BACKGROUND
Released in June of 1989 as the successor of the model 'F-87W', the 'F91-W' has a long battery life, it's durable, cheap, water resistant, has a calender, and finally it is a chronograph watch. Meaning it has a stop-watch function. Some notes of the stop watch are function are that:
able to mark net and split times (e.g laps).
hourly time beep and a single daily alarm lasting 20 seconds
a 1⁄100 second with a count up to 59:59.99 (nearly one hour)
it's deemed the most popular watch, it was made 35 years ago and is still in production today.
WHO WORE IT?
the Casio F-91W is apparently the only branded accessory that Bin Laden was ever seen wearing in the open. It was also reported that Al-Qaeda would hand out the watches out to recruits at their terror training camps across Afghanistan and Pakistan throughout the 1990s and early 2000s.
Arguably it was Bin Laden who started the "terrorist trend" surrounding the watch.
Extra note: Second al-Qaeda Emir Dr. Ayman al-Zawahiri wearing a Casio A159W, a metal cousin of the F-91W.
During the height of the War on Terror, US government spotted the correlation of the Casio F91W in terrorists. In 2011, Wikileaks released a document labeled the "Matrix of Threat Indicators for Enemy Combatants" which was intended to assist staff at Guantanamo decide which detainees are more likely to carry out suicide attacks. According to the document, owning an F-91W was the biggest giveaway of a serious terror suspect alongside ownership of a satellite phone, a radio transceiver, or large quantities of cash.
However, this wasn't just paranoia. Statistics in other similar documents released by Wikileaks revealed that around a third of inmates being held at Guantanamo that were captured whilst wearing an F-91W had a known correlation with explosives. The F-91W watch came up almost 150 times in the piles of leaked Guantanamo prisoner assessments. Ironically, four of the chaplains who worked at Guantanimo Bay also wore the watch.
One of the detainees at Guantanamo were interrogated over the use of the watch amongst suspected terrorists. He claimed that the water-resistant feature of the F91W watch was handy due to the Islamic requirement for followers to wash up to their elbows before prayers. However another prisoner claimed the prevalence of the watch amongst Jihadi inmates was simply due to the built-in compass that helped them pray towards Mecca. However, there is no compass in the F91W.
The F-91W was a feature of various ISIS militants including Tunisian born Tariq al-Harzi who was a high ranking Emir of the Islamic State. It was also worn by Kevin Chassin who was a French-born Jihadist who went to Syria to join ISIS. He was subsequently utilized for his high propaganda value in ISIS videos.
However, the leader of ISIS Abu Bakr al-Baghdadi didn't like the cheap Casio F91W. Instead, al-Baghdadi opted for a flashy watch that sparked debate over the exact model. The watch was spotted during his infamous speech in Mosul that declared the formation of the so-called Caliphate. It was believed to be either a Rolex or an Omega Seamaster, both of which run north of $3,000 and contradict the contents of his speech as well as his ideals.
It's not just Jihadist terrorist groups that wear the watch. Subcomandante Marcos who had led the Zapatista National Liberation Army (EZLN) in Mexico.
The watch is not only appreciated by the terrorists of the world but likewise by the people who combat them. Various fighting forces across the Middle East have been seen using the watch. Such as the Syrian Democratic Forces which is a coalition waging an anti-ISIS campaign across war-torn Syria.
BOMB USAGE
Due to its long-lead timer, it also doubles as a bomb-making accessory for various terror groups around the world from Afghanistan to Chechnya. Deadly usage of the watch has been well documented through various case studies.
According to US intelligence officials, the watch doubles as a bomb timer as its alarm can be set beyond a 24-hour period. During the War on Terror, Pakistani ISI officials found more than 600 of the watches in a terrorist safe house in Karachi which led to a period of anybody being found wearing an F91W watch to be liable for arrest and questioning. However, with the watch being available for $4 dollars on Pakistani markets, simply possessing a Casio watch doesn't prove anything and this tactic of arrest was soon dropped.
In September 1999, a series of bombs were detonated inside four Russian apartment buildings in the cities of Moscow, Volgodonsk, and Buinaksk. The blasts killed 367 people and injured over 1,000 others. Russian investigators concluded that the attackers had been trained in terror camps being run by Ibn al-Khattab inside Chechnya which had recently gained unstable independence following the First Chechen War.
Investigations carried out inside Chechnya discovered that the bombs used in the attacks were comprised of ammonium nitrate and aluminum powder, with plastic serving as an intermediate explosive. The detonator was a combination of a Krona battery and a Casio F-91W.
In 1994, an al-Qaeda militant named Ramzi Yousef used the Casio F-91W as a 4-hour timer on the bomb he constructed in an airplane toilet of Philippine Airlines Flight 434. He proceeded to leave his deadly work under the seat before leaving the plane. It detonated on the next flight, killing a Japanese businessman named Haruki Ikegami who sat in Yousef's seat. However the bomb's orientation caused the energy to be mostly absorbed by Ikegami. Thus other passengers and the plane were not catastrophically damaged.
Ahmed Ressam, an al-Qaeda member trained in explosives in Afghanistan in the 1990s, was arrested in December 1999 while attempting to cross the border from Canada to the United States with four explosives outfitted with triggers composed of an F-91W and 9-volt batteries. His target was the Los Angeles International Airport in New Year’s Eve, which led to his nickname: the “Millennium Bomber.”
EXTRA
Taken from Iraq War Logs:
Taken from IED trigger recognition guide:
