Casio Takes Crack At Smartwatch Market But Can It Outshine Apple Watch?

Despite the fact that Casio has fallen out of the limelight for quite some time now, the Japan-based multinational electronics manufacturing company has a comeback plan: Smart watches.

Casio is planning to enter the smart watch segment with a new wearable of its own, the company's president and chief operating officer Kazuhiro Kashio announced.

Kashio took helm of Casio in late June.

Casio is no stranger to selling smart watches. The company has sold devices with Bluetooth connections in the past, however this sounds something more like state-of-the-art and basically more worthy of the tag "smart watch."

In a recent interview with The Wall Street Journal Kashio said, "We are trying to bring our smart watch to a level of watch perfection: a device that won't break easily, is simple to put on and feels good to wear."

Kashio noted that the company is aware that a smart watch might not be successful from the go. Instead, Casio hopes that ushering in now will help it prosper long term as smart watches grow in popularity.

"I don't think the smart watch will be an instant success but we want it to grow in the long term," Kashio noted.

Kashio also noted that there's still a huge market for scientific calculators outside of Casio's realm, and many people in Asia still are using them and the electronic dictionary too.

Casio plans to double the sales of scientific calculators and also the sales of electronic dictionaries in the forenamed continent despite the growing demand for smartphones that feature scientific calculator and dictionary apps, according to reports on TechnoBuffalo.

Casio's move to march into the potentially unruly smart watch market reflects a change of guard as Kazuo Kashio, who is one of four Kashio's brothers in the company's founding generation, resigned as president last week after 27 years at the helm. Kashio handed the reins to his son.

Kazuhiro Kashio, the company's new president said, "we are trying to bring our smart watch to a level of watch perfection: a device that won't break easily, is simple to put on and feels good to wear."

Kashio added that the watch will have an affordable price tag, similar to the lower end of the Apple Watch's price range i.e. around ¥50,000 ($400). However, no decision has been made yet.

Talking about when can be the new smart watch expected, Kashio said the company has planned for release in Japan and the US by the end of March, targeting men involved in outdoor sports and leisure, both in terms of functions as well as appearance.

"We will aim to achieve about ¥10 billion [about $80 million] in smart watch sales as soon as possible and expand the business from there," Kashio said.

Though Casio starts from a comparatively strong position, but the company's smart watch is likely to face a tough competition as it joins a horde of other new entrants including the tech giant Apple.