Casio Shrinks Its Classic A168 Digital Watch Into a Working Ring Watch

The CRW-002 squeezes a stopwatch, a backlight and a two-year battery into a 15-gram steel ring styled after one of Casio's best-known cheap watches. Japan gets it by lottery, and Australia is already taking orders.

TOKYO - Casio has taken one of its most familiar watches and made it small enough to wear on a finger. The CRW-002, announced in Japan over the weekend, recreates the A168, a steel digital watch the company has sold largely unchanged since 1995, as a ring with a working display. The silver CRW-002D-1A costs 19,800 yen in Japan and the gold-colored CRW-002G-9A costs 22,000 yen, tax included, Impress Watch reported on Sunday, Nov. 1.

It is a real watch, not a smart ring. There are no health sensors. Instead, the six-digit screen shows hours, minutes and seconds, and the ring adds dual time, a stopwatch that counts to a hundredth of a second for up to 60 minutes, an automatic calendar, a choice of 12- or 24-hour time and a white LED backlight. At a set time, or at the top of each hour, the light gives a short flash.

A Casio digital wristwatch and the CRW-002 ring watch at a diner table, from Casio’s launch photos. Image: Casio

The body measures 25.2 by 18.2 by 6.2 millimeters and weighs 15 grams. Casio says it shrank a standard watch module to about one-tenth of its usual size to fit three working buttons and a tiny battery inside. Accuracy is rated at plus or minus 30 seconds a month, the battery is rated for two years, and Casio says it can be replaced, with Impress Watch reporting that the swap is done through Casio’s repair service. The watch is water resistant for daily use.

An exploded view of the CRW-002’s parts. Image: Casio

The case and band are formed by metal injection molding, in which a mix of fine metal powder and resin is pressed into molds, so the ring can copy the A168’s case and bracelet details. The band has a matte finish against a glossy case, and the face keeps as many of the original’s printed labels as Casio could fit. The ring is a Japanese size 22, or U.S. size 10.5, with an inner diameter of 20 millimeters, and two spacers in the box shrink it to Japanese sizes 19 and 16.

The gold-colored CRW-002G-9A with its two size spacers. Image: Casio

The new model follows the CRW-001, Casio’s first ring watch, from December 2024. Buying one in Japan takes luck. Casio’s Japanese online store opened a lottery at 10 a.m. on Monday, Nov. 2, and will accept entries until noon on Friday, Nov. 6, with results due on the evening of Thursday, Nov. 12, Notebookcheck reported. The draw is open only to residents of Japan.

The CRW-002 with its LED backlight on. Image: Casio

Australia does not need a lottery. Casio’s Australian online store, run by its local distributor Shriro, listed both versions on Monday for 249 Australian dollars in silver and 299 Australian dollars in gold, with a launch page dated November 2026. There is no word yet on sales in the United States or Britain.