When you mention Ellen Ripley’s watch to any sci-fi nerd, they immediately assume you’re talking about the Seiko Guigiaro, which Sigourney Weaver’s character wore in Aliens. There is, however, a lesser-known Casio watch that Ripley wore from Ridley Scott’s original Alien movie, which, let’s be honest, is nowhere near as awesome-looking as its Seiko counterpart. Still, we imagine the diehard Alien fans will find plenty to love in the Casio Classic A100.
That’s right, the underappreciated digital watch from the 1979 Alien movie is getting a contemporary reissue, allowing you to place a brand new version of the timepiece on your watch case right next to the Guigiaro reissue you bought back in 2015. Whether you’re a sci-fi nerd who likes to wear your fandom on your sleeve (well… your wrist, in this case) or just a fan of old-school digital watches, this thing should make a nice addition your collection of timepieces.
The Casio Classic A100 is a modern recreation of the Casio F-100, which is the watch model they strapped on the wrists of Ripley, Dallas, and other Nostromo crew members from the first Alien movie. Instead of the plastic resin case used on the timepiece originally released in 1977, it comes in a sturdier metallic case (at least… it looks like metal) that gives the watch a dressier, more refined feel that should be more suited to contemporary style, although the retains the same shape and layout as the watch that appeared in the movie.
It has a small LCD strip that showed the time digitally in either 12-hour or 24-hour format, along with a few other symbol indicators. You know how most digital watches from the 80s onward placed their function buttons on the sides, so it’s easy to access and out of the way at the same time? Not the case here, as the large function buttons are prominently positioned right under the LCD, with color indicators next to them, so you can differentiate one from the other.
The Casio Classic A100’s function list isn’t exactly impressive in these contemporary times, although we imagine it made quite a splash when it came out way back in the late 70s. Specifically, it gets a 60-minute stopwatch function with preliminary, split, and final times that can measure down to 1/100th of a second, as well as an auto-calendar, current date/day display, and a daily alarm. There’s also a flashing LED indicator that goes off during alarms, the end of countdown timers, and at the top of each hour, so it works much like a digital watch from the previous century.
Other features include 3ATM of water resistance (good enough to shrug off rain and splashes) and a seven year battery life. It comes in silver and gold finishes, with stainless steel bracelets in the same matching finish. For the even nerdier among us, they also offer a Pac-Man edition, with a gold-finished case, black band, Pac-Man graphics, and an inverted LCD.
The Casio Classic A100 comes out next month, priced at $90.