I hate smart watches. Don’t get me wrong, I don’t mind when other people have them on, I just can’t stand having one myself. I got a smart watch almost as soon as it was mainstream because I am not just a Millennial but I belong to the even more tech-snobby species Millennials In Engineering School. When I was wearing the watch, I found myself responding instinctually to the buzzing on my wrist by turning and looking at it, or at the very least being momentarily distracted by having to actively decide not to look at my wrist.
My smart watch served to highlight all the things I dislike about smart phones: they make me almost too connected, notifying me of every event and message in real time, and they can easily distract me from focusing on the task at hand or the people around me. With my smart phone there is an obvious solution: put my phone out of reach when I don’t want the distractions. Once I had a smart watch, it was like someone had strapped my phone to my wrist and I could never escape it. My productivity and mental health saw a sharp and noticeable decline.
I didn’t want to give up on the cool new tech, so I started deleting apps and changing settings until I reached a balance where the watch had all the functionality I needed and none that I didn’t. What I ended up with was an analog clock face on a touch screen.
Faced with the reality of my own tech phobia, I found myself standing in front of a shelf of watches in a Generic Big Box Store. There were dozens of options, and I was about to resort to the advanced eeny meeny miny mo theorem when I noticed a calculator watch. The only calculator watch. In a move that felt somehow impulsive and obvious, I left the store with that Casio Databank.
The Casio Databank quickly proved to be one of the best products I’ve ever used, and cemented its place as the favorite purchase of my young adult life.
Even if I never used the calculator on my watch, it would still be a good watch. It does all the things I need it to: it tells me the time and date. I honestly thought when I purchased it that the calculator face was just going to be an aesthetic bonus, a sort of geek chic accessory. I’m happy and surprised to report that I actually use the calculator every single day.
When I’m working on new hardware designs, I need to do quick measurement calculations without putting down the prototype. When I’m in the lab, I need to figure out concentrations from weights when I’m across the room from my notebook and computer. When I’m chatting with friends and coworkers I need to remember a number and I won’t want to take the time to pull out a pen to jot it down. In all cases I turn to my Databank.
It’s not that I can’t live without a calculator watch, but it has become an important tool in my arsenal because it increases my productivity without bogging me down with unnecessary functions and features. It was only able to become so integral to my routine so quickly because I didn’t have to change my behaviors to experience it’s usefulness, and it was intuitive to use from the start.
A watch is such a utilitarian product, it should be obvious and easy to use the first time you put it on. The Casio Databank doesn’t need instructions, because the calculator looks and behaves just like a pocket calculator while the time-telling is as bare bones as a digital watch can be.
The front face of the Databank has all the buttons for calculator functionality. Over the years, Casio has continued to use mechanical buttons, never switching to any kind of touch screen. This is one of the crucial design decisions that makes it such a good product. By using mechanical buttons and simple circuitry, the watch battery can last for years at a time – no charging required. Arguably more valuable though is that having physical buttons allows me to use the watch without looking at it. If I wanted to divert all my attention to a calculator, I could just pull out my phone.
There are only two other buttons to control the Databank, both located on the side of the watch face. One of the buttons is for setting the watch, while the other toggles between the time display and the calculator. The brilliance and simplicity of the stimulus-response compatibility in the design makes it nearly impossible to get confused. The “setting” button is flush with the watch face so that you have to really look for it and intentionally press it. You’re never going to accidentally hit that button and be flummoxed by a blinking and incorrect time the next time you glance down. The toggle button, in contrast, is standing out from the watch face. The textural difference makes it immediately easy to find and press.
At the risk of becoming redundantly repetitive, this means I can reach over, change my watch into a calculator and use that calculator all without having to look at it. In a world where touch screen and voice technology are becoming the standard for a modern user experience, simple tactile controls are being increasingly overlooked as solutions.
With its calculator watch, Casio has managed the designer’s dream: they created a product that went from being perceived as high tech to hipster to retro over three decades without ever changing or becoming obsolete.
The aesthetics and technology of the Casio Databank have remained the same since it was introduced in the early eighties. While it is impressive that they are still making a profit on these watches at all, it’s even more impressive that they continue to be desirable and popular. I’ve been stopped in the street by people demanding to know where I got my watch. This is something that has actually stood the test of time.
As tempting as it is to emulate the hottest new tech companies when working on products, I think I’ll be spending more time looking back a few decades. Maybe I’ll figure out what they were thinking in Tokyo in 1984.