I’m the final individual on earth who wants one other watch. As The Verge’s resident wearables reviewer, I’m at all times double-wristing the newest smartwatches. I’m additionally the final one who wants one other ring after spending an entire summer time sporting six of them like a high-tech mafia spouse. But I by no means mentioned I had good sense, so I’ve spent the previous few weeks sporting the $120 Casio CRW001-1 — or maybe extra aptly named, the Casio Ring Watch.
There is not any pretense right here. This is a tiny Casio watch that sits in your finger. Casio made it to have a good time its fiftieth anniversary and to money in in your retro design nostalgia for the halcyon age of our collective youth. It harkens again to the classic watch rings of the ’80s and ’90s, which you’ll find on Etsy for $10. This specific one simply occurs to be totally useful.
Unboxing it, my first thought as an affordable individual is that nobody ought to purchase this. For starters, it’s at the moment unavailable on Casio’s website and goes for upward of $300 on eBay. (Such is the destiny of limited-edition gadgety baubles.) In an age when eggs price $5 a carton — $7, for those who stay in my neck of the woods — your cash might be spent on extra sensible issues, particularly because you in all probability already personal a dozen devices that may additionally inform you the time.
Not to say, this ring watch solely is available in a single 10.5 measurement. If your fingers are smaller, you’ll want one in every of two included spacers to make it match. If your fingers are larger, sorry. No enjoyable for you. Besides, how sensible might one thing like this be? Never thoughts that it has a stopwatch, an alarm, and twin timezone options. You’d in all probability by no means use any of them, as a result of what are these, buttons for ants?
These have been my mature, accountable grownup ideas earlier than slipping on the ring. Unfortunately, the second it was on my finger, I morphed into the hhhehehe lizard.
It simply seems to be cool. The Casio Ring Watch is the type of dweeby stylish that jogs my memory of childhood: earlier than puberty and the consuming want to slot in, when sporting Disney princess tiaras and Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles watches was legitimately cool. You’d put on your nerd gear to the playground, and a random child who favored the identical stuff would abruptly grow to be your greatest buddy.
In the previous few weeks, the Casio Ring Watch has felt like a sleeker, extra refined model of that, as associates, colleagues, and strangers alike cease me in my tracks to ask about it. I’ve acquired extra compliments on this lil’ doodad than my wedding ceremony ring. I bumped into a star make-up artist for a Grammy Award-winning diva and cultural icon at a piece occasion. They have been the kind of individual with impeccable threads, somebody you see and suppose, “Wow, God actually does have favorites. What’s it wish to have such a powerful sense of private model?!” Well, that individual pointed at this ring watch, requested me what it was, and complimented my model. Me, a schlubby pajama gremlin who lives in coffee-stained sweatshirts and leggings! Perhaps they have been simply being well mannered, however the expertise left me peacocking for the remainder of the day.
You might argue that perhaps that’s the purpose. At its core, it is a piece of jewellery. Jewelry is commonly useful, positive, however I’d guess you don’t love your favourite non-smart watch or ring as a result of it’s sensible. You love the way in which it makes you are feeling about your self, the recollections it evokes, and the irrational pleasure it sparks each time you gaze upon it.
If that’s all of the Casio Ring Watch was, I’d nonetheless adore it. But as foolish as it’d sound, I’ve discovered it surprisingly sensible to have a tiny watch on my finger.
Case in level, it’s impolite to look at your watch or cellphone throughout a dialog. It’s a lot simpler to faux to be deep in thought, look down at your ring, and discreetly grok the time that manner. The different day, I used to be bundled in a winter parka with sleeves so lengthy and tight that I couldn’t take a look at both of my smartwatches. I might, nevertheless, peek at my hand and make sure that the craptacular NJ Transit app was a unclean liar and my bus was a number of minutes late. More than as soon as, I’ve been engrossed in a draft, glanced down at my arms typing on the keyboard, and realized that I used to be about to be late for a gathering.
It’s not excellent. Occasionally, I look down and it’s on the improper mode. Thanks, sausage fingers. I can’t, for the lifetime of me, keep in mind begin the stopwatch, though I’ve learn the handbook a number of instances. Setting the time is tedious. These buttons are so tiny, they’re annoying to make use of, and so they’ve despatched a number of press-on nails flying. The backlight is so faint, it’s ineffective at nighttime and in direct daylight. Even so, I smile each time I take a look at this factor.
Technically, I’ve dozens of smartwatches and sensible rings which can be rather more spectacular. They do the whole lot from telling the time to alerting you when your well being takes a nosedive. As I discussed, I’ve by no means truly wanted a hoop watch. I’ve no cause to have one, aside from I prefer it. And but, each morning, this foolish little gizmo is what I stay up for sporting most.
