This $56 Casio watch is a retro step tracking dream

When I was in high school, all I wanted was a Baby-G Casio watch — partly because it came in fun colors, partly because all the cool kids had one. When I finally convinced my mom to get me one, I loved it to pieces until its battery died ages later. It’s been over 20 years since then, but as Y2K fashion invades my TikTok algorithm, I think a lot about how my watches used to just be watches that looked nice. Sometimes I feel like I want to go back to those days… then I remember that the main reason I got into smarter watches was for step tracking.

And then I found out about the Casio WS-B1000, which costs a mere $55.95, syncs with your phone for the time, and tracks steps. What!?

It’s not unfathomable that today’s Casio watches could be more than the analog watches of my youth. And yet it hadn’t occurred to me to check. Never mind that I reviewed a more rugged Casio Wear OS watch a few years ago — that was a chunky multisport watch at a time when the Wear OS struggle bus had a perpetual flat tire. But after a bit of digging, it turns out that Casio has modernized a few of its watches to have a bit more fitness tracking functionality while keeping that classic Casio design.

The WS-B1000 is one such watch, though it keeps things very simple. There’s no optical heart rate monitor, OLED display, fancy health sensors, contactless payments, or LTE connectivity. This device has Bluetooth to connect with your phone, an accelerometer to track steps, your classic stopwatch and timer functions, alarms, move reminders, and an LCD screen with a backlight button. In other words, just enough smarts to count as a fitness tracker — but barely.

A few years ago, that feature set probably wouldn’t have appealed to me. But these days, I’m at a point in my fitness journey where I’m recovering from mental and physical burnout from prolonged overtraining. It is a frustratingly long process, and to my surprise, the thing that’s kept me going are devices and apps that prioritize rest and simplicity over “going hard.” Many current smartwatches hurl active minutes, standing goals, calorie burn goals, and other targets at you — so many goals for you to hit daily that it can be overwhelming. So the fact that the WS-B1000 can only track steps or work as a stopwatch? That’s a plus.

And you know what? The three weeks I tested the WS-B1000 were delightful. I’d forgotten how nice it is to set a simple step goal and try to meet it. With this watch, I could just look down and say, “Uh-oh! It’s 4PM and I’m at 2,000 steps. Time to go for a walk.” If I wanted to check my history, I could go to the Casio app and view a rough log. There was nothing fancy, and that’s just how I wanted it. Accuracy-wise, I was generally within 500–1,000 steps of my Apple Watch Ultra — which is a fair margin of error given they were worn on different arms and I talk with my hands. But if you’re opting for something like this, the general goal is to simply move more, and this is just fine for that.

There were other little things I appreciated, too. Because the watch doesn’t need the sensors, chips, and giant battery of a smartwatch, it’s remarkably light to wear. It only weighs 36 grams, and for once, I didn’t look like I had a giant hockey puck strapped to my wrist. I also never had to worry about charging the dang thing, either — it runs on a CR2016 coin cell battery that lasts approximately two years.

The neat part about the Casio app is that it automatically syncs the time so you don’t have to sit there fiddling with buttons to reset the time or set alarms. (I’m terrible at that on older watches; I can never remember how to do it or into which drawer I stuffed the user manual.) That stuff you can program from your phone.

Obviously, this isn’t going to be the watch for folks who want the most out of their smartwatch. But if, like me, you would like an occasional break from the fitness tech grind or the ideal of chill, low-tech fitness appeals to you, this is an excellent option. And might I remind you that it’s just $56?! Most basic trackers in this range tend to be fitness bands, whereas this is a cute, retro-chic Casio watch.

Alas, I only have two wrists, and as a wearables reviewer, I have to rotate out the Casio for the next smartwatch in my testing queue. But I have a pretty good feeling that, in between products, this is the watch I’ll be reaching for.