Skip to main content

Fitbit who? Casio has a fitness watch of its own (sadly, it has no calculator)

With all the talk about newfangled smart watches and activity monitors, it seems a little unfair that Casio has been left out of the conversation. After all, Casio has been making “smart” watches for some time – depending on how you define what a smart watch is. Getting into the activity tracker game, the company is coming out with a sports watch, the Bluetooth Sports Gear STB-1000 with low-energy Bluetooth 4.0 that monitors your personal fitness, as well as control the music player on your iPhone.

Designed to work with iPhones all the way back to the 4S (running iOS 7), the waterproof STB-1000 (down to 328 feet/100 meters) lets you track fitness-related data like running pace and distance, elapsed time, pulse, cycling speed, and pedal rotations. The watch does this by using Bluetooth 4.0 to communicate with fitness apps running on your iPhone; currently the STB-1000 supports Abvio’s Runmeter, Walkmeter, and Cyclemeter, as well as Wahoo Fitness.

As for the other smart features, you can control the iPhone’s music player, including starting, skipping, and stopping songs, and adjusting the volume. You can also receive alerts of incoming calls and e-mail, adjust watch settings from the phone, or use the watch to locate your phone when you’ve misplaced it. The STB-1000 has a bright LED backlight, two-year battery life, time settings for 100 cities. Oh, and the watch tells time. Casio says that it’ll increase support for other apps.

The STB-1000 follows Casio’s 2011 introduction of the first G-Shock watch with Bluetooth 4.0, which offered the same functionality minus the fitness apps. While the STB-1000 isn’t as full-featured as some of the new smart watches hitting the scene (there’s no camera, no Web browser, etc.), we think the simplicity and fewer features can be far more practical. Pricing and availability to be determined.

Les Shu
Former Senior Editor, Photography
I am formerly a senior editor at Digital Trends. I bring with me more than a decade of tech and lifestyle journalism…
Pocket is about to close. Use this read-it-later app instead
A woman looking at her phone.

Read-it-later app Pocket is closing down in just a week’s time, so if you’re still using it, now’s the time to switch to a similar app.

As an avid user of Pocket pretty much since it launched in 2007 as Read It Later, I felt a little sad to receive a message in May informing me that it would be shutting down on July 8.

Read more
The ultimate entertainment tablet: Like-new Fire Max 11 now $130
The back of the Amazon Fire Max 11.

Prime Day isn't officially here yet, but Prime Day deals are. Or, at least a peak of what the deals are going to look like. One of the most exciting of these deals gives you a refurbished Amazon Fire Max 11 tablet for just $130, which is down $70 from the usual $200 and a full $100 less than the retail price of a completely new one. You can even save 20% more with an applicable trade-in. There's no doubt that this is one of the best tablet deals going on at the moment, so tap the button below to lock it in. Or, keep reading to see why you'll like this tablet, take a peek at what our time with it was like, and what it means for something to be refurbished to the 'Like-New' level at Amazon.

Buy Now

Read more
This watchOS 26 feature has me excited for the Apple Watch again
A person wearing the aluminum Apple Watch Series 10.

Ahead of Apple’s long-awaited WWDC keynote earlier this month, the company was widely reported to be working on a new AI-powered doctor that could potentially help you diagnose common conditions, recognize potential illnesses, and understand your overall health. 

The rumored Apple AI doctor had me excited for WWDC, but as we saw, Apple held off on announcing this feature, presumably for a later date. However, WWDC 2025 did introduce a new feature to WatchOS 26 that isn’t a doctor, but rather a friend in the gym who keeps you motivated. 

Read more