The Original Smartwatches: Casio's History of Wild Wrist Designs
At the former home (and, to be frank, dope mansion) of late company co-founder Toshio Kashio, Casio is showing off its rich history of unusual wristwatches, which range from the forward-thinking to the bizarre. It’s a pretty amazing collection, with features I never knew existed in digital timepieces. And while many of these can be seen in a new light given the recent rise to prominence of smartwatches, Casio isn’t trying to claim that it was there first.
I remember having one of these smartwatches when I was a kid. It was fun and I enjoyed changing TV channels at school when I wasn’t suppose to. Back then, it really felt amazing to be able to do that one thing right from you wrist. Now we can do that and and plenty of other things and most of us don’t even find it that big of a deal. Playing music, tracking workouts, and asking for directions all seem like table stakes today.
Maybe I’m wrong, but the more I wear this Watch, the more I’m convinced of its inevitable future on hundreds of millions of wrists. It’s not there yet, but I think when we look back 5 years from now, we’ll see the Apple Watch and other smartwatches as sort of the rebirth of the smartwatch that Casio originally started.