Who the heck wants to wear a Casio calculator watch in 2024? We’re not entirely sure. If you love your retro digital watches, though, and enjoy dressing up like an absolute dork from 1981, there’s no better way to do it than rocking a vintage-style timepiece that can perform math computations on your wrist. The new Casio CA53WB brings back the classic nerd watch from the 80s with a 70s-inspired twist that makes it even more retro.
That’s right, Casio’s newest calculator watch doesn’t just reprise the original from 1980. Instead, it draws inspiration from the Casio Mini, the outfit’s original personal calculator from 1972, borrowing the design motifs that set that calculator apart, making for an even more retro version of an already retro design.
The Casio CA53WB is a digital watch that takes on the familiar styling of the classic calculator watch from back in the day. It has a calculator-style dial consisting of an LCD strip on top and a full numeric keypad below it, allowing you to perform arithmetic computations like people did before calculators became a simple app on your phone and PC. The same buttons can also be used to fiddle with the settings of the watch, allowing you to play around with the other functions, from adjusting the time and changing the date to setting alarms and using the chronograph features.
It uses a negative LCD, by the way, so you get a black background with green text, which feels decidedly more modern for whatever reason. Is it easy to use those buttons? Well, they’re small, but they’re, at least, actual physical tactile buttons, which should make them a lot easier to work with than the touchscreen calculators you might find in modern smartwatches. Considering how well we adapt to tiny touchscreen displays, we’re guessing it will take no time to get used to these as well.
The Casio CA53WB comes with the usual functions you find in Casio’s digital watches, so you get dual time zones, stopwatch, alarms, and a full auto calendar, while keeping time at an accuracy of 15 seconds per month, give or take. The case measures 43.2 x 34.4 x 8.2 mm with a resin construction that, the outfit claims, is water-resistant, although they didn’t list an actual resistance rating. It runs on a single CR2016 coin battery that should last it a good five years of operation before needing to be replaced. The watch is compatible with bands from 120mm to 180mm in size.
Three new colors are available for this particular design, each of which is lifted directly from the colors of various elements in the Casio Mini calculator. There’s a white colorway that mirrors the white buttons of that 70s calculator, a black one that resembles the black hue on the left panel of that same calculator, and a blue-green hue that mirrors the color of the vintage calculator’s main enclosure. Yeah, it’s a real tribute to one of Casio’s classic products.
Will the Casio CA53WB sell as well as the 70s calculator that inspired it? Probably not, considering that thing sold a million units in less than a year. It will definitely have an audience, though, considering the love people these days have for retro watch designs. Price is $35.95.
