Casio: The Watchmaker Redefining Innovation and Affordability

Discover the history of the watchmaker that has redefined innovation and affordability so well that everybody, from celebrities to budget-conscious individuals, has embraced Casio as their trusted timekeeping companion.

Casio has expanded to become a global leader in the watchmaking sector, renowned for its innovative spirit, distinctive designs, and superior engineering. But how did it get here?

This article is a story about how a Japanese man single-handedly conquered Mount Titles!

So let’s get started.

Once upon a time in 1946, a man named Tadao Kashio founded a company in Tokyo, Japan. He called it Casio.?

When his company first started out, it was a calculator-focused electronics business. He unveiled his company’s first electronic calculator in 1957 and almost immediately, engineers and scientists took a liking to it owing to the tremendous technological development.??

After the success of his calculators, Tadao then expanded into the world of watches and launched his own digital watches in the early 1970s. These watches, which came with a variety of features like alarms, stopwatches, and countdown clocks, immediately became popular with customers. This is how the protagonist of this story - Casio watches - was born.

The real success of our hero can actually be tracked back and attributed to the “Quartz Crisis”.?

What is the “Quartz Crisis”, you ask?

Okay, time for a quick story inside the main story. (Woah, Inception much!?)?

The “Quartz Crisis” is arguably one of the most revolutionary events in the history of watchmaking. It relates to a time in the 1970s when Japanese watchmakers, who were making high-end and reasonably priced quartz timepieces, posed a serious threat to the Swiss watch industry. At the time, Swiss watchmakers were renowned for their pricey and frequently-maintained classic mechanical watches.

Mechanical timepieces were less accurate than quartz watches, which incorporated electrical components. In addition, quartz watches needed less upkeep and were considerably less expensive to build, allowing Japanese watchmakers like Casio, Seiko and Citizen to sell high-quality watches for a fraction of the price of Swiss watches.

With many traditional watchmakers finding it difficult to compete with the accessibility and precision of Japanese quartz watches, the Swiss watch industry suffered as a result of the advent of quartz watches. It is believed that the market share of Swiss watch brands plummeted from around 50% in the 1960s to as low as 10-15% in the 1980s. When several Swiss watchmakers took their time implementing quartz technology, their market share continued to fall. This is why it’s called the “Quartz Crisis”.

Okay, back to our main story now.

The Quartz Crisis allowed our protagonist to swoop in and become a game-changer in the watchmaking industry. Casio placed a lot of emphasis on innovation, which allowed it to launch diverse watch collections that offered a wide range of features and capabilities.?

Take for instance Casio’s G-Shock collection. These watches are known for their durability, shock resistance, and water resistance up to 200 metres, thus making them a popular choice among military personnel, outdoor enthusiasts, and adventure seekers. Because of these competencies, Casio sold over 100 million G-Shock watches worldwide since its introduction in 1983.

There’s also Casio’s PRO TREK line of watches that offers GPS, Bluetooth connectivity, and activity tracking; making it a popular choice among outdoor enthusiasts and athletes.

One of the great things about Casio and its entire brand identity is that they provide tremendous value for money.?

Casio’s collections are renowned for being reasonably priced, which has made them available to a variety of customers. The company's timepieces come with a variety of features and abilities equivalent to those of luxury watch brands but at a far lower price. For instance, Casio’s PRO TREK model ref no PRG-340-1 costs around Rs 16,000, whereas Garmin’s Fenix model which has roughly the same features, would set you back around Rs 50,000.

This has made our hero a well-liked option for those looking for a high-quality watch without breaking the bank.

Now, while Casio knew it was a home-run product, it was aware that for its long-term success, something revolutionary needed to be done.?

It wanted itself to have a distinct identity, value, and purpose.?

The hallmark of our hero has been innovation and affordability but it wanted its collection to have a specific brand marker. Therefore, our hero set off on a quest to become a symbol of youth culture and functionality.?

The important word here is culture because this was Casio’s ticket to long-term customer loyalty.

Our hero dreamed of being associated with hip-hop, and in the 80s, this dream came alive. The Beastie Boys, N.W.A., Public Enemy - this was the era where our hero came to the public consciousness. It's no surprise to know that the watch that met the raw energy of the streets that hip-hop brought to music was G-SHOCK. Artists, musicians and rappers quickly took notice, and started wearing Casio's G-SHOCK in studios, on stages, and on the streets where they lived.

Moreover, our hero’s inclusion in motion pictures and television programmes influenced popular culture. Our hero has appeared in a number of movies like Back To The Future, John Wick, Ocean’s Eleven and Men in Black. These appearances have contributed to Casio’s cultural icon status and its rise in popularity.

Our hero always committed to innovation and affordability which made its products a part of popular culture. Think about our hero’s G-SHOCK line. Don’t you think of it as a symbol of toughness and durability, as is often seen in movies, TV shows, and music videos??

Now while everything seemed to be going hunky-dory for our hero, this story would be incomplete without an antagonist, or rather antagonists.?

Casio’s runway success pissed off many luxury Swiss watch brands like Rolex, Patek Philippe, Audemars Piguet, Blancpain and Vacheron Constantin. These existing luxury brands enjoyed a virtual monopoly and were now feeling the heat from this new guy, Casio. Our hero’s quartz movement technology was so disrupted that it prompted our antagonist to pivot to also (reluctantly) start producing quartz-powered watches. In fact, one of the oldest antagonists in our story, Blancpain, infamously said, “There has never been a quartz Blancpain watch. And there never will be". This is probably why you haven’t heard much of this brand, as it struggled to keep up with the new characters in the story.

Casio’s commanding performance and modern technology directly affected the operations of other affordable brands such as Timex and Seiko. These watch brands also took advantage of the Quartz Crisis and mass-produced high-quality and affordable watches.?

The one reason why Timex and Seiko didn’t reach the heights of Casio is that Casio paid attention to building its culture while also ensuring it made the best product available to consumers.?

The brand is so beautifully positioned that you will see people from all walks of life wearing a Casio watch.?

Now you might be wondering why do luxury Swiss watch brands still exist if affordable watches have become such a runaway success? The answer to this question lies in the next article, so watch out for that!

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