A pedometer that reports to your phone, designed for people who want to know their daily step count without committing to a full smartwatch.
For four decades, Casio's square digital watches stood as deliberate monuments to a particular moment in design history — unchanged because change would have broken the spell. With the ABL-100, the brand quietly threaded a needle that many heritage labels fumble: adding Bluetooth and step tracking without disturbing the aesthetic covenant its wearers hold dear. Now, in July 2026, two new colorways — navy and grey — arrive not as novelties but as confirmation that this balance has found its audience.
- Heritage watch lines face a quiet existential tension: modernize and risk alienating loyalists, or stay frozen and slowly become irrelevant.
- Casio's ABL-100 disrupted its own 40-year design freeze by introducing Bluetooth and step tracking into a silhouette that still reads as 1985 — a genuinely difficult feat pulled off with deliberate restraint.
- The new navy and grey variants, arriving July 2026, carry identical specs to the existing silver and gold models, signaling expansion driven by demand rather than experimentation.
- Priced in the familiar $79–$99 range, the new colorways widen the lineup's appeal without repositioning it, keeping the ABL-100 accessible to retro purists and connectivity-minded buyers alike.
Casio is expanding its ABL-100 Vintage watch line this July with two new dial colors — navy and grey — continuing a careful experiment that began when the original model launched in Japan in August 2024. That launch was quietly significant: for more than four decades, Casio's square digital watches had remained visually unchanged by design, their retro appeal inseparable from their refusal to evolve. The ABL-100 changed that by introducing Bluetooth connectivity and a step tracker, features that could have easily felt grafted-on. Instead, Casio kept them subtle enough that the watch still reads as a classic.
The hardware reflects that philosophy of restraint. The watch pairs a chrome-plated resin case with a stainless-steel bracelet, syncs time automatically via Bluetooth, and offers a step tracker that reports to the Casio Watches app — no heart rate sensor, no GPS, no workout modes. A pedometer for people who want daily step counts without committing to a full smartwatch. Rounding out the feature set are dual time, a 200-lap stopwatch, five alarms, and a coin-cell battery rated for roughly two years. The new navy and grey models carry these exact same specifications.
Pricing for the original variants ran from $79.95 to $99.95, and the new colorways are expected to land in the same range. What the expansion signals matters more than the colors themselves: Casio is treating the ABL-100 as a genuine product line, not a one-off experiment. The market appears to be responding to a watch that looks like it could have been made in 1985 — and also talks to your phone.
Casio is adding two new colors to its ABL-100 Vintage watch line this July—a navy dial model and a grey dial model—continuing the brand's experiment in marrying retro design with modern connectivity. The watches, designated ABL-100WE-2A and ABL-100WE-7A, are cosmetic variations on a formula that already proved Casio could pull off something genuinely difficult: updating a 40-year-old design language without breaking it.
The ABL-100 itself arrived in Japan in August 2024 as a watershed moment for the Vintage line. For more than four decades, Casio's square digital watches had remained visually frozen in time—a deliberate choice that defined the brand's retro appeal. But the ABL-100 changed the equation by introducing Bluetooth connectivity and a step tracker, features that could have easily looked grafted-on or awkward. Instead, Casio kept the additions subtle enough that the watch still reads as a classic, just one that talks to your phone.
The hardware specs tell the story of restraint. The watch measures 41.6 by 37.9 by 8.2 millimeters and wraps a chrome-plated resin case around a stainless-steel multi-row bracelet. The Bluetooth syncs the time automatically and lets you configure settings through the Casio Watches app. The step tracker is deliberately simple—no workout modes, no heart rate sensor, no GPS. It's a pedometer that reports to your phone, designed for people who want to know their daily step count without committing to a full smartwatch.
Beyond the step counter, the watch carries a dual time display, a stopwatch capable of recording up to 200 laps, a countdown timer, five alarms, and an LED backlight. Water resistance sits at 30 meters. The battery, a CR2016 coin cell, lasts roughly two years before needing replacement. These are the exact same specifications as the existing silver and gold models that launched earlier in the ABL-100 run.
Pricing for the original variants started at $79.95 for the silver model and climbed to $99.95 for gold. Casio has not yet announced official pricing for the navy and grey options, though they are expected to land in the same range. The new colorways arrive in July, expanding the palette for buyers who want the functionality without choosing between the existing finishes.
What matters here is not the colors themselves but what they signal: Casio is committed to iterating on this formula, treating the ABL-100 as a genuine product line rather than a one-off novelty. The brand has found a way to add features that modern wearers expect—connectivity, activity tracking—without alienating the people who buy Casio Vintage watches precisely because they look like they could have been made in 1985. That balance is harder to achieve than it sounds, and the fact that Casio is already expanding the lineup suggests the market is responding.
Notable Quotes
The ABL-100 arrived in Japan in August 2024 as the first Casio Vintage watch in the line's 40-plus-year history to feature Bluetooth and a step tracker.— Casio product timeline
The Hearth Conversation Another angle on the story
Why does Casio keep releasing new colors of the same watch instead of just making one definitive version?
Because the colors aren't the point—they're proof the watch is working. If it wasn't selling, they'd move on. The fact that they're adding navy and grey means people are actually buying the ABL-100.
But it's just a pedometer with Bluetooth. Why not add heart rate monitoring or GPS?
That's exactly why it works. The moment you add those things, you've built a smartwatch, and you've broken the design. The ABL-100 stays true to what a Casio Vintage watch is supposed to be—simple, reliable, retro-looking. The step tracker is almost an afterthought.
So it's for people who want a smartwatch but don't actually want a smartwatch?
More like people who want a watch that happens to be smart. There's a real difference. You're not getting notifications or apps. You're getting time, a step count, and a two-year battery. That appeals to someone who finds modern smartwatches exhausting.
The price is interesting—$80 to $100. That's not cheap for a digital watch.
But it's cheap for what it does. You're paying for the Bluetooth, the step tracking, and the fact that it's a Casio Vintage watch, which has cultural weight. The design has been around for 40 years. People collect them.
Do you think the navy and grey versions will actually sell, or is this just Casio filling shelf space?
If they didn't think they'd sell, they wouldn't make them. The original silver and gold models clearly found an audience. These new colors are just letting more people into the same idea.