I always had Casio watch when I was a kid. Nowadays, I prefer having none on my wrist. As a developer, it hinders my hand movement when typing.
The history of Casio watches
21–30 of 177 posts
Re: The history of Casio watches
#22I was really surprised to find out that the F-91W was first released in 1989. I had assumed it was even older than that!
I wasn't too surprised to see their blurb leave out it's other (alleged!) known use
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Casio_F-91W#Usage_in_terrorism
Re: The history of Casio watches
#23According to this their most recent innovation was in 2023 with a "virtual community where people can co-create and interact with one another via digital platforms like NFTs and the metaverse."
It's disappointing. It reinforces the cliché that most hardware companies don't understand software. The GPR-B1000 was promising, as it signaled Casio might be heading towards making watches with advanced features like GPS, yet a bit different from regular smartwatches and close to their traditional models. This model was tied to a phone app, but I thought this was OK for their first iteration. Fast forward to 2023,…
I've been pretty happy with my Garmin Instinct Crossover. It looks like a regular watch, and so if Garmin decides to drop support for it, then it still has like a 2 month battery as a regular watch.
Re: The history of Casio watches
#24Very cool! I've had a F91-W for years and never knew the history. I thought it was way older than '89.
Re: The history of Casio watches
#25The incredible Sensor Watch after-market board is really worth a mention on a thread like this:
Joey et al.’s work ports the SPICE astronavigation library to the on board ARM m0 giving you a complete orrery in a classic F91W “Terrorist” watch. It is fantastic!
I really love being able to get an estimate of when and where The Moon will rise, or where Saturn is right now. Timekeeping and astronomy are two of the oldest forms of science we have and I love being in constant touch with them via the newest science we have: computers! (The source is all open and available for you to hack on, including a nifty emulator.)
Re: The history of Casio watches
#26I was really surprised to find out that the F-91W was first released in 1989. I had assumed it was even older than that! I wasn't too surprised to see their blurb leave out it's other (alleged!) known use https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Casio_F-91W#Usage_in_terrorism
The F-91W is such a fun watch. Super functional, you're not scared of damaging it, because A) You can't and B) it's like $25.
The backlight is my absolute favorit feature. It's completely pointless. It can barely light up the hours, and only the left most digit and Casio never bothered to fix it. Absolutely delightful.
Re: The history of Casio watches
#27According to this their most recent innovation was in 2023 with a "virtual community where people can co-create and interact with one another via digital platforms like NFTs and the metaverse."
I think they should have mentioned the ABL-100 from 2024 [0]. It is probably their most interesting recent watch.
It has a step tracker, sets time via Bluetooth from a smartphone, and it is in a classic digital Casio style similar to the A168W and A158W.
0: https://www.casio.com/intl/watches/casio/standard/vintage/ab...
Re: The history of Casio watches
#28Casio should release one of their "game and watch" products again, or create a new one based on the old models. Production cost cannot be higher than that of a normal watch, and a lot of people would love to own one.
I am always disappointed when I see products like their pac man watches that just have a print on it without any game related functionality. This has damaged the brand a lot already, and tbh, after many years being a hard core Casio fanboy I have moved on. But one more gaming watch...
Re: The history of Casio watches
#29> 2016 - First Casio outdoor watch to run Android Wear OS
Could you imagine the situation they were in as the most high-tech watch company in the world? For mainstream relevance you now have to anchor yourself to a smartphone platform that is either a) hostile to your very existence or b) completely abandons their platform and leaves you and your customers out to dry.
I know people complain about car manufacturers being hostile to CarPlay and Android Auto. But I think in the long run, the executives are being smart. Looking down the history of other companies that turned over responsibility of their user experience to tech companies - there's not a good track record of long-term successes.
I still think about the way the CEO of Nokia back in 2010 described what it would be like for them to abandon their in-house OS for Android: "Peeing yourself to stay warm".
Re: The history of Casio watches
#30It's interesting to see how the analog display remained dominant and kept the scope for being artistic and rich, while the digital display appeared exhausted of it's curiosity and awe of 70's and can no longer be made to look trendy.