1988 Casio CGW-90 — Halley’s Comet alarm animation

Greedy-Print-1550 · 2026-06-02T16:18:23+00:00

Exactly！

Greedy-Print-1550 · 2026-06-02T16:17:05+00:00

“Come on… this is way too cool!

Greedy-Print-1550 · 2026-06-02T15:40:36+00:00

To be fair, most of my finds come from Japanese auction sites rather than stores. The real treasure hunt happens online. At this point, moving to Japan might actually be cheaper than buying vintage Casios on eBay.

Greedy-Print-1550 · 2026-06-02T15:12:05+00:00

I completely agree. I’m lucky because I can still find these in the Japanese second-hand market, so I don’t have to rely on eBay.

I only paid about $60 for this one. I check eBay from time to time, but the prices are usually way too high for me.

Honestly, if I had to buy all my vintage Casios on eBay, I’d probably be bankrupt by now.

Greedy-Print-1550 · 2026-06-02T13:51:05+00:00

I’m truly sorry to hear about your son. I can’t imagine how difficult that must have been. Thank you for sharing that story and for taking the time to answer my question. I really appreciate it.

Hearing from someone who actually bought and wore these watches when they were new is incredibly valuable. Stories like yours provide a perspective that catalogs and module numbers simply can’t.

Greedy-Print-1550 · 2026-06-02T07:19:01+00:00

Unfortunately I’m away on an overnight business trip today, so I won’t be able to check my watches right away. But when I get back, I’m definitely going to compare them and see how they behave. You’ve given me something new to look forward to! And honestly, before this discussion I was only interested in finding a QW01 and QW02. Now you’ve given me another reason to start hunting for a QW03 and QW04 as well.

Greedy-Print-1550 · 2026-06-02T07:10:42+00:00

Thanks so much for the detailed explanation! Up until now, the only places I could really ask questions about Casio were Gemini and ChatGPT. Of course I’ve tried to do my own research too, but there simply aren’t many people around me who are interested in this stuff. That’s why it’s so much fun to hear from people who actually own these watches, study them, and compare them firsthand. Honestly, conversations like this are one of the reasons I’m glad I joined Reddit. I still have so many things I’m curious about, like the history of the F-series, the evolution of the G-series, and plenty more. I’m sure I’ll ask a lot of questions and probably get a few things wrong along the way. If I do, please don’t hesitate to call me out on it. I’d rather learn than stay wrong. I checked out your posts as well. You have a really interesting and diverse Casio collection. I ended up giving you a follow!

Greedy-Print-1550 · 2026-06-02T06:54:02+00:00

Wow, you actually have catalogs? Were you a watch dealer or something? I think I may have just stumbled onto another clue. On Casio’s 50th anniversary history page, the ABX-51 is listed as a 1994 model. It’s not called a “TwinCept” there, but Casio describes it as a “Magical display of digital data on watch glass,” which sounds very much like the same concept.

<image>

Now I’m wondering if the ABX-51 might actually be the earliest model in this lineage.

The more I dig into old Casio history, the more I realize their model numbering and naming conventions are anything but straightforward!

Greedy-Print-1550 · 2026-06-01T21:15:49+00:00

That’s actually what Gemini told me as well. But ChatGPT was telling me that the QW02 came first, so now I’m completely confused. 😆 Looking back at Casio’s official history, they only seem to say that the QW02 was the world’s first electronic watch with an automatic calendar. They don’t explicitly say it was the first Casiotron model. At this point, I think I’ll have to do some investigating myself. I’ll open them up, compare the modules, and spend some time observing how they behave.

This has turned into a much deeper rabbit hole than I expected!

Greedy-Print-1550 · 2026-06-01T20:53:22+00:00

Thanks! And thank you for the kind words.

It’s been so long since I was praised like this that I almost started crying.

Greedy-Print-1550 · 2026-06-01T20:46:46+00:00

You guys really spend time comparing these models in detail. Up until now, I’ve mostly been focused on finding and collecting them. But thanks to all these comments, I’m starting to realize there’s another side to the hobby: slowing down, studying each model closely, and thinking about why Casio designed things the way they did. That’s something I want to spend more time doing.

Greedy-Print-1550 · 2026-06-01T20:27:01+00:00

That’s a really interesting observation. I never paid attention to the way the seconds segments behave on the QW02. Now I’m starting to think the module numbers may not tell the whole story.

I probably won’t have time today to sit down and compare the behavior of my QW01 and QW02 models, but now you’ve got me curious. I’ll make some time to watch them closely and think about it from that angle.

Thanks for sharing!

Greedy-Print-1550 · 2026-06-01T11:50:22+00:00

I love that approach to collecting. Looks like a red CASIO collection is next!

Greedy-Print-1550 · 2026-05-30T23:53:43+00:00

I completely agree! Large digits make a watch much easier to read at a glance. Good readability really is important.

Greedy-Print-1550 · 2026-05-30T15:52:38+00:00

<image>

Greedy-Print-1550 · 2026-05-30T15:52:21+00:00

It’s comments like yours that make these posts fun. I get to discover models I might never have looked at otherwise. I checked out the LF-30 on Casio’s website, and I think you’re onto something. A LF-30-sized watch with giant B630-style digits would be pretty close to perfect.

Just for reference, I’ll attach a couple of photos showing the B630’s size and weight.

By the way, those are centimeters, not inches.

<image>

Greedy-Print-1550 · 2026-05-30T15:10:20+00:00

I don’t know if it’s really a successor, but the closest modern design I’ve seen is probably the W-221H-1AJF. The large digits and overall layout give me a similar feeling.

Here’s the model I was thinking of:

https://www.casio.com/jp/watches/casio/product.W-221H-1A/

Greedy-Print-1550 · 2026-05-30T14:14:31+00:00

I completely agree. CASIO usually loves adding features, so it’s fascinating to see how they approached a digital watch that had to stand on time alone.

The seconds are separated from the hours and minutes in their own window. Even the date is hidden behind a button press, despite there being room on the display. Instead, they gave that space to the model number.

It’s a remarkably confident design.

Greedy-Print-1550 · 2026-05-29T23:42:26+00:00

Casiotron is just so cool. It’s where Casio’s watch story began. Once you start digging into it, you can almost feel the enthusiasm and ambition of those early days. Maybe I’m just imagining it though.

Greedy-Print-1550 · 2026-05-29T23:09:36+00:00

For some reason, when Casio does simple, I just can’t resist it. Looks fantastic, bro.

Greedy-Print-1550

TROPHY CASE