effectively the same thing. New-old-stock variants in original packaging from the early 1990s can fetch slightly more among collectors, but this remains one of the few watches where buying new is the sensible option. It is, simply, irreplaceable in its category.