Casio made an Oura Ring alternative that's everything but smart
You can now tell the time right on your finger thanks to the CRW-001-1JR
💍 Casio made a ring that tells the time
📐 It’s made from a single piece of metal and comes with a classic digital face
📱 It’s not a smart ring, which means you can’t track your health with it
🇯🇵 Casio will sell it in Japan to celebrate 50 years in the watch business
Casio has been making watches since 1974, but now the company is going further up your hand with its new ring. Now, before you get excited, it’s not a smart ring like the Oura Ring or Samsung Galaxy Ring. Instead, it’s a wristwatch that’s been shrunken down to fit on your finger. It’s certainly one of the more unique wearables we’ve seen lately.
Check out: PS5 Pro review: One week with Sony's new PlayStation console
Called the CRW-001-1JR, the ring was created to celebrate Casio’s 50th anniversary of making watches. It’s around an inch in size and comes with a six-segment LCD screen with room for the hour, minutes, and seconds. There are a few buttons you can press to access features like a stopwatch, a backlight, an alarm, the date, and more. The most notable missing feature is a calculator, but that would be a bit of a challenge to use on such a small screen.
The ring is made from a single piece of metal using an injection molding process that helps to give the CRW-001-1JR a premium look. Because it’s a single piece, Casio is only making a US size 10.5 ring, so you’ll have to use one of Casio’s silicone adapters to help it fit snuggly. That’s in direct contrast to Timex’s ring which comes with a stretchable “band” to accommodate for larger fingers.
In addition, Casio says its battery can last up to two years and is easy to replace, while the whole package is completely waterproof.
What this ring isn’t is a smart ring. There’s no step tracking, heart rate monitoring, fitness tracking, or other health-monitoring features that we're used to seeing from companies like Oura, Samsung, Ultrahuman, and Amazfit. The CRW-001-1JR is simply a fun publicity stunt that Casio is using to celebrate 50 years in the watch business, which makes the whole thing a bit ironic given it’s a ring.
Casio will sell the CRW-001-1JR in Japan for ￥19,800, which translates to about $128.
Max Buondonno is a writer at The Shortcut. Follow him on X @LegendaryScoop.