Casio Watches of the 1980s
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There are a few Casios that have cleaner designs.
The Gen Z obsession with Frutiger design wouldn't be the same without the matching typography.
I wish they made something like that, that wasn't 500mm.
That doesn't sound dainty in the least ;)
AND PUT THE FUCKING THING ON A TRANSPARENT BACKGROUND AND DON'T JUST PUT IT ON CHECKERBOARDS
I'm designing some fun stickers for my nieces and can't draw. It's been a learning experience.
All the image sites show the checkerboard patterns to get clicks, the LLMs just observe and regurgitate the pattern.
And, as "advanced" as they are, and so much better than the models that came before, they still don't actually understand what you're asking for.
I use AI to make small edits to designs I've already done (one of our side businesses does deal with graphic design). Like changing the color of an entire layer or quickly editing complicated text. One thing I've noticed is that if you enter more than 2 or 3 edits, every model will just completely redo the design into a generic AI mess. I don't know why they lose the thread, but you have to really work one step at a time and waste time generating multiple images as steps in the process. There's only one super useful AI tool in this space, but it's locked behind an annual subscription by Corel.
It's great for rough drafts, but requires real work to turn into something final. It's PHENOMENAL at macro building and saves just a metric shit ton of time there. It's also very good at multiple simple changes if you don't want to actually build a macro.
They seem to have hit the sweet spot of providing the tool to support the artist instead of just replacing the artist skills.
Edit: I am unaffiliated with the company other than using their product. It actually turned me from a one time purchaser when I needed the updated tools (twice, I think) to an annual subscriber. I said I would never do that, but it really is an extreme time saver.
https://www.casio.com/us/watches/gshock/product.GA-2100LXB-1...
They also have entire lines that aren’t G-shock such as their edifice line that are more dress oriented
https://www.casio.com/us/watches/edifice/product.EFV-160D-1A...
Fact is g-shock is their most popular line and they release collabs with streetwear brands all the time. People really like the styling
Weird? It looks much more elegant, if you know what I mean. They should also remove the "WR" sign. But I guess Casio knows what sells and what doesn't.
My A159W is my daily driver. I prefer it to my Apple Watch, which I've pretty much stopped wearing. I am not in a wealth bracket to afford wearing mechanical watches.
My Casio is a cheap watch, kind of quirky, and I love it!
I think it suits me very well.
The excellent Seiko 5 can be had in a wide variety of styles, many for under $100. Seriously, they're very good.
https://orient-watch.com/en/orient/collection/classic/classi...
Great watches and good value for money but that seems an odd design choice to me. Perhaps it makes sense in the Japanese market.
There's very few (if any) Seiko 5s that are under $100 anymore. Maybe under $200.
I got myself a few Chinese-made clones of mechanical watches. They are surprisingly durable and well made, many have good movements inside (like Seiko's NHxx) and there are certainly plenty to choose from under $100.
It's a bit of a rabbit hole so be careful and not go too deep :)
granted that requires taking out the face plate and rubbing off the print you want to remove
Minimalism didn’t really take off until Apple made it fashionable.
But check out the Casio MQ-24, it’s cheap and cheerful but has a much plainer face.
GW-BX5600 is sooo close to being a perfect watch, but they just had to plaster the watch face with all that text and that ugly solar pattern.
I frankly just wish it had a backlight.
Except I agree, in an analog watch it's somewhat classy (although people complaintthat seiko sometimes overdoes it) but on a digital watch it seems a bit gaudy, because _of course_ it has those features, it's almost zero effort to add when you're not having to implement them with physical mechanisms.
Those were fun as a toy for dew months, but in the long term, I just dont care.
That said, there are several AW apps that I've or my spouse have used that might be to your liking. I've used Autosleep (not in a while, though), and I think it might be more along what you're looking for (though you've not said specifically what you're looking for). It tries to figure out sleep patterns, and all that other stuff. More like what Garmin offers, I guess. Autosleep is pretty good at figuring out when you go to sleep without telling it. Meaning, for example, it picks up naps that Apple's built-in doesn't.
My wife has used Pillow, and it seems okay. Same as above with functionality, though I've forgotten why I didn't use Pillow instead of Autosleep.
HTH.
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?
If you think about it instead of pulling out your phone to calculate something back then you could use this
He had the same watch, and the backlight is so horrible. I have fond memories of him holding it up at an angle to check the time.
I only knew him for a few years of my life in early childhood. We'd go on long walks together in the late afternoon. He'd check the time when it started getting dark so we'd be back home in time for dinner!
My grandfather didn't wear the watches, but gifted them - he was an engineer from slide-rule times, and I know really appreciated compact, accessible, functional electronics. He LOVED Sharp Wizards.
From him, I received a Casio Databank, and two calculator watches for which I don't remember the brand.
So - one of the reasons I wear a Casio today.
As you can see by the small text above and below the screen you pushed F1/F2 to select the scientific operation you wanted and then "exe" it. I don't recall how "inv" worked, if you selected sine and then inv to arcsin() it or if you tapped inv as a modal and then "exe" while its inverted.
It really wasn't any harder to use than any calculator watch ever shipped. I imagine no one under age 40 has ever used a calculator watch but they were pretty easy to use, just imagine a basic phone calculator app on your wrist but easier to use tactile because of the keyboard.
Its primary downfall was 1) being very expensive compared to carrying a HP calculator in your pocket 2) the buttons and general construction were extremely delicate, the body was just chrome plated plastic IIRC.
Watches in the 80s were like phones in the 2010s it was assumed you'd only get a couple years use out of them before "having to" replace them due to poor components or style, so there's no reason to ship a long term reliable one. These were not "Rolex" lifetime purchases LOL.
Watch bands were also designed to rapidly fail, kind of like fitness bands today.
Watches in the 80s were a very consumerist hobby. Consumerism changes the individual items but the pattern never changes.
Extreme sensor watches were similar to extreme calculator watches but in the 90s. I had a DPX-500, very nice. The barometer drifted too much to be usable. The compass worked very well. As an "outdoor" watch it was fairly durable, rather like desk workers buying "offroad" SUVs that are never driven offroad as the only way to buy a reliable car.
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 $50 was a huge expense for them at the time, but I sure loved that watch! Westminster chimes on the hours. Staying up to hear it play Jingle Bells for 12am on Christmas and have it wish me Happy Birthday. Having it accidentally go off in Church or school.
It introduced me to some classic songs I hadn't known before, and I'd run through its repertoire for fun, or just cycle through the modes to play the scales.
I wore it long after its stainless steel was scratched and worn.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=T71hN_VW2aI
Maybe if I make an emulator I'll start wearing a watch again!
https://shockbase.org/watches/stats.php
Watches: 6670
It used to be harmless things like a watch, or a portable music playing device. After 2000 you started to worry about what technology extracted from you, and now we're getting to the stage where are worrying about what it's going to do to us intellectually, and soon, physically.
My wishes for a watch do not go much further than "what time is it". To me the only advantage of the Samsung watch is the "Find my watch" feature. If I were stuck with a new copy of the plain Casio watch, I would be fine with it. Interesting that you can still buy one.
Fancier stuff will get done on my cell phone, my Samsung tablet, or my various Linux boxes.
You can get a 40$ watch that has radio accurate time keeping!
Remember that the 1980s was a time when people still needed a watch for PRACTICAL purposes- they needed to tell time. Which a digital watch does so perfectly that you can use it for celestial navigation. And without any maintenance.
Chips. Tiny batteries. Mass production. The Oriental black magic of the eighties.
> 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.
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.
I have a few “dress” watches I’ll wear to weddings and my smartwatch which is nice for the gym and general. But I still have a gshock I keep around for traveling or when I just want something that will work.
The idea you can toss it in a bag or throw it on and it will just tell you time accurately without worrying about it dying or having to maintain it is still incredible.
I stewed with this problem for the better part of a decade, without a solution.
I then stumbled across the Casio AE1200, their world timer. As I thought about it, this was the perfect choice. With a 10 year battery, I could just grab it and go (changing the battery whenever I renew my passport), I didn't have to deal with setting a bunch of complications, because the quartz movement just kept it going all the time. It solved the IST problem. The low cost meant that I could travel without having to worry about my watch... if something happened, oh well, get another one. Along with that, I wouldn't make me a target for pickpockets. I had been so caught up in watch culture that I didn't realize being cheap could be a feature in the right context.
I've had it for about 3 years now and still smile every time I wear it. Sure, it's a cheap Casio I picked up at some random retail store... but it took me 10 years to grow into the person who could appreciate it and it solved a problem that I thought about way too much for the previous decade. It's one of my cheapest watches, if not the cheapest, yet I think it's my favorite one.
A tip for anyone in the market: There is a lot of ugly text on this watch. It can be erased with an eraser. I used a white plastic eraser. At first it doesn't seem like it's doing anything, and then the text is gone. This is much better than the chemical solutions some videos online use.
I was tempted to upgrade the bracelet, case, and crystal. There are options for metal and sapphire from 3rd parties, but if I did that, I'd then be more worried about losing it, which is an anti-feature when traveling. I have intentionally kept it stock other than erasing the text on the case itself to stay true to that realization I had a few years ago.
And credit where credit is due, I think it was the Talking Watches episode with John Mayer and Ed Sheeran that made me realize cheap was a feature. They were showing all these crazy one-of-one watches they had custom-made from AP and alike, but they both just traveled with a G-Shock for some peace of mind.
I absolutely love the stainless steel case. It's heavier (which I love for some reason), looks better, the glass is crystal, and the knobs have a bit more travel and nicer feeling when pushed.
I believe it is possible to request the words on the top and the bottom of the case to not be there. I have no idea why but some people apparently do not like it.
So, totally recommend.
Right. Thanks, ChadGPT.
That’s basically what Rolex and other Swiss watchmakers say about their products.
> 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.
you're probably not thinking plastic Casio. Casio are great watches that are accessible to just about everybody on the planet.
Your comment sounds a lot like propaganda to me.
> ... devices are treated as disposable, depreciating products.
I would argue that this shift really happened in the last 30 to 40 years. We can say it started earlier, but that wasn't true of the majority of goods until around then. Things became "disposable" when the functional innards were reduced to a blob IC. LED lighting taking over pushed it even further.
> Japanese consumer technology meant something incredibly precious to people in underdeveloped and developing nations.
I'm sorry, but I can't agree with this. I grew up pretty damn broke (like unreliable water kind of broke). Perhaps not as broke as you're describing, but there has always been some bittersweet resentment in the back of people's minds this whole time too. Casio watches are the poster child for exactly the decline you claim to be concerned about. Older people I grew up around were not so materialistic.
Yes, they are stylish in a very cool and functional way that deserves more credit. It's a very ethically justified and postmodern-inspired genre of design. It's like jazz. It's fantastically free of dogmas and tropes. People can fearlessly contribute their own cultural perspectives and elevate everyone's taste in the process. Let's keep it that way, by not hugging it to death.
> There is a beauty and a tragedy in those vintage Japanese watches.
Yes, exactly. That's the tragedy. We finally got what we wanted since the beginning of human history, but at what cost?
For me I've been collecting (mechanical) watches for 20ish years. Half my collection is high-end Swiss watches, and the other half is more ecclectic but I have a real soft spot for the former Soviet designs.
They were not expensive, and even now you get a great watch for €50 because they made so many of them.
Although the focus of the USSR watches wasn't that level of quality you see in the Japanese pieces they're so rugged and simple that most of them will outlive me.
I regularly buy 50+ year old watches that have never been serviced and still run properly. Obviously there's some element of survivorship bias at play, but the engineering there is top-notch.
I sometimes feel like functionality and longevity were hallmarks of pre-2000s manufacturing. I remember my mother talking about an old children’s bicycle that a relative had bought in Germany. That bicycle was passed across through multiple families, and an entire generation of kids learned to ride on it.
I've come to the conclusion that the F-91 is better for urban conditions where there's always light and/or a cell phone available, but the F-105 is probably better for going off-grid.
(some context for bystanders: the F-105 is the "illuminator" version of the F-91, so the light feature works much better.)
I've been strongly tempted by the g-shocks over the years, but never quite pulled the trigger. There are so many to choose from, with various features. But seeing this post I figured why not just pick one that looks fun, so I ordered the GMA-P2100-4AER (which is pink).
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.
Out of curiosity went to check if I could buy it but they unfortunately discontinued and now secondary markets list it in the thousands.
One watch is enough for me and that's casio for me.
Is there anything like that around, suitable for timing to the 0.1s level?
https://timex.com/products/ironman-classic-30-mid-size-resin...
Also, in the 2020s, they seem to have given up on watches.
nevertheless nice to see these golden oldies again and read about all the stuff they were adding to them.
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.
Exactly what a watch should do.
Casio nailed it!
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.
Time keeping is a solved problem. Why would anyone spend varying shades of fortune on something that is functionally inferior, but explicitly labels itself a "superlative chronometer"?
It doesn't have the mechanical beauty of an automatic with a perpetual calendar, but is otherwise better in every way that matters, and it is just as pretty.
I wear a mechanical watch (Bremont F15 watch) as a kind of fancy-dress jewelery. It's a fashion / social thing. As a tool, it does not compare favorably.