If you spot watch with a digital display, chances are you’re looking at the touchscreen of an increasingly ubiquitous Apple Watch or one of its Android-compatible competitors. And among the most popular features of these wrist-worn computers is their fitness-tracking tech.
Knowing that this ability to log physical activity is a major selling point of today’s digital watches, Casio has done something clever. The Japanese watchmaker had already sold tens of millions of models from its Vintage sub-brand of retro designs, first launched in 2018. With the arrival of the ABL100WE-1AVT, there’s now a Casio Vintage watch that can aid users in achieving their fitness goals.
The ABL100WE-1AVT is a very faithful successor to the A168 that debuted in 1995, featuring Casio’s signature angular case, prominent LCD, four buttons, the electroluminescent backlight-denoting word “Illuminator” nestled beneath the front-facing logotype, and a lay-flat multi-row metal bracelet that adds just a touch of elegance to largely utilitarian digital timekeeping design.
But beneath that nostalgic aesthetic lies the watch’s standout feature. Just like an Apple Watch, the ABL100WE-1AVT boasts a 3-axis accelerometer to count steps. Users can set their goal at between 1,000 and 50,000 steps then view their activity in hourly increments through the Casio Watches smartphone app—the same robust interface that’s long been used by wearers of Casio’s top-selling G-Shock line of ultra-rugged watches. The ABL100WE-1AVT can be set to sound an alarm when prolonged inactivity is detected, and it can even trigger a jingle in the case of a lost phone.
These smartwatch-mirroring abilities all come in addition to traditional features that have been offered by Casio watches for decades, including dual-time display, a stopwatch function with a 200-lap memory, a countdown timer, five daily alarms, and a two-year battery life courtesy of the widely available coin-shaped CR2016.
The Casio ABL100WE-1AVT isn’t a smartwatch, but it can perform the task that’s made smartwatches so popular. Perhaps it’s biggest selling point, though, is that it monitors activity with timelessly cool retro aesthetics—without looking like a computer on your wrist. $94.95
