Casio's 1980s: the decade it put a calculator, dictionary, and thermometer on your wrist
Casio Watches of the 1980s
Casio's 50th-anniversary heritage page walks through its 1980s output: the 1980 C-80, its first calculator watch, with fingertip key input; the 1983 G-SHOCK, built after 200-plus prototypes to survive drops; the AT-550, a touchscreen watch where users traced numbers on the glass; the first solar-powered Casio watch; and the 1984 milestone of 100 million watches shipped.
Turning this conventional thinking on its head, the G-SHOCK created all-new value by redefining the timepiece as a tough tool that could withstand drops and impacts.
- kimmk
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.
- gosen
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
- loire280
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.
- nrjames
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?
- ataru
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?
- 999900000999
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!
- anotherhue
> 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.
- conductr
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.