alt Hacker NewsCasio Watches of the 1980s
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I like Casio watches but I'd like them more if the watch faces weren't splattered with "Water resist", "Chrono alarm", and such labels. Yes I don't need to be reminded this watch indeed is an chrono alarm, like an advertisement, every time I look at it.
One of my core memories as a 80s kid was the absurd G Shock tan line I had when I was around 8. I put that thing on and never took it off for probably a year or more. Also it stunk like the inside of a cast but it was like a challenge I put on myself to never take it off. Eventually the wrist band broke and I could never find a replacement (or my mom refused to look?). I carried it around in my pocket for a year or so after as well. Loved that watch lol.
I've lost my apple watches recently, and I've been using different versions of apple watches for about 7 years. I thought I won't come back to regular watches, but I've decided to try and bought a cheap classic Casio watches for ~30 bucks. After 2 months I must admit that I don't really need smart watches :D
So many of the cool, revolutionary features of these watches look so hard to use and can't possibly have been used regularly by their owners (translation dictionary lookup? scientific calculator?). Reminds me of the Windows CE devices I was kind of obsessed with as a teenager that were amazing but kind of useless because of their form factor.
I was looking at the Casio calculator catalogue recently, and I noticed there are a lot of different models. They're all broadly the same, but each one has slightly different combinations of features and appearance. The watch collectors on YouTube show that there's been hundreds of different Casio watches as well. I wonder why they create so many different models. Could it be related to the work culture of the Japanese companies? Or do they just want to have a different product for every use case?
I had a Casio watch in the early to mid 1980s that tracked the tides based on geo coordinates you entered and would tell you the best time to go fishing. They still promote them for this purpose:
https://www.casio.com/us/watches/types/activity/fishing-watc...
It looked something like this:
https://www.wilberforcewatches.com/products/casio-fish-en-ti...
Maybe the FT-100 or the more simple W-100?
I do love that from a 15$ Casio to a 15k one, the community loves them all.
You can get a 40$ watch that has radio accurate time keeping!
As 70s child, I used a few from that list, naturally as nerd the goal was eventually to get the databank one.
> Watch with Phone Dialer function enabling audio-based dialing
> Introducing Phone Dialer functionality. This new feature worked in tandem with the Telememo function, which stored up to 50 telephone numbers. Simply holding the watch’s built-in speaker up to the receiver of a push-button telephone allowed users to place calls to stored numbers, which were output in the form of touch-tone signals. At a time before mobile phones really hit the scene, this was an extremely revolutionary feature. Eliminating the need to manually dial numbers digit by digit while checking a telephone directory, people used it in a broad range of settings, including business.
Definitely had the TS-1000 growing up in 80s. I remember looking at the window display of some electronics store where all these watches and Nintendo Game & Watch games where all lined up.
I was in Japan a few years back and I bought two F-91Ws, they look so small compared to today's watches. Too bad they're so flimsy, I wore one for a week but must have bumped it against something and broke the glass (at least it's glass). The other one is still in the original packaging, I'll probably leave it there. Nowadays I wear my G-SHOCK as a daily driver.
I had a Casio in 1985 that I swear fell out of a time portal. It had a large touch screen face and allowed me to enter 50 contacts (name + phone) and had calculator functionality via touch screen (no key pad). It is not shown on this Casio page and I’ve never seen a reference to it despite it being years ahead of its time.
I wish I had more uses for my Casio calculator watch (CA53W). But these days it's faster to hold down the power button on my phone for half a second to activate a voice assistant. Now, if Casio made a smart watch that could run a micro-model on-device to do voice input for the calculator...
unfortunately the list is incomplete: quite some of the watches i had aren't listed (i mean, how could they _not_ list the GD-9?).
nevertheless nice to see these golden oldies again and read about all the stuff they were adding to them.
CGW-50 showing the planetary orbits and Hailey’s comet is really cool. I cherish and realize how fortunate I was to witness and experience awe inspiring memories of Hale Bopp as a child while camping with clear skys as a child. I know it’s not the same comet, but still comets evoke awe and it left a lasting impression and interest of space.
Out of curiosity went to check if I could buy it but they unfortunately discontinued and now secondary markets list it in the thousands.
Whilst not one of the 80's watches. The 90s watch with the VCR controls was amazing during highschool. As soon as that TV got wheeled out in class we all knew that thing was going to randomly pause, play, stop etc. Hahaha.
Archive in case the site is giving you an error: https://archive.is/XD4QB
SDB-300W and its descendants are still unmatched as a runner's wristwatch. Just give me a watch with buttons like that that reliably trigger instantly with a satisfying beep.
Is there anything like that around, suitable for timing to the 0.1s level?
I often tell myself that I am conscious and rational when it comes to gifts. I don't care about brands, but rather the value something offers. Yet I do have a soft spot for "Made in Japan" Casio vintage watches and Sony devices.
To me, they represented the highest form of functional and consumer utility at a justified price. No fluff, no marketing that bordered on propaganda. Japanese consumer technology meant something incredibly precious to people in underdeveloped and developing nations.
It wasn't just about utility. It was about social status, too, and owning a generational asset that would continue to work for decades.
A Japanese consumer device meant that you had worked hard to afford a luxury, and that luxury did not derive its merit from a brand name, but rather from manufacturing ethics, quality, and the long-term, sustainable value it offered, all while being at the cutting edge of technology.
A Rolex watch uses essentially the same mechanical principles that have existed for generations. Its merit today is largely in its brand, not in being at the cutting edge of technology. An iPhone, on the other hand, is largely seen as consumable. Most modern electronic devices are treated as disposable, depreciating products.
But a Made in Japan Casio watch in the 1980s or 1990s was an asset.
There is a beauty and a tragedy in those vintage Japanese watches.
I see it when I talk to people in their 60s or 70s who struggled to raise families in developing countries on middle-class incomes. A Casio calculator for their children when they start their high school. A Sony TV for the family to gather around and watch. A Toyota as their first family car.
These weren't merely consumer products. They were milestones. They represented years of hard work, sacrifice, aspiration, and the dignity of finally being able to afford something that was genuinely well made. Something that would last. Something that could be passed down.
I don't want to hear about GDP, artisanal blue jeans, or deer based tourism industry when it comes to Japan. I see how an industry and an economy that once produced these things on such an extraordinary scale have been diminished.
I don't want to rationalize it or dissect it.
I simply find it truly beautiful what that nation once built on an industrial scale.
For anyone who might be interested, Ollee Watch from Canada is a VERY interesting project to tinker with.
I used my paper route money saved up for 2 or 3 months to buy a C80 when I was in 5th grade. I loved that thing so much. It was a fun moment of nostalgia clicking on this link.
Casio Pro Trek PRW-30Y: solar powered, radio controlled, tough, big digits… a zero maintenance marvel. Peak watch IMO.
so much sovl.
I loved window shopping for watches as a kid. idk if it was a Casio, but I did eventually convince my parents to get me one with a calculator. it was one of the coolest things you could have as a kid in the 90s, imo.
They didn't mention the watch I wanted so badly and my parents got for me in 1981 - the "Melody Alarm" or "12-Tune Musical Alarm/Chronograph by Casio".
I was delighted to find a youtube video of it - the music brings back such memories. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=TJdKt9JwRkc&t=90s
https://christmas.musetechnical.com/ShowCatalogPage/1981-Sea... (#21 third from bottom left) https://christmas.musetechnical.com/ShowCatalogPage/1981-Sea...
I'm sure the $50 was a huge expense for them at the time, but I sure loved that watch! Westminster chimes on the hours. Staying up to hear it play Jingle Bells for 12am on Christmas and have it wish me Happy Birthday. Having it accidentally go off in Church or school.
It introduced me to some classic songs I hadn't known before, and I'd run through its repertoire for fun, or just cycle through the modes to play the scales.
I wore it long after its stainless steel was scratched and worn.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=T71hN_VW2aI
Maybe if I make an emulator I'll start wearing a watch again!
It's hard to describe how optimistic society, and futuristic such consumer technology felt as it rapidly advanced in the 60s-80s. There used to be television shows about the technology of the future, like https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Tomorrow's_World and https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Beyond_Tomorrow_(TV_series)
It used to be harmless things like a watch, or a portable music playing device. After 2000 you started to worry about what technology extracted from you, and now we're getting to the stage where are worrying about what it's going to do to us intellectually, and soon, physically.
They worked then, they still work.
Exactly what a watch should do.
Casio nailed it!
I have a data bank and a pela thin watch, still great today!
Wearing a Casio watch right now (gifted to me by my brother), I really love Casio ;)
One watch is enough for me and that's casio for me.
None of them turn into a little robot. Lame.
Weird, they did not have J-100s and AQ-500 images in the 1980s collection, but I can find them on the internet.
Also, in the 2020s, they seem to have given up on watches.
The chinese clones were more interesting. You had 7 songs to choose from.
This site is a great flex in innovation over decades.
g-shock is also an excellent first watch for kids/teens ; indestructible and runs forever (like the '90s Toyota or Honda Civic)
Some of these not just I recognized, but they were my wishlist dream to buy! The TV IR one tho I remember it different? Unless they were multiple variations. Also, I like how calculators are in all these models in 80s and 90s, it was really a big deal to use a calculator and transfer the burden of using your brain, like AI now and smartphones, oh wait!
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I understand the massive difference between these and a mechanical watch, but I just cannot see myself ever using a digital watch. Ever... not even one these new super cool Garmin ones or even an Apple watch, I almost put them all in the same bag, including these Casio legendary watches.
There is something so beautiful about a mechanical watch... I am not even talking hyper expensive stuff, there's always Seiko, Citizen, Rotary and hundreds more... so its not a flex, its just an understanding of having to look at the time and not seeing a nasty digital number. Maybe its because i work looking at screens all day.
No DBX-100 ? My keyboard unplasticized.