hile today’s household names, the likes of Seiko, Grand Seiko, Citizen and Orient, started out as watchmakers with origins that go back to the very early twentieth or even late nineteenth century, Casio was founded in 1946 in a country still reeling from the aftermath of the Second World War by brothers with no connection to the watch industry. Casio’s story is characteristic of the efforts of an entire nation which, in a few short decades, went from defeat and devastation to global leader in technology and economic superpower.

The story begins post-war with Kashio Seisakujo, a modest business manufacturing gears and parts for the country’s industry as it slowly rebuilt itself. Tadao Kashio’s first invention was an unlikely finger-mounted cigarette holder that let Japan’s workers smoke their tobacco to the very last drag while continuing to use their hands.

Finger-mounted cigarette holder

This unusual pipe was, in itself, a symbol of the thrifty, hardworking mentality of these immediate post-war years. An unexpected success, profits from the cigarette holder provided the Kashio brothers with money to invest in a much larger and more complex project: calculators.

From calculator to watch

The four siblings went on to form Kashio Keisanki, better known as the Casio Computer Company, and in 1957 presented the Casio 14-A. This was the world’s first fully electric calculator, driven by an electromagnet. The size of a desk, it weighed 140 kilos and would set Casio on the road to success.

Casio Mini electronic pocket calculator – 1972

The company embarked on a race to develop the most innovative technology ahead of rivals such as Sharp, which released the first transistor calculator. Inventions came thick and fast to produce calculators that were more powerful, faster and, crucially, smaller. Miniaturisation was the key and in 1972 Casio introduced the Casio Mini, a revolutionary pocket calculator. The battle for miniaturisation and advancements in electronics would rage for several more years, but let us switch our attention from calculators to watches, specifically the very first Casiotron, released exactly 50 years ago in 1974.

The first Casiotron from 1974

“What is the essence of timekeeping?”

Launched in 1974, the Casiotron was a technological and conceptual revolution. Casio had taken the LSI (Large Scale Integration) tech it had developed for its calculators and applied it to watch production, combining between one and ten thousand components on integrated circuits. As for the concept, Casio had asked itself “What is the essence of timekeeping?” and come to the logical conclusion, for a company developing and manufacturing calculators, that “watches simply add up seconds.”

Such a concept could not be further from the thinking of traditional watchmakers, who could never conceive of adding together seconds in the same way a calculator adds numbers. For them, time is an assembly of gears and will always be cyclical. In fact their watches dispense with seconds altogether - or at least, choose not to display them.

The Casio Watch 50th Anniversary Casiotron TRN-50SS. The re-created dial features a blue fluted pattern and gold accents to evoke the sky, the sea and sunlight. The screw-lock case back is embellished with the 50th Anniversary logo in a gold tone. The 50th Anniversary lettering reappears on the mirror-polished bicolour bracelet.

As is often the case, out-of-the-box thinking was the key to radical innovation.

The Casiotron digitally displayed hours, minutes and seconds, as well as the correct month, date and day of the week in an automatic calendar that required no adjustment: a world-first in a digital watch.

Almost overnight, it became the symbol of the giant strides Japan was making in technology.

The original Casiotron cost the equivalent of an entire month’s starting salary for a university graduate, making it the first luxury digital watch. Casio offered a range of models: round, square, slim, even one with an 18k gold-filled surface. In addition to the automatic calendar, in 1976 the Casiotron X-1 incorporated new functions of a stopwatch, counter, world time and dual time. As demand exploded, the Hachioji factory switched from producing calculators to making Casiotron watches. More assembly lines were opened in other parts of Japan, together with the vast Hamura R&D Center in Hamura City, Tokyo. Plants were set up outside Japan to make cases and certain other components. A quarter of Casio’s employees at that time were engineers.

Among the salvo of innovations that followed: in 1980, the W100 with a rigid resin case and 100-metre water-resistance and the C-80, the first calculator-style Casio watch; in 1981, the J-100 jogging watch with functions such as time, distance and average speed; in 1982, the T-1500 and T-2000 with English-Japanese and Japanese-English dictionaries, the TS-1000 with built-in thermometer and the first Casio analog-digital combination watch with three hands. Launched in 1983, the AT-550 or Janus Read Sensor let users write numbers and maths symbols with a fingertip then showed formulas and calculations on the liquid crystal display: a forerunner to the touchscreens of today’s smartphones and smartwatches.

The list goes on but let’s pause in 1983 (just as Casio is about to ship its 100 millionth watch, a figure reached in 1984) and the launch of an instrument that would overturn the public’s idea of what a wristwatch should be.

The Saga of the Shock

Released in 1983 (turning 40 last year), the G-Shock came at a time when wristwatches were thought of as sensitive mechanisms that should be handled with care. Suddenly, here was a tough watch built to withstand falls and impacts. In fact its creator, engineer Kikuo Ibe (who had joined Casio in 1976), came up with the G-Shock after accidentally dropping and breaking the mechanical watch gifted to him by his father.

Since its launch, the watch that Kikuo Ibe initially imagined would appeal mainly to construction workers operating pneumatic drills has sold in excess of 100 million units. That’s a lot of drilling! Over its 40-year existence, the rugged, durable G-Shock has become the archetypal “tough guy” watch as well as a pop-culture staple. It has conquered the women’s market as the Baby-G, grown hands for an analog display, harnessed solar power, connected to smartphones and revealed a more sophisticated side with versions in precious metal. It has also become more… Japanese. These developments owe nothing to chance but mirror changes in an industry that had already seen the mechanical watch make a spectacular comeback and an expanding luxury market. Now smartwatches were challenging Casio on its “home turf”.

Europa Star 1995

[For more on the situation for Japanese brands and the Japanese market, read our interview with Chronos Japan editor-in-chief Hirota Masayuki].

The MR-G: the G-Shock goes upmarket

The G-Shock’s first venture into the higher end of the market came when Casio launched the G-Shock MR-G in 1996. Whereas the original model featured an outer case made from shock-absorbing urethane, Kikuo Ibe and his team were eager to achieve the same level of protection with just a metal case.

The seeds for the solution were sown after studying the structure of car bumpers. Ibe and his engineers came up with a design that inserted shock absorption between the bezel and the case. They also gave the airtight crystal an L-shape, to provide cushioning between the bezel and the crystal.

The “multi-guard” metal structure of the G-Shock MR-G-B2100B

The full-metal MR-G retailed for five times more than the average G-Shock, revolutionising its image. The collection rapidly expanded with the emphasis on the superior quality of its materials, advanced production methods and state-of-the-art technologies.

The G-Shock completed its image transformation last year, for the model’s 40th anniversary, when Phillips New York sold a G-Shock crafted entirely from 18k yellow gold. A worldwide limited edition of one, the G-Shock G-D001 (D for Dream) fetched $315,000. Proceeds were donated to the environmental organisation, The Nature Conservancy.

The G-SHOCK Dream Project ‘G-D001’

Harnessing Japanese culture

Alongside research into materials, ergonomics and technological performance, the culture, traditional crafts and aesthetic codes of Japan have played a pivotal role in the G-Shock’s gradual transition away from its image as an inexpensive, purely functional watch.

One of the most striking examples of this fusion of cutting-edge technology and traditional craftsmanship is the MRG-G2000HT, launched in 2017. In addition to Bluetooth connectivity, GPS Hybrid Wave Ceptor assures accurate timekeeping anywhere in the world. Technology aside, the bezel as well as the central links of the bracelet are the work of Bihou Asano, a master craftsman in Kyoto whose family has preserved the ancient tsuiki technique of hammering a pattern into armour and other metal objects. Here, the forged titanium is hammered with a design known as kasumi-tsuchime, hardened, then finished with a diamond-like carbon coating in a rich “Japan blue”.

And why not? As every visitor will have observed, Japan is a society where technological excellence and deep-rooted cultural values constantly overlap.

By calling upon traditional artisanal techniques, Casio gave its MR-G models a more marked Japanese identity that would distinguish the brand from its global competitors and elevate its ultra high-tech watches.

The latest addition to the G-Shock 2100 analog line, the MRG-B2100 is conceived, in Casio’s words, to “deliver the sophisticated refinement of traditional Japanese aesthetics.” Inspiration for the dial comes from kigumi, a traditional joinery technique that uses neither nails nor screws. Interlocking wood shapes form geometric patterns which can be seen in buildings as well as in numerous Japanese handcrafts.