Smart watches these days can do just about anything. From checking your pulse to carrying out voice commands, it’s only a matter of time before we ditch phones and friends and spend time talking to our wrists.
But it’s not fun anymore. The thrill of wrist-wearing functionality has effectively worn off, and maybe they should start emphasizing on smart rings or necklaces or hankies next (smart hanky: says ‘bless you’ every time you sneeze).
There was once a time when smart watches drew an audible gasp from geeks around the world, and it was the Casio C-80 that gave a whole new meaning to the calculator watch.
The OG Smart Watch
So you’re on the metro or the bus, the year is 1980, and you’ve suddenly figured out the potential number of atoms in the universe! Here’s the catch: you need to do a quick calculation as soon as possible, before the figures escape your mind.
You look to your left, and then your right, but nobody is carrying a calculator. Desperate, tiny beads of sweat sliding down the sides of your face, you’re running out of options, and you need to nail that figure, or it could mean the end of the world!
And then you see it, the gentleman in a suit, wearing a square watch with curved edges, and a full set of digits below the display. It resembles…a calculator! You can hardly believe what it is you’re seeing: a calculator on a watch. Sure they said something about calculator watches in the mid 1970’s, Pulsar and HP was it? But since when did they look this cool! I mean Marty McFly wasn’t wearing either of those, was he?
Yes, it’s the Casio C-80, it is a calculator watch, and it has just saved the world from destruction. Phew.
Key elements
When the C-80 was released, there were a number of features to be excited about. It was advertised as the watch that would ‘replace a lot of other watches. And calculators. And stopwatches.’ And to think, this beauty, with all its curves and edges, was on sale for less than $100 bucks ($75 bucks not adjusting for inflation).
It was also the first calculator watch built ‘for real fingers’ meaning no styluses and pens and all that funny business. In all fairness, your fingers sufficed when operating this device because the digits were well-spaced, and didn’t need to be pressed too hard. Go finger-friendly smart watch!
And here’s the other thing that set it apart from its competitors. Although it was rugged, it did not feel chunky or heavy when worn. Come to think of it, you wouldn’t even realise you were lugging a calculator around on your wrist! The watch weighed 28 grams, which is literally light as a feather (less even if we’re getting technical).
Want to guess at the best feature of them all? It wasn’t the two-time zones, wasn’t the date function, or the stop watch. Yes, those are all brilliant, but the real winner here has got to be the fact that this watch could be worn with just about anything. Suit, t-shirt, you name it, the watch would fit seamlessly in with the rest of your attire.
Setting the trend
When you talk about trendsetters in the world of wrist-wear, you must come back to the C-80. It was the ultimate godfather of smart watches, and following its success, Casio released a touchscreen calculator watch, the TC-50, for $50. The CM-32 that hit markets imminently, was even able to make metric conversions.
These were the prequels to Casio’s Data Bank watches, those that could actually store information such as phone numbers, the first of which was the CD-40. It was watch galore, and Casio were spearheading the revolution of digital timepieces!
Calculator watches today
The truth is, people just won’t see the C-80 and its sequels the same anymore. Everything from the latest smartphone to portable tablets have multiple timezones, sophisticated stopwatches and timers, and, yes, calculators. Let’s face it, the C-80 is nothing more than a retro tool, something to look back on during Thanksgiving dinner, when we can give thanks to the kings of tech for the slew of innovation that has given us so much.
But yes, one would surely want to own a C-80 because even though the Apple Watch can do so much and is so compact and advanced, it just does not look as cool as the OG.