If you ask Casio, smartwatches are nothing new. The Japanese company will tell you that they offered such devices as far back as the early 1970s. More than 30 of these will be on display as part of an exhibit by the Toshio Kashio Memorial Foundation which is named after Toshio Kashio who founded Casio with his brothers in 1957.
The exhibition will showcase an impressive array of technologies. While none of these paired with smartphones (which did not even exist for many of these), they did offer many functions that we now find on our smartwatches.
The oldest model on display is 1974’s QWO2-10 which was the world’s first watch to come with an auto calendar function. 1984’s CD-40 came with a “data bank” with enough memory to store up to 10 names and phone numbers.
Casio introduced the JG-100 game watch (pictured above on the left) in 1994, allowing players to play against friends in infrared “Cyber Cross.” A year earlier, it offered up the CMD-10 which came with a TV remote control. Other watches included ones with barometers, depth meters, electronic compasses and even one sporting a thermo scanner (the TSR-100 on the right above).
The Casio Exhibition will run from June 10th to July 24th at the Casio Museum, which is none other than Kashio’s former home in Tokyo. Admission is free but reservations are required.
Sources : Toshio Kashio Memorial Foundation // The Wall Street Journal