The Casio Ring Watch is tiny weird and somehow popular

Is it a ring? Is it a watch? Maybe both. Or maybe neither. A few months ago Casio released what looked like a novelty throwback from a 90s gadget catalogue. They called it the Ring Watch. Surprisingly, it sold out fast. Now it’s back in stock.

It looks like a toy and maybe that’s the point

When I first saw it, I laughed. The Casio Ring Watch CRW-001-1 is, quite literally, a watch you wear on your finger. It’s tiny, almost absurdly so. You press these little metal buttons on the side and a 7-segment LCD lights up with the time. And yet, despite everything about it screaming impractical, people went for it.

This is Casio’s first ever digital ring watch, and it landed at the tail end of 2024 as part of their 50th anniversary celebrations. It went out of stock quickly. Now it’s back again in the UK and some other countries. I imagine it won’t stay available for long this time either.

What you’re actually getting

The body is made from stainless steel and weighs just 16 grams. It’s small, at 25.2 mm across, but it does fit a standard size 22 ring finger (roughly US 10.5 or EU U). If that’s too loose, you get two plastic spacers in the box to help bring it down to a size 19 or even 16. It’s definitely not something you’d expect to adjust like a proper timepiece, but it seems to work well enough.

Once it’s on your finger, you can switch between time zones, start a stopwatch, check the date or even turn on the hourly flash alert. So its fully functional. The LED backlight is very small but does the job if you’re squinting in the dark. It even comes in a little drawstring pouch, just to underline that this is more collector’s item than everyday tool.

This thing actually sold out

What still surprises me is the demand. When I first saw the images, I figured this would be a niche oddity, something Casio was doing for fun. But people wanted it. It’s not that the features are impressive. I mean, it’s fiddly. The buttons are tiny. Reading the time takes effort. And the price, at around £105 in the UK, is steep for what it is. You can check it out on Casio’s website.

But none of that really matters. This is clearly hitting a nerve with collectors, retro fans or just people who want something weird to wear for a few minutes. I’d never call it practical. But if the goal was to make something that feels nostalgic and a bit ridiculous in the best possible way, Casio nailed it.

If you’re tempted, just keep in mind that it’s still limited to one unit per CASIO ID. That probably says a lot about how quickly they expect it to sell out again. As for me, I’ll stick with the usual suspects like RingConn and the Ultrahuman Ring Air. They might not have the same retro charm, but they actually earn their spot on my finger.

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