One watch is enough for me and that's casio for me.
To me, they represented the highest form of functional and consumer utility at a justified price. No fluff, no marketing that bordered on propaganda. Japanese consumer technology meant something incredibly precious to people in underdeveloped and developing nations.
It wasn't just about utility. It was about social status, too, and owning a generational asset that would continue to work for decades.
A Japanese consumer device meant that you had worked hard to afford a luxury, and that luxury did not derive its merit from a brand name, but rather from manufacturing ethics, quality, and the long-term, sustainable value it offered, all while being at the cutting edge of technology.
A Rolex watch uses essentially the same mechanical principles that have existed for generations. Its merit today is largely in its brand, not in being at the cutting edge of technology. An iPhone, on the other hand, is largely seen as consumable. Most modern electronic devices are treated as disposable, depreciating products.
But a Made in Japan Casio watch in the 1980s or 1990s was an asset.
There is a beauty and a tragedy in those vintage Japanese watches.
I see it when I talk to people in their 60s or 70s who struggled to raise families in developing countries on middle-class incomes. A Casio calculator for their children when they start their high school. A Sony TV for the family to gather around and watch. A Toyota as their first family car.
These weren't merely consumer products. They were milestones. They represented years of hard work, sacrifice, aspiration, and the dignity of finally being able to afford something that was genuinely well made. Something that would last. Something that could be passed down.
I don't want to hear about GDP, artisanal blue jeans, or deer based tourism industry when it comes to Japan. I see how an industry and an economy that once produced these things on such an extraordinary scale have been diminished.
I don't want to rationalize it or dissect it.
I simply find it truly beautiful what that nation once built on an industrial scale.
mikece•35m ago
Exactly what a watch should do.
Casio nailed it!
rc1•33m ago