The Japanese electronics giant has recently opened a museum exhibition showcasing its rich histoy of digital watches, which are also resurfacing on wrists today. The launch is priming consumers for the release of a new Casio Smartwatch, planned for March 2016.

I subscribe to the theory that fashion cycles every few decades. While the experts in the feild cannot agree exactly how often that cycle repeats itself – some say its every 20 years, while other others say its up to 40 years – it’s certainly true that fashion trends repeat themselves. In fact, I’ve found myself wearing some objects that my father used to wear when he was my age. And one of the things he used to wear during the 1980s was a digital Casio wristwatch.

Today we see more and more of those digital relics on the wrists of millenials, indicating that perhaps we are bringing an old cycle back to life. We see more and more vintage digital watches from the likes of Casio and Seiko on the streets today. But little do we stop and think that those digital models were, in fact, the original “smartwatches”.

It’s timely that Casio recently launched a museum exhibit in Japan, with the objective to showcase its pioneering digital wristwatches. The grandfathers to the current smartwatches, they often did not meet their sales expectations after their releases. Kazuhiro Kashio, president of Casio explains, “At times we just showed off with quirky features and then pulled those products when they didn’t sell well.” These included watches with communication functions and heart rate monitors, that unfortuantely did not have the daily applications back then.

Perhaps Casio was ahead of its time? But going forward is another story, as Kashio adds, “We are trying to bring our smartwatch to a level of watch perfection: a device that won’t break easily, is simple to put on, and feels good to wear.” You read right, Casio is planning to re-enter the smartwatch market, again.

In fact, according to the Wall Street Journal, the company has reportedly been working on the development of the new smartwatch for four years already. It’s been careful not to let the word out, however, because it wants to make sure the new release will be a success.

The goal is to target men focused on outdoor sports and leisure, providing them both functionality and appearance. But Casio’s president remains cautiously optimistic, “I don’t think the smartwatch will be an instant success but we want it to grow in the long term,” he said. The brand is now shying away from making “gimmick” watches – which added some novlety but were not very practical – and focusing on making a solid watch first, with smart functionalitiy as a secondary objective.

Today, the brand’s watch operations make up roughly 50% of total sales (the other half being comprised on calculators, cameras and even smartphones), which bodes well for trying to take a share of the increasingly crowded smartwactch market. Slated for a release in March 2016 – beginning with the Japanes and the U.S. markets - the new Casio offering will compete directly with the Apple Watch sport, near the upper end of the smartwatch price scale.

On the back of its past experience, and the present resurgance of its vintage models, the market seems ready to welcome a new smartwatch from Casio. And we certainly expect it to spend more time on our wrists than in the Casio musem.