Casio unveils MIM ring watch to celebrate 50th anniversary
Casio Computer Co Ltd, Tokyo, Japan, has released a metal injection moulded ring watch to celebrate Casio Watch’s 50th anniversary. The newly developed CRW-001-1JR miniature watch is the first functional, ring-sized model produced by Casio and is around 10x smaller than a normal watch.
Metal Injection Moulding was used to manufacture the case, case back, and ring in one piece. The ring watch has an inner diameter of 20 mm and a circumference of 62.8 mm, with the company providing spacers to make it fit different-sized fingers. The six-digit LCD displays time down to the second, and features calendar, dual time and 1/100-second stopwatch functionalities controllable through three buttons.
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Metal Injection Moulding technology has been used by the watchmaking industry for many decades, establishing itself as a cost-efficient manufacturing technology for innovative watch designs. These can range from everyday stainless steel watches to luxury, diamond-clad timepieces. Ceramic Injection Moulding (CIM) is also used, with many high-value designer watchmakers adopting the technology.
Casio has used MIM before in the production of its watch cases, recently highlighting its use in the G-Shock Mudmaster watch. Here, a complex button guard MIM component was produced in stainless steel.
Citizen Watch Co was the first of the watch companies to establish an in-house Metal Injection Moulding facility in Tokyo, Japan, in 1987, for the production of parts such as stainless steel watch cases and tungsten alloy balance weights used in automatic watches.
Swatch Irony watches were also an early application for stainless steel Metal Injection Moulding watch cases. The first MIM nickel-free 316L stainless steel Irony watch cases for Swatch came off ETA Manufacture Horlogere Suisse’s in-house MIM production line in Grenchen, Switzerland, in October 1994.
The ring watch is another example of the dominance of Metal Injection Moulding in the consumer electronics industry, with major application groups being smartphones, wearable devices, computers, etc.
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