CASIO Computer Co. Ltd began trading under that name in June 1957; a year which coincided with the marketing of the world’s first compact all-electric calculator, the Casio 14-A.
The CASIO name is an anglicised version of the family name of the company’s founders, Tadao and Toshio Kashio.
Well-known for their calculators and their watches, CASIO also produced clocks, digital cameras, electronic musical instruments, label printers, page printers, and office computers.
Less well-known, in fact unworthy of a mention in either the company’s history or its chronology of main products, is the Casiowriter® range of thermal “baby wedges”. Produced in the mid-to-late ’80s, models included the CW-10, -11, -16, -17, -18, -20, -25, and -30.
Dating information is hard to come by, but a CW-16 was listed on eBay as “1984” (unverified). The CW-16 was also advertised for sale (offer price £104.95) in a November 1987 edition of New Scientist …
Casio CW-25
Casio CW-10
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I’ve come across Brother compatible ribbon listings for Casio CW-110, CW-150, CW-200, CW-211 and CW-220 models, but have yet to see the corresponding typewriters (could they be re-branded Brother machines?) …
Brother EM-80
Brother EM-85
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Non-thermal, i.e. daisy wheel, CW-600/650 Casiowriter typewriters do exist, and many of these are listed for sale in Eastern Europe. This one found its way to Perth and into my collection …
It’s the first electronic wedge I’ve bought in pristine condition ($20), still in its original box.
More about this typewriter in a future post.
The true identity of these “CASIO” typewriters is perhaps revealed by the fact that Casio CW-600/650 model numbers crop up in Nakajima ribbon listings.
Nakajima AX-60
Casiowriter CW-650
Nakajima AX-160
Butec 5010
“It’s as I feared, Helga. ALL electronic typewriters were made by Nakajima!”
6 responses to “Casio Brothers”
Thanks for the tip 🙂 It did not work out’ unfortunately. I’ll take it to a repair shop and see what they say :). Have a nice day
The instruction guide is here: https://writelephant.com/2018/01/02/casiowriter-cw-600-instruction-guide/
It could be Keyboard II is active – hold down the Code key and press #5 key (KBII key) to turn that feature on and off. Unless it’s the wrong print wheel for the typewriter, I don’t know what else it might be, 😉
Do you know how to install the daisy wheel in a Casio CW-600? Seems like I can’t get the right characters when I write… thanks 🙏🙏
Again, amazing research for lonely wedgies! (:
Thanks Crystal. Me too. I didn’t much like the feel of my Smith Corona XD 4600 (hence I sold it). On the other hand I really like the simplicity of my Brother AX-10. 😉
Great article, Steve! I like these much more than the word processors like my son’s Smith Corona 640 DLD – his favorite, oddly enough, lol. I especially like the looks of that Brother EM-80 🙂