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It’s counterintuitive, but one of the things I appreciate most about working in the watch industry is being reminded of my blind spots. The narrative is often that this community is small and tightly focused, and on some level that’s true, but I think more broadly speaking, the watch world is actually enormous, and there are large enthusiast communities we’ve barely tapped into. That became incredibly clear over the course of Windup weekend in Chicago as one of the most talked about watches of the show was not actually one that can be worn on the wrist. The Casio Ring Watch was not only the most diminutive timepiece of the weekend, but one of the toughest tickets at the event.
I was aware that these existed prior to Windup but I had no idea they were so sought after and collectible. A peek behind the curtain: as an authorized retailer for Casio, the Windup Watch Shop sells Casio and Casio G-SHOCK watches at the fair, so over the course of the weekend, through Slack messages, daily team meetings with my Shop colleagues, and conversations over quickly devoured lunches before heading back out to the show floor, I was able to get a sense of the demand for these things. Each day’s allotment essentially sold out in the fair’s early hours, and those who were able to grab one felt they walked away with the prize of the show.
The CRW-001 Casio Ring Watch has a retail price of $120, but a quick Google search reveals owners are asking anywhere from $160 to $200 for the ring on the second hand market (at the time of this writing it’s sold out on the Casio e-commerce site). That’s a healthy premium and (maybe) the sign of a genuine collectible, but it doesn’t feel like it’s crossing over into the territory of the absurd. This isn’t a Rolex sports watch trading for three times its retail price – even at the high end of the spectrum, the Ring Watch still sells for a price that is relatively accessible. It’s still fun. It reminds me, in a way, of the early days of MoonSwatch insanity before it became (or was revealed to be) a big, bland, bit of corporate synergy that exists solely to squeeze profit out of watch consumers.
The coolest thing about the Ring Watch though is Casio’s commitment to the bit. This isn’t some quickly produced, disposable gag. It’s a full metal recreation of the familiar G-SHOCK DW5600 case profile, and according to Casio it’s only possible with a special metal injection molding (MIM) process to create a case, caseback, and ring from a single piece of metal. Casio also downsized their standard digital module by a factor of 10 to fit in the watch. Somehow, the tiny LCD can display not just the time, but also the date, a second time zone, and controls for a stopwatch.
Ring watches are not a new development of course. Miniaturization has always been a fascination of watch and clock makers, and early ring watches date to as far back as the 17th century. But I can’t recall a period overlapping with my own watch enthusiasm where the ring watch has truly emerged as a trend. Casio is clearly tapping into something here, something that could have been bubbling under the surface for years, that the community was primed for.
It’s worth pointing out, perhaps, that health oriented products worn on the finger like the Oura Ring are also having a moment. And while the Casio Ring Watch isn’t equipped with any health tracking sensors (and the Apple Watch appears to still be a dominant force in the smartwatch sector), this could be a signal that there’s an opportunity for watch brands to get in the health tracking wearable market in a serious way.
There are a small handful of truly buzzy watch release moments in Windup’s history. The under-the-radar debut of the Bel Canto a few years ago comes to mind, as does the Studio Underd0g “Pizza Party” watch. It’s fun when the doors to Windup open and there’s a real sense of anticipation around a single product. You can see the crowd migrate to one booth to buy (or just get a look at) something that can only be seen there, at the event. I wasn’t expecting this year’s most discussed watch to be one you can’t wear on the wrist, but being surprised is all part of the fun. Casio
