News: The Casio Sauna-Timer Is Coming

Have you ever heard of a “sauna watch”? I know I haven’t, but it’s a cool and novel (at least in theory) idea that some employees at Casio had that’s inching closer to real production. A simple new design allows the Casio CPP-002 to be used in a sauna, where conditions are typically too humid for your typical watch.

First off, let me put this watch into context, because it has an interesting business model behind it. It is only (for now) intended for the Japanese market and is being crowdfunded on the Japanese site Makuake with the campaign beginning just recently, on December 2, 2024 and running for three months with delivery expected in late June 2025. Not surprisingly, they have already blown past the fundraising goal with 1,288% raised on the first day. Right now I am seeing 19,330,480 Yen which converts to about $130,000 USD across 1,977 supporters. With 86 days remaining, I would ordinarily say that Casio will raise more, but it looks like the campaign is over and all the initial 2,300 pieces are spoken for.

You may be asking, “What is a massive corporation like Casio doing crowdfunding?” Well, the answer is actually kind of cool in Casio’s own (translated) words: “This 'Sa-tokei' was not a regular watch project, but was born from a bottom-up project proposed by individual employees. Crowdfunding is being carried out as a test to see if the value of 'Sa-tokei' will be accepted by the market. Our company has implemented the 'BP (Idea Booster Program)' system," says Casio, "[w]hich allows employees to take on the challenge of creating new businesses, and also serves as a means of training personnel who can create customer value from a marketing perspective, and supports bottom-up proposals.” 

The CPP-002 is a neat little wristwatch that has a MODE pusher at 10 o’clock, which activates a 12-minute counter that is conveniently linked to the number of hour markers and lands right near the upper end of recommended time spent in a sauna. Casio will use a new, heat-resistant battery that is intended to handle sauna temperatures up to 100°C or 212°F within 15 minutes of wearing It on your wrist. It’s also designed in a way that prevents heat being transmitted to internal components sensitive to high temperatures. The need to be worn on the wrist presents a practical caveat, as the temperature of the watch rises faster when it’s off the wrist, which could potentially damage the watch.

 The 35.4mm-wide and 12.9mm-thick case, with a 40.2mm lug-to-lug height (water resistance 50 meters) weighs about 24.5g and is done in resin, which won’t get as hot as metal would. This moisture-resistant resin prevents the watch from fogging up on the inside, as well. The case and the urethane-resin, curled, expandable strap design was inspired by sauna timer and locker keys, which should be recognizable to Japanese sauna-heads.

There are three variants: the CPP-002-OR, done in white and orange; the CPP-002-BK, which is all black; and the CPP-002-BU, with blue strap done in collaboration with “Saunaikitai,” which is a popular sauna website and app.

With the 2,300 pieces made available via crowdfunding spoken for, the non-early-bird USD prices were about $65 for the standard pieces and $75 for the Saunaikitai model. We’ll keep an eye on these neat little JDM Casio sauna watches and hopefully follow up when they start to be delivered in summer of 2025. You can read more about the Casio CPP-002 sauna timer watch here.