# Casio Mudman 9010 Mini Review (Japan Matte Black Edition)



## Guest (Jul 24, 2010)

MINI REVIEW










*Out the box*

*
*

First appearance is reassuring, with the finish looking just as I had wanted it to (proper matte black) and the display looking really crisp. It shows hours, minutes, and seconds, as well as the day, the month, and the day of the month. You get an at-a-glance indication of whether you have an alarm, hourly signal, and/or snooze alarm set. Additionally, you are shown the DST setting, whether power saving is on or off, and whether the auto light function is enabled. There are ten segments along the top of the display which have context-sensitive information in other modes, but which in timekeeping mode scroll across the screen in a 'snake' (so the head of the snake enters from the left every 20 seconds).

The last item of information shown is the G symbol, which is used to indicate that the watch was successful in obtaining an update from an atomic time signal station on its last attempt. Remarkably, all this is perfectly legible in the fairly small display area - a real achievement of careful design I'd say.

Also worth noting is the depth of black in the negative display. It's gorgeous!!! It's also helped along nicely by a crystal which seems to be much less reflective or prone to glare than that of my Pro-Trek PRW1300Y. Side by side in the same light, you can turn the watches around in your hands and the Mudman seems to remain glare-free at pretty much any angle, in contrast to the Pro-Trek which reveals a range of 'sweet spots' and 'dazzle spots' as you turn it slowly in the light.

*
**Having a fiddle*

The first thing that you'll notice when you start to press buttons is just how stiff they are. ...They're really stiff!!!







This turns out not to be such a bad thing though, as A: The stiffness can be lessened using the boiling trick mentioned further up this thread, and B: It ensures you'll never press a button in error.

Next to leap out at you will probably be the rally timer (I hadn't seen one before anyway). Don't worry if you appear to 'freeze' the screen in that mode by pressing the wrong button. Just go and read the manual, and everything will be OK.  ...And don't panic if the special stages" section is a bit much: It all sinks in eventually, even the stuff about recording various time-points, which gets its own screen with the next press of the mode button.

I won't dwell on the other functions such as the timer, stopwatch, world time, alarms etc, as they're going to be familiar to anyone who's used a modern digital watch. I will say though that it's nice how Casio have made each new mode 'wipe' in from the right, so you get a smooth transition between screens rather than a jump. I think it's supposed to imitate the Frogman 'scroll', although connoisseurs will spot the difference (I imagine the chip required to process a scroll is a bit more expensive than one which is able to do a wipe).

Besides making sure your home city is set correctly, the only thing you'll want to consider changing right off the bat is the back-light duration. The default setting is the same as on Pro-Treks (1.5 seconds) although unlike on Pro-Treks, you can adjust it. I find the longer (3 second) option is much better. The auto-light feature will impress your friends as before, but then they won't say "oh it's gone out again!" like when you showed them the Pro-Trek. :yes:

*The Strap*

It seems that in addition to softening the buttons, the 'boiling trick' (see above) is also good for softening the strap. If like me you have small wrists, you'll appreciate the extra flexibility afforded by this treatment, because afterwards the part of the strap closest to the watch will bend around a bit earlier, adding about 5mm less height to the watch face than before.

It's a pretty long strap, so it's going to poke out and show above the top of the watch unless you have wrists like a mountain gorilla. I cut mine down (my strap not my wrists :tongue_ss, and now it's just fine. Although I did it my own way, I subsequently noticed this guy giving some pretty sound advice HERE to make the strap look OK after shortening it.

Later on I think I'll copy what someone in another forum has done; adding Suunto clips to allow the use of a NATO strap (although I plan to use a Zulu).

You can see what he did here...










*Overall*

This is a light, strong, uber-cool watch which looks even better in the flesh than in the marketing pictures. The rally timer is great for cooking. You have ten different pre-set times to choose from, some of which I've programmed to the duration of my most commonly cooked meals. 

I might add some more detail after I've been using the watch for a week or so, but for the time being I'll say that I haven't worn anything else since this arrived (well, except for my Pro-Trek briefly while I was timing how long the Mudman case had been sitting in boiling water, lol).

It's a little bit hard to justify the massive extra cost of getting a stealth model from Japan unless that kind of thing really floats your boat. I had my heart set on it though. From the moment I saw this image on the net, I just knew I HAD to have one...










In terms only of functionality it makes more sense buying one in a UK colour scheme for about 70 quid less (as it's the same watch under the skin). Either way, I would recommend the 9010 Mudman to anyone who wants a robust good-looking urban watch which at least seems to be made to last. :victory:

(first unboxing etc can be seen here ...casio promo pics can be seen a bit down the page here)


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## j4ckal (Jul 22, 2010)

Thanks for the review, love the jdm mudman, mine (uk version tho) has actually seen alot of mud and still going strong, I'm sure it's indestructable...!

I'm liking the look of it on the nato/zulu, where would I find these suunto clips and is it a straight forward swap?

Cheers and enjoy!


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## Citiz (Nov 18, 2009)

Om_nom_nom_Watches! said:


> MINI REVIEW
> 
> 
> 
> ...


Good review Om_nom_nom :thumbsup:

Lovely G Shock, I like it alot, puts my Mudman to shame B)

John


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## Guest (Jul 24, 2010)

j4ckal said:


> I'm liking the look of it on the nato/zulu, where would I find these suunto clips and is it a straight forward swap?


I ordered mine from here.

Apparently there is a little gap which some people just leave and others bridge with bits or chopped up biro or whatever. I've ordered some tiny o-rings to do the bridging, although I think it would work perfectly well without anything. The gap is only cosmetic (it won't make the clip wobble about laterally), and not even cosmetic once the strap is on and covering the underside of the clip pivot.



Citiz said:


> Lovely G Shock, I like it alot, puts my Mudman to shame B)


Hey John all Mudmans ('Mudmen'?) are special!!! :thumbsup:

Thanks for saying you though it was a good review. Thanks also to j4ckal for his kind words.

I tried to make it long enough to say something without being too long to count as mini.


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## Guest (Jul 25, 2010)

Oh by the way, if anyone wants to see the "how to boil your watch" instructional, it's HERE.

(Just don't make the mistake of needlessly removing the caseback like he did. )


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## j4ckal (Jul 22, 2010)

Om_nom_nom_Watches! said:


> Oh by the way, if anyone wants to see the "how to boil your watch" instructional, it's HERE.
> 
> (Just don't make the mistake of needlessly removing the caseback like he did. )


Cool, thanks for that, I'll have to try it on mine.

The buttons are quite hard to press especially when I'm wearing gloves out on the bike..


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## sam. (Mar 24, 2010)

That boiling was a bit extreme! 

Great review,the watch looks as tough as nails,it looks very stealthy too.

Sam. k:


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## therooster (Jul 1, 2010)

Very cool bit of kit. Are we going to get a breakdown of your top 10 'stealth-cooked' meals then?


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## Guest (Jul 26, 2010)

therooster said:


> Very cool bit of kit. Are we going to get a breakdown of your top 10 'stealth-cooked' meals then?


Lol.

Btw, as for the strap mod, I'm starting to think it's a very good idea indeed...

Today I properly noticed how the face is stealth black, but the strap is only normal black. If the strap were the same (matte) black as the face, then there'd be a more compelling reason not to junk it, but as it is I am now SURE I'm doing the right thing by trying the Suunto clip mod and using a 22mm black Maratac Zulu with black fittings.

It's on its way to me now from the states. Pic to follow...


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## j4ckal (Jul 22, 2010)

Om_nom_nom_Watches! said:


> Btw, as for the strap mod, I'm starting to think it's a very good idea indeed...
> 
> Today I properly noticed how the face is stealth black, but the strap is only normal black. If the strap were the same (matte) black as the face, then there'd be a more compelling reason not to junk it, but as it is I am now SURE I'm doing the right thing by trying the Suunto clip mod and using a 22mm black Maratac Zulu with black fittings.
> 
> It's on its way to me now from the states. Pic to follow...


Yeh, make sure you post some pics up once done B)


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## TVDinner (Jul 22, 2010)

Great pictures and a super good review. Thanks for the post. I enjoyed learning about the watch!


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## Guest (Jul 27, 2010)

Hearted by the positive responses to this! :derisive:

If you would like to see the strap mod I've done today, it's all...

HERE :thumbsup:


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## PaulT (Jul 14, 2010)

I was perusing my local jewelry chain window display when I found this...



Uploaded with ImageShack.us

Well, at that price it seemed rude not to! :hypocrite: Especially as my circa 1997 G-Shock is starting to suffer the ravages of time  (Case plastic starting to crack/come apart)



Uploaded with ImageShack.us

Wasn't sure about the olive green colour at first but it's starting to grow on me now  Jeez though, the buttons are stiff!


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## Guest (Jul 28, 2010)

Good find!

:cheers:

Has a bit of a military feel to it in that colour. Negative display too. Great value for sure at that price!!!


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## Guest (Jul 31, 2010)

j4ckal said:


> Yeh, make sure you post some pics up once done B)


Here it is with the Suunto clips and a black leather 22mm nato (the Maratac Zulu is still on its way in the post).










In the end though after much experimentation, I've decided to leave the original strap on the watch.

Removing it exposes a little gap under the mud shell, and whatever clip/strap combo you use, this gap is still apparent to a greater or lesser degree.

...I'll just have to eat lots of doughnuts and get big chunky wrists to grow into it.


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## Guest (Aug 19, 2010)

A good few weeks on, and I can say that I am awesomely glad I bought this watch.

Went to a two day party last weekend, and someone asked me about it. I listed the features then said "and you can do this...", took it off my wrist and drop-kicked it across the room, whence it bounced off a brick wall and sailed through the air half way back to me.

I strolled over, picked it up, and put it back on my wrist. 

Later, when I was less drunk, I took it off and turned it over in my hand thinking that I had probably been a bit stupid, and now it would most likely have a couple of little marks on it or something. Upon really close inspection though it looks just perfect still.


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## Ryan1984 (Jul 31, 2010)

Great watch, I love mine 

Cheers

Ryan


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## Guest (Aug 21, 2010)

I like the way they've kept the mud shell the same on the new models. Might make for some interesting frankenmudmen if someone does a bit of mixing and matching.


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## Guest (Oct 18, 2010)

Met someone in a pub yesterday with a green shell & grey/white snow camo strap.

Of course I didn't have my camera on me at the time.


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