
Wristwatches · Calendar watch
LCD digital wrist-watch with day/date and stopwatch mechanism with stainless-steel case and bracelet
- Maker / attribution
- Casio (Made by)
- Date
- c. 1976
- Historical period
- Quartz Revolution (1969 – 1990)
- Country of origin
- Japan
- Place
- Japan
- Object type
- Calendar watch
- Dimensions
- Length: 24.60 millimetres (dial) Length: 248 millimetres (strap) Length: 38 millimetres Thickness: 9.80 millimetres Width: 34.50 millimetres (case) Width: 28.80 millimetres (dial)
- Holding institution
- British Museum
- Accession / object no.
- 1987,1012.38
- Credit line
- British Museum, London
- Catalogue title (original)
- LCD digital wrist-watch with day/date and stopwatch mechanism with stainless-steel case and bracelet (English)
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Record summary
Held and catalogued by British Museum (object number 1987,1012.38), this is a calendar watch by Casio, made in Japan, dated c. 1976. The Atlas places it in the Quartz Revolution period (1969 – 1990) of its Wristwatches collection. Recorded dimensions: Length: 24.60 millimetres (dial) Length: 248 millimetres (strap) Length: 38 millimetres Thickness: 9.80 millimetres Width: 34.50 millimetres (case) Width: 28.80 millimetres (dial). The record is illustrated with 5 photographs.
Assembled from the source record's structured fields. Dates and attributions are given as the source states them; where a field is missing the Atlas leaves it blank rather than estimating.
Catalogue description
Description — British Museum
LCD digital wrist-watch with day/date and stopwatch mechanism with stainless-steel case and bracelet. Battery-powered quartz controlled movement in stainless-steel and plastic housing. Octagonal dial with central rectangular aperture for the liquid crystal display; around the aperture are labels for the push-buttons, with the days of the week along the top. Stainless-steel case; back retained by screw-on ring with separate cover for the battery cover; stainless-steel bracelet with clasp. When purchased the watch contained a RENATA No15/410 battery.
Inscriptions & marks
inscription; Back; CASIO; CASIOTRON; S-21; STAINLESS STEEL; JAPAN C; 304107; inscription; ST/TM LIGHT START.STOP/CALENDAR [aperture]; inscription; CASIO CASIOTRON [dial]; inscription; CASIO JAPAN NO JEWELS UNADJUSTED [movement housing]; inscription; CASIO [clasp front]; inscription; STAINLESS STEEL JAPAN D [clasp back]
Provenance
Purchased from:, William Skeen
Historical context
Quartz Revolution (1969 – 1990)
Seiko's Astron begins mass quartz timekeeping; traditional industries contract sharply.
Quartz and digital watches transformed the market after 1969. Swiss employment collapsed, Japanese and Hong Kong production soared, and the Swatch (1983) helped the Swiss industry recover; mechanical watches survived as luxury goods.
Read the period in the timelineMore wristwatches from this periodEarlier: Modern Mechanical Horology
Atlas type guide
Calendar, moon-phase and perpetual calendar watches
Calendar complications range from a simple date to the perpetual calendar, which automatically allows for months of different lengths and leap years until 2100. Pocket watches with perpetual calendars were made in the eighteenth and nineteenth centuries; Patek Philippe made the first perpetual calendar wristwatch in 1925, and series production followed in 1941. The annual calendar (Patek Philippe, 1996) needs correction only once a year.
Moon-phase displays use a disc with two moons and 59 teeth advanced daily, approximating the 29.5-day lunation; more precise trains reduce the error to one day in over a century.
What to look for
- Apertures or subsidiary dials for day, date, month and leap year.
- Moon disc under a 'bosom' shaped aperture.
- Recessed correctors on the case band for setting the calendar.
Dating clues
- Triple-date wristwatches: popular c. 1940–1955.
- Perpetual calendar wristwatches: from 1925 (unique) and 1941 (series).
General guidance written by the Atlas editors about this kind of object. It is not a statement about this particular piece; for that, rely on the source record above and on physical examination.
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