Casiotron TRN50-2A

I nixed the idea of pulling the trigger on this one 'cause i didn t see any reasons to pay that much money on a, lets face it, low tier watch (imho). Ok, it s solar powered, but that alone...nah...

But i m very happy for everyone who was quick enough to proceed payment in this unbelievable 3 minutes time slot (according to #mwc2020 ).

Enjoy it!🙂

Hey Luzi,

I get that. It is quite pricey. You could argue though that it’s very similarly priced to a metal G-Shock, you give up some of the shock protection and water resistance but you at least get solar and multiband 6 which are features that should have been in the 40th Anniv G-Shock 🤷🏻.

Touché😁 to be honest recently i ve paid 700+ euros (with taces & shipping nearly 900€) for a seiko 5, so i m not hollowed at all in terms of buying for overprices.

At the end of the day me thinks as long as one is happy with his timepiece and it s price and enjoy its haptic, looks ect it s totally worth it.

Congrats on the NWA, looking forward to seeing your WRUW post in the coming weeks.

Yes, I agree with you. The tricky part is always opportunity cost, picking up a Seiko 5 or a Casiotron means not picking something else up. And there are just so many cool watches.

Well, here you are😀

I've been enjoying the TRN50. Having a non gshock Casio stainless steel digital watch with Multi band 6 was a large reason I decided to purchase it. The mineral crystal is a little disappointing, I have to admit. The bracelet uses pins and collars, and a large portion of the middles of the links are polished, so it can be quite reflective and has a tendency to smudge. I'm really glad you can mute the module, and that the Bluetooth app is actually optional.

It's a very interesting piece for me. There just aren't that many options for a non vintage stainless steel digital watch, and there just isn't a good 'premium' option. Tissot tried but didn't have the market, and Casio hasn't really executed on the concept either, probably because no one wants to spend the money for one. The TRN50 gets so so close to what I would consider a perfect digital watch, hopefully Casio revisits the idea with a non limited model in the future.

Hey Luzi,

That is definitely not what I expecting when you said Seiko 5 haha. That is badass, love the white syringe hands with red seconds hands combo. And that date wheel is something else.

Congrats on your new amazing watch!

Hey Arithija,

Thanks for sharing your experience. I agree with you, there isn’t a really a good premium digital watch in the market right now. The Tissot PRX lacks the history. The Hamilton Pulsar went the other way and was too faithful to its original design that it did away with the perks of being a digital watch altogether 😅.

What strikes me about the TRN50 is how thick it is, it’s about 12.3mm tall. That’s much taller than most popular digital watches e.g. the A700 is 6mm, crowd favorites F91 is like 8.5mm and the A168 is 9.6mm (which is already typically thought of as quite chunky due to the illuminator).

Do you find the TRN50’s thickness gives it an odd look, like it’s too tall relative to its rather compact dimensions?

Is this even available somewhere? I thought it sold out immediately!

Hey Henrik,

The Canadian G-Shock webstore just listed them last night. They’re still available last I checked.

I suspect this is like the 40th Anniv G-Shock which sold out at the start but then became available again after a few weeks. Maybe try the G-Shock store in your country.

No, I think the dimensions work well. It's a very well proportioned case, and a very handsome watch. 10mm thickness would've been real nice, though.

This is interesting, I didn’t know that. In the EU, the watch was sold out in minutes.

Just out here observing whether or not my hubby will be convinced to get this 🧐

It's a great looking watch with an amazing story behind it. I can see why it's sold out everywhere. Enjoy it!

Hey Matt,

It is indeed a very interesting watch. Great looking A700 btw, great idea polishing up an A168 bracelet to go with it.

I just don't understand why Casio made it limited. Maybe they wanted to test if there's a market for it ? I hope they will come up with a regular non-limited model!

@saddlepoint Did they really make the G-Shock 40th anniversary available again after a few weeks ?

Hey Alexander,

I don’t really understand why either. The most straightforward response is to charge more for it but as revenues is a function of price AND quantity. And profits is a subset of revenues. Limiting quantity won’t necessarily lead to higher profits 🤷🏻. But I’m sure the folks at Casio are bright people so there has to be an angle I’m not seeing.

There is a regular, non-limited model that looks like the Casiotron. It’s called the A171, check it out :).

Yes they did here in Canada. But the 40th Anniv G-Shock wasn’t explicitly numbered unlike the Casiotron. If I had to guess, they won’t make a reissue of this particular variant but they likely will launch one in a different colorway. There was this leak a few months back iirc. I don’t think these have hit shelves yet.

No good premium digital watch? What about the Casio MR-G B5000 series?

Hey Tijmen,

You’re right, the MR-G is a premium digital watch.

But I think we can agree that the Casio MR-G takes a very particular kind of G-Shock fan to appreciate. The Square is one of the more compact G-Shocks but it still wears big and a $3.8k price tag is nowhere near the budget for most people looking for a good digital.