Skip to main content

John’s Watch Box #3: Casio Calculator Watch

Hey, everyone! Today, we’re going to be taking a look at the humble Casio CA-53W, one of the most iconic digital watches of all time. Worn by Marty McFly in the later Back to the Future movies and several other famous characters, this nerdy calculator watch is somewhat of a legend, especially in 1980s pop culture. As a result, I decided to pick one up!



This watch cost me only $20, but it feels surprisingly sturdy and comfortable. Its resin strap and case body seem to be fairly durable, its display is easy to read, and it doesn’t look quite as ridiculous on wrist as I thought it would be. That said, this watch’s acrylic crystal does scratch very easily, its buttons aren’t very good, and on this model, there is no backlight to speak of. On a more expensive timepiece, these issues would be quite annoying, but I can forgive them given this watch’s price.



Aside from the calculator functionality, (which supports basic math operations and not much else) this watch is more or less your standard digital Casio affair. You have date, alarm, dual time, and stopwatch functionality, all of which are fairly easy to figure out. Setting the time on this watch was a bit cumbersome, but I was able to figure it out after some trial and error. Regardless, I found the user experience on this watch to be fairly intuitive.



So, is the Casio CA-53W worth buying? If you like the look of it or just want to travel back in time to the ‘80s, this rad little calculator watch is definitely worth the $20! However, I do realize that it’s not for everyone, and there are certainly more versatile digital watch offerings from Casio out there. Still, if you too are a massive nerd who thinks that these calculator watches are extremely fly, I think that you’ll also find that this watch is $20 well spent.



Want your own CA-53W? If so, here is the Amazon listing that I got mine from.

Popular posts from this blog

Late 2014 Mac mini in 2022 - Still Worth Buying?

About a year ago, I reviewed the 2014 Mac mini on this blog. Ultimately, I came to the conclusion that it was still an excellent machine for productivity tasks, but it could also handle some more intense things you threw at it. Thus, it became my daily driver up until I upgraded to a 2017 MacBook Air a few months ago. That being said, I’ve still been using it some, so I thought I’d briefly share how it’s holding up these days. Here are my thoughts on this miniature Macintosh one year later! Performance  Over the last year, I’ve been impressed by how much this Mac can handle. It’s rocking a 2.6 GHz dual-core Core i5 with 8 GB of RAM and a Samsung 860 Evo 1 TB SATA SSD. What all that jargon essentially means is that it’s a moderately powerful little computer, although it certainly isn’t going to put newer Macs to shame. Regardless, I’ve been able to do lots of coding, video editing, and schoolwork on this computer, and it has generally worked pretty well. Granted, it can take a while...

I love my Instax Mini SE. Here's why!

Hey, folks! I did it. I finally got into instant photography. And I love it. Admittedly, I've had some experience with instant photography before now. I got my first instant camera at a thrift store in 2022. It was a Polaroid OneStep from the 90s, and while film was still readily available for it, it was far too expensive to justify using it regularly. As cool as instant photography was, I accepted that it wasn't economically viable for me and moved on. ...Until about a month ago! On one of my first dates with my girlfriend, she introduced me to her Fujifilm Instax Mini 11. It was a much more compact and modern instant camera than my Polaroid. It also used smaller film slides. This was a big deal, as she informed me that the smaller film came at a smaller price. I was intrigued. A couple weeks later, I ventured to Walmart and splurged. I picked up the cheapest Instax they sold: The Mini SE. It only cost about $57, and it came bundled with 10 slides of film. I also picked up an ...

Violoncello for Windows is finally here!

Hi, everyone! Ever since I first started working on it over a month ago, I have spent countless hours creating and perfecting Violoncello for Windows. Featuring a slick and minimal UI, lots of customization options, and support for Windows versions going all the way back to XP, I am very pleased with how the Windows version of Violoncello has turned out. As a result, I am very excited to announce that Violoncello for Windows has finally been released! Violoncello for Windows is packed with features, some of which are found in the mobile version, and others that are not. Some of these include: Open in main browser: Easily open the page you are currently viewing in Violoncello in your default browser! Custom search engine: Choose from Bing, Google, DuckDuckGo, Wikipedia, or set your own. Lots of customization: Change the background and text colors, and choose a font. Bookmarks: Easily manage and visit bookmarks. Jump to top: Quickly jump to the top of a page. (0, 0) Those are most of the...