Casio’s first ring watch CRW-001-1 sells out in Singapore and Malaysia

Based on what we experienced online, the Casio CRW-001-1 ring watch launched in Singapore today shortly after 12:00 p.m. We received a notification email for the release at 11:04 a.m. (and Casio Singapore originally announced the launch time as 11:00 a.m.), but we did not see a change in status from the “Coming Soon” placeholder until we refreshed the page at 12:06 p.m., when it changed to the “Notify Me” icon, suggesting that it was already sold out by then. We did not check the site at 11:04 a.m., but we saw that it said “Coming Soon” around 11:30 a.m. We were refreshing every few minutes around 12 p.m., but unlike the U.S. release, we never saw the “Buy Now” or “Add to Bag” link.

Singapore is known to have a passionate G-Shock fan base and probably had a lower allocation of ring watches, so it’s not surprising that it appeared to be even more difficult to purchase online than in the U.S. After reports of a future restocking in Japan and the U.S., it is hopeful that Casio is still producing the ring watch to restock the rest of the world in due time.

CRW-001-1 at casio.com/sg

Although the ring watch appears to be available in Malaysia at casio.com/my, adding it to the cart does not work and says the product is not available. According to Casio Malaysia, the ring watch was released on January 6.

The CRW-001 is Casio’s first ring watch, but the product description on some of Casio’s English-language casio.com sites may be causing some confusion about that. The description reads, “We celebrate Casio Watch’s 50th anniversary by bringing back the very first ring watch. A whole new style of digital watch — both practical and playful — thanks to a miniature module and advanced metalworking technology.” The problem lies with the use of the words “bringing back,” and it should have been “introducing” instead. “Bringing back” suggests that the ring watch is a revival or a reissue (in the vein of the G-Shock DW-5000R-1A), which is not the case. Although the next sentence refers to it as a “whole new style,” the first sentence may still cause confusion. The CRW-001-1 is actually the first-ever functional digital ring watch to be developed and sold by Casio. Other recent marketing material from Casio states that the CRW-001-1 is the company’s first ring watch, and Casio Singapore’s notification email was titled “The Very First Ring Watch.”

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