I forget what lead me into my wife’s sock drawer when I was looking for something last week. I was obviously running out of options, because the chances of finding anything in there were truly slim to none. Or so I thought before I rummaged through the socks and discovered a BIG surprise.

After wondering many times over the years, “what ever happened to that cool blue Casio I had in the 80s?,” it all of a sudden dawned on me that I was looking right at it—sitting there in the back of the drawer where it got packed in 1987, moved to Los Angeles, and then lost in the shuffle for nearly 20 years. I had no idea what model I was looking at, or what condition I left it in, or even whether I should be careful about touching it, for fear of the toxic waste that was probably oozing out of the case. I could see the watch didn’t have its original strap anymore, after wearing it for several years before we moved, and that meant my antediluvian Casio had a battery that was something like 25 years old, still festering inside.

All of these thoughts created a combination of curiosity and hesitation as I pulled my long-lost favorite out of its time capsule. At first, I’ll have to admit that things didn’t look too promising. The face was naturally blank and lifeless, and a disgusting yellow crust had fermented between the nylon strap and the caseback. It was a yucky scene, and a little bit dispiriting. If that scuzzy crud didn’t have an external origin, like my own sweaty residues from a bygone era, I knew that my exciting little discovery was quickly going to fizzle into another “Al Capone’s Vault,” if you remember Geraldo’s pathetic treasure hunt on prime time TV. True, I do not have an audience of 30,000,000 viewers, or a 57 share, but I was strongly channeling on Geraldo’s aura when I ran into this mess:

You can imagine my surprise then—stunned amazement really—when a single push of the B button brought my gnarly relic back to life! Here it is, still running in April 2007 on the original lithium battery (sorry for the hand held photo that I took in a rush for fear of losing the moment). The start-up display dates the module No. 106 to January 1980, matching closely with the time frame I remember buying it.

The Rip Van Winkle Casio,
Still Running on Original Lithium Battery After 27 Years

That is one helluva battery—for the record, a 3v lithium Matsushita Electric model, marked BR2320, that ran like a charm for another five days until it finally gave out when I was testing the alarm function. Could this be the longest running battery in WIS history? I checked the Guinness Book of World Records, which disappointingly lacked this obvious category, so let me gamely challenge the readers of GMT+9 to produce a longer runner.

After a little distilled water removed the gunk and largely restored the case to its former stainless luster, I began to get excited. I visited my friends at Timeland on Olympic Boulevard and had the battery changed. Everything inside the case looked brand new, including the large wafer battery that was no worse for wear after 27 years, and the smooth, flexible gaskets that we left in place after pressure testing them to 100 meters. Even admitting that my wife’s sock drawer is not exactly the Great Barrier Reef, it was amazing to find everything so well preserved. Seeing the screen come to life with all of its original contrast, just as it looked back in the day, was great.

The Spruced-Up Model H101, Module 106

Some Historical Background

It was time now to figure out what I had, so I ventured into the fascinating sub-culture of vintage Casio collectors to learn from the experts. There are legions of G-Shock collectors around the world, but only a relative handful of Casio fanatics seem to know much about the pre-G-Shock era. It’s an odd paradox, because Casio built a huge variety of digital marvels during the years between 1976 and 1983. According to Casionerd’s remarkable database (startlingly comprehensive, if occasionally incomplete), Casio released no fewer than 485 different models during this fantastically productive period. Don’t ask me to explain why their popularity pales in comparison to the G-Shocks, because there is a virtual gold mine of great timepieces among them.

After visiting the lively and absorbing Nerd Watch Forum, it didn’t take long to discover that my 100m “Marlin” Alarm Chronograph (Model W150, alias H101, Module 106) is an esteemed favorite in the pantheon of vintage collectors. When you handle the watch in person, it’s easy to see why. The heavy stainless case, handsome dial, wonderful Marlin logo, and elegantly functional module have all stood the test of time. The mineral glass face gives the watch a vivid, dynamic appearance and everything conveys manufacturing excellence and careful design. All of these elements must have impressed me when I bought the Marlin back in 1980, but only the perspective of hindsight reveals its close connection to immortal icons just over the horizon. More about them in a moment.

It’s no simple matter to enumerate all of the Marlin variations, because there is nothing in Casio’s model naming system that indicates the Marlin’s presence. The Marlin logo isn’t consistently applied to watches with diving capabilities, and many, if not all, of the Marlins were short-lived. Various lists and compendia contain a variety of Marlin examples, but none that I have seen come close to comprehensiveness. I decided to compile my own list, and confirmed with photographic evidence (from all over creation) that each of the following models do indeed have Marlin logos. Though I would not bet the ranch that my list is complete, I haven’t seen another one quite like it, or nearly as long. Please let me know of missing items here at GMT+9, and I’ll post an update right away:

Vintage Casio Marlins

Date Introduced, January 1, 1980
Inflation Adjusted Dollars (1980 $50 = 2007 $125)

100M
Model W100, alias H110 on caseback, Module 106, list $39.95
Model W150, alias H101on caseback, Module 106, list $59.95***
Model W150C, alias H101 on caseback, Module 106, list $54.95
Model W200, Module 108, list $39.95
Model W250, Module 108, list $54.95
Model W250C-1, Module 108, list $49.95
Model W300, Module 106, list $34.95
Model W350-1, Module 152, list $49.95
Model W350C-1, Module 152, list $39.95
Model W400, Module 106, list $29.95
Model W450-1, Module 248, list $49.95
Model W450C-1, Module 248, list $39.95
Model W550, Module 81,
Model WS70, Module 145,
Model WS710, Module 145,
Model W750, Module 248, list $44.95
Model W750C. Module 248, list $34.95
(*** the buried treasure)

The Beloved Marlin W350, a Favorite Among Collectors

50M
Model W21, Module 152,
Model W23, Module 248, list $29.95
Model W24, Module 248, list $24.95
Model W25, Module 108
Model W35, Module 248, list $34.95
Model W36, Module 248

Potential Suspect w/out photographic confirmation
Model W51, Module 106, list $39.95

An Intriguing and Rarely Seen “Lefty” Marlin: Model 21, Module 152
(Source: felix_77, Nerd Watch Forum)

Progenitor of the G-Shock

After studying chronological sequences of earlier Casios in wonderful archival sites like Kim Patterson’s Casio Vintage Digital LCD Watches and the magisterial MEINE KLEINE UHRENSAMMLUNG, and gathering many other photographs on my own, I’ve gradually reached the conclusion that the Module 106 Marlins, like the one I discovered, occupy a pivotal node in the evolutionary sequence leading to the original G-Shock DW-5000C of April, 1983. So far as I can tell, they are the first watches to assemble all the essential ingredients of the DW-5000C, except for G-ness itself. Put another way, the first G-Shock was essentially a Marlin 106 wrapped in shock-proof casework. Here’s the argument for my working theory, pending corrections from you real experts around the world.

The DW-5000C with the Marlin H101, Module 106
(Source: casionerd)

[1]. Along with several other models introduced in January 1980, the Marlin belongs to the first generation of 100m Casio digitals that could operate in truly hostile environments. In this way it expressed the engineering ambition of extreme survivability that would soon become Casio’s horological signature. To be fair, one could argue that earlier models with 50m resistance expressed the same intention, without quite achieving it.

[2]. The LCD in Module 106 appears to be the first to achieve the classical “semi-nested” configuration—with the date segregated in its own rectangular sub-window, while the day floats next to it in open space and the time spans the full rectangular window down below. The 106’s semi-nested design passed unmodified into the DW-5000C’s Module 240, and there became an icon in G-Shock history.

[3]. Module 106 shares a common manual with the 240, 248, 280, 491, 493, 495, 548 series*** (at least, so I gather from Kim Patterson’s G-Shock archive, with corroboration from the original authoritative source, casionerd.com), and therefore shares, in large measure anyway, a common functional blueprint with them. The nested sub-window displays the time in the stopwatch and countdown modes, and thereby provides functional parallelism in an otherwise serial sequencing of the modes. [*** The 106-248-280 module design defined the time keeping engine in many classical models, including A-250, W-100, W-52, W-23, A-254, W-35,W-450, DW-1000, DW-5000, WW-5100, DW-5200, WW-5300, DW-5400, DW-5500].

[4]. The graphic design of the Marlin H101 106’s outer dial also closely informs the DW-5000C. Both watches frame the digital display with nested polygons, extending the nesting motif from the LCD to the dial beyond. A white rectangle directly borders the LCD, and visually separates it from the dark outer dial. This rectangle is then nested inside an irregular octagon—a rectangle with trimmed corners—whose shape anticipates the (now iconic) eight-sided bezel and case. The nested polygons define a series of nooks and crannies where graphic elements document the sequence of modes’ and their pusher operations right on the dial (along with other features like Lithium batteries, water resistance, and alarm icons). The self-contained instruction manual is a signature of Casio’s design philosophy, and a precursor of modern control systems in many applications. It is a brilliant idea that makes the serial layering of complicated functions practical for everyday use. I’ve especially enjoyed the hourly chime function, with its pleasing chirp that is so familiar from days gone by, and, yes PeteW, it also sounds on the half hour, just as you speculated.

My Rejuvenated Marlin H101, Mod. 106 with a Modern Cellphone,
A Lineal Descendant of Casio’s Self-Documenting Design Philosophy

[5]. Arguments [1-3] also apply to the Marlin W400, Module 106, whose plastic case more directly anticipates the G-Shock. The W400’s outer dial design looks much less like a DW-5000C than does the H101’s, however.

A Marlin W400 with Plastic Casing

Underneath its plastic shroud, the DW-5000C has an octagonal stainless steel case that closely resembles the more expensive Marlins’:

Stainless Casing of DW-5000C

After achieving 200m water resistance in the DW-1000 of 1982, it only remained to develop the shock-proof floating module design, and the G-Shock was born in 1983.

200m DW-1000
Sometimes Called the Pre-Cursor of the G-Shock,
But Its Segmented LCD and Dial Designs are Off-Key
(Source: casionerd)

Back in the Future

If you’re a Casio lover like me, you probably know already how it feels to cast aside watches (plural), with truly reckless abandon, only to see them—well…, ones like them— become prized collectors items years later. Some sour second guessing is the bitter pill you’re left to swallow, because who ever gets a second chance to save those treasures in a dry, cool place for enjoyment in a future time? I would have said nobody until last week, when fortune smiled on me, and provided that second chance. What a pleasure—knowing all I do about watches today, but didn’t have a clue about then—to re-experience my first serious timing watch, with its fabulous chronograph and unheard of accuracy, in a distant future almost 30 years later. The Marlin H101 marked the beginning of my sustained interest in careful timing—a hobby that lends insight about every area of life—and began my collection of high precision chronographs that I’ll continue to lay out here on GMT+9. Of course, my fascination with the Marlin in 1980 was purely instrumental, without a care about the technological legacies or design innovations that now give it a special place in history. I am truly a proud owner, and thrilled to (re)join the club of vintage, Casio collectors. It’s not exactly that I didn’t know what I was missing. It’s that I was missing what I didn’t know I had.

Sources on Vintage Casios

For those interested, here are some sources that I’ve enjoyed in my research about the seminal Marlin series:

Dojo’s outstanding archive of the original Casiotrons from 1976 is a wonderful labor of love, including some cool advertising materials:

Magic Digitals surveys mostly European watches from before 1980, but as long as we’re going down this road.

The PocketCalculatorShow Nerd Watch Forum and Museum.

Kim Patterson’s Vintage Casio Archive is an Australian goldmine of great reference materials and excellent photography.

The German Site Meine Klein Uhrensammlung [”My Small Clock Collection”] is a blockbuster, including a wonderful 34 page Casio Catalogue from 1984.

Archival treasures from the power collector casionerd.

Stephan Werner’s uber collection.

The Digital Watch Forum.

G Museum (Japan).

M’s Room (Japan).

Unbreakable by Carlos Perez.

Casio Heaven.

UT Design (Japan).

Monde Watch (Japan).

Reto Castelazzi’s Casio Collection.

Stephan Haeger’s LED, Calculator, Rendering, Laserdisc site.

Wasted Bytes.

And, of course, G-Peopleland.

Thanks to all of these dedicated enthusiasts for preserving Casio’s fascinating history, and making it possible to reconstruct events that otherwise would be lost forever in the mists of time. I’m going to enjoy my Marlin more than ever because of your great work.

This entry was posted on Sunday, April 29th, 2007 at 7:44 am and is filed under Casio. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. Both comments and pings are currently closed.