With the launch of its first watch in November 1974, Casio
entered the wristwatch market at a time when the watch industry had just
discovered digital technology. As a company with cutting-edge
electronic technology developed for pocket calculators, Casio entered
this field confident that it could develop timepieces that would lead
the market.
In developing its own wristwatches Casio began with
the basic question, ""What is a wristwatch?"" Rather than simply making a
digital version of the conventional mechanical watch, we thought that
the ideal wristwatch should be something that shows all facets of time
in a consistent way. Based on this, Casio was able to create a watch
that displayed the precise time including the second, minute, hour, day,
and month — not to mention a.m. or p.m., and the day of the week. It
was the first watch in the world with a digital automatic calendar
function that eliminated the need to reset the calendar due the
variation in month length. Rather than using a conventional watch face
and hands, a digital liquid crystal display was adopted to better show
all the information. This culminated in the 1974 launch of the
CASIOTRON, the world’s first digital watch with automatic calendar. The
CASIOTRON won acclaim as a groundbreaking product that represented a
complete departure from the conventional wristwatch.
Casio
transformed the concept of the watch — from a mere timepiece to an
information device for the wrist — and undertook product planning based
on this innovative idea. We developed not only time functions such as
global time zone watches, but also other radical new functions using
Casio’s own digital technology, including calculator and dictionary
functions, as well as a phonebook feature based on memory technology,
and even a thermometer function using a built-in sensor. The
memory-function watches became our DATA BANK product series, while the
sensor watches developed into two unique Casio product lines of today:
the Pathfinder series displaying altitude, atmospheric pressure, and
compass readings.
In 1983, Casio launched the shock-resistant
G-SHOCK watch. This product shattered the notion that a watch is a
fragile piece of jewelry that needs to be handled with care, and was the
result of Casio engineers taking on the challenge of creating the
world’s toughest watch. Using a triple-protection design for the parts,
module, and case, the G-SHOCK offered a radical new type of watch that
was unaffected by strong impacts or shaking. Its practicality was
immediately recognized, and its unique look, which embodied its
functionality, became wildly popular, resulting in explosive sales in
the early 1990s. The G-SHOCK soon adopted various new sensors,
solar-powered radio-controlled technology (described below), and new
materials for even better durability. By always employing the latest
technology, and continuing to transcend conventional thinking about the
watch, the G-SHOCK brand has become Casio’s flagship timepiece product.
Today, Casio is focusing its efforts on solar-powered radio-controlled
watches: the built-in solar battery eliminates the nuisance of replacing
batteries, and the radio-controlled function means users never have to
reset the time. In particular, the radio-controlled function represents a
revolution in time-keeping technology similar to the impact created
when mechanical watches gave way to quartz technology. Through the
further development of high radio-wave sensitivity, miniaturization, and
improved energy efficiency, Casio continues to produce a whole range of
radio-controlled models.