Still Keeping Time

I’ve seen those Casio digital watches on so many wrists over the years. Silver, minimal, the kind that turns up on bartenders and night-shift people and anyone who doesn’t think much about accessories. My friend Clara’s had the same one for probably a decade. The Japanese company made their first digital watches in 1974, and by the 90s they were everywhere—the kind of thing that becomes invisible and then, inevitably, cool again.

Now Casio’s bringing them back as a Vintage Collection, reissuing the models from that era. The 90s have been creeping back into fashion for a while—velvet, all-denim, tartan, the whole cycle returning. These watches came from that time originally, so re-releasing them as vintage feels inevitable.

The watches are stainless steel, built simple, the kind of thing that works with whatever you’re wearing because they were never designed to make a statement. Six models, none of them expensive. They look clean on the wrist because they’re not trying to be anything other than functional.

What strikes me is that these watches never actually went away. They’ve been in continuous production the entire time. The vintage label is just permission to care about something that was always there. Clara didn’t need the trend—she’d been wearing hers for years anyway. Now that they’re fashionable again, the watch is exactly the same as it ever was. That’s more honest than most style.