Gen Z is buying Casio's cheapest watches and it's saving the company

Casio just dropped its fiscal year 2026 earnings, and the numbers are genuinely quite surprising. Net profit came in at ¥18.2 billion (roughly $115 million) — more than double the previous year's figure. Revenue grew 5.5% to ¥276.3 billion (~$1.74 billion), and operating profit jumped 62% to ¥23.1 billion (~$146 million). For a company that was posting pretty dismal numbers just two years ago, this is a huge turnaround.

The interesting part is what's actually driving it. It's not the G-Shock — though that's doing just fine on its own and pulling its own weight alongside, considering it's arguably Casio's most popular line. Instead, it's the "Casio Watch" line: thin, lightweight retro models that were never supposed to be cool again. Watches like the A159 and MTP-1302, which you'd find on your someone's wrist in the 90s and don't cost more than $50-$70, have become highly sought-after, especially among younger buyers who're into the whole "vintage" aesthetic. Casio's Korea social media strategy caught on particularly fast there and reportedly created demand that spread across the region.

The watch business overall pulled in ¥185 billion (~$1.17 billion) at a 14.7% operating margin, which is healthy by any measure. However, there was one wrinkle — demand in Q3 was so strong that popular G-Shock models went out of stock in Q4, and emergency production increases could only partially cover it. To be fair, that's a good problem to have, but it still deserves an explicit mention.

Looking ahead, Casio is projecting ¥295 billion (~$1.86 billion) in revenue for the current year and is targeting an operating margin of 11.1% by 2029.