Shimano really should have turned to shit, what with them effectively having a monopoly (in mountain biking certainly) for literally decades. I don’t know whether it’s a Japanese thing or what, but they never did. Just kept quietly putting out decent gear at a variety of price ranges.

I picked up a full set of XTR v-brakes from eBay a few years back. Those things were still as good as the day they were new, despite being old enough that I only paid £20 for the lot.

old casio products are unforgivingly reliable. I've literally never had one fail regardless of the ridiculous amount of abuse I put them trough.

The new ones tho... "it's water tight not water proof" is what support told us when their "water tight" watch died after a minute of rain