Casio’s New Watch Can Withstand Environments Even G-Shocks Can’t

Through its G-Shock line, Casio has built a reputation as a maker of some of the toughest watches in the world. G-Shocks are built to withstand myriad extreme outdoor environments, but there’s one place where even a G-Shock dares not to tread: A sauna.

The combination of high temperatures and high moisture levels in saunas and steam rooms spells disaster for almost any watch. These elements are known to kill electronic devices like quartz watches and potentially destroy the gaskets that keep water out in mechanical watches.

But Casio is tackling this final frontier of watchmakers with a new sauna watch. With its diminutive size and strap that resembles an old-school phone cord, it’s a far cry from a G-Shock, but it also might be the brand’s most purpose-built watch ever.

Casio

It’s Getting Steamy

For its sauna watch, the Sadokei, Casio has employed a few unique innovations and features.

The watch features a new heat-resistant battery suitable for use in the high temperatures of a sauna. The case, meanwhile, is crafted from a new type of low moisture permeability resin that resists moisture, meaning the watch won’t fog up in the sauna. The resin case also has the added bonus of keeping any metal from contacting your skin, preventing any potential burns you’d get with a steel watch.

The watch is also water resistant to 50m, and Casio says it can withstand temperatures up to 212°F, which is the boiling temperature of water. (Hopefully, your sauna is much cooler than that.)

Casio

The quartz-powered analog watch is simple and has just two modes. Pressing the large “mode” button at 10 o’clock will cycle between the current time and a 12-minute timer, which is a commonly recommended amount of time to spend in a sauna. The “reset” button at 2 o’clock resets the sauna timer. The hands are lumed to make them readable inside a dark sauna.

The watch’s strange and divisive looks are as much a result of style as substance. The unique elastic spiral cord strap is made of resin and stretches to fit. Like the case, it has no metal parts, so it won’t burn you. The strap was also chosen to be a bit of a fashion statement, as Casio designed the watch to look like a set of locker keys you’d wear around your wrist.

As for the watch’s limitations, Casio recommends it not be exposed to a sauna environment for longer than 15 minutes. Any longer, and the moisture- and heat-resistant materials may begin to break down. The brand also recommends wearers keep the watch on their wrist at all times while in the sauna, as the watch’s temperature will rise faster off-wrist, potentially shortening the amount of time it’s safe to leave it in the sauna.

Casio

Pricing and Availability

For reasons that are unclear to me, Casio is crowdfunding this watch rather than just selling it outright. It’s available exclusively to the Japanese market and is currently raising funds on the site Makuake.

The price of the Sadokei is, in typical Casio fashion, dirt cheap. The white/orange and blacked-out versions of the watch both have a full retail price of 9,800 yen (~$65), while the blue version — a collab with Japan’s largest online sauna search site, Sauna Ikitai — is priced slightly higher at 11,300 yen (~$75).

The crowdfunding campaign began on December 2, and Casio announced plans to run it for three months. But on the first day, every single watch sold out. I’d call that a successful campaign.

For now, Casio hasn’t announced any plans to sell the watch on its own website or make it available anywhere other than Japan, which means most of us will have to try our luck on eBay in a few months if we ever hope to get our hands on one of these curiosities.

Casio

Casio Sadokei Sauna Watch

• $65 at Makuake

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