Forty years have passed since Back to the Future debuted in theaters and transformed a tattered old DeLorean into a time-travel legend. To commemorate the film’s big – well, not-so-big – anniversary, Casio has dug up one of those watches from the vault – the CA-500WEBF-1A – and given it a few subtle tributes to the film that made the original a cult favorite on Marty McFly’s wrist.
Casio initially cracked the code on affordable calculator watches in the early 1980s, transforming what may have been a gimmick into something helpful for both students and office workers. The CA-500 appears as a modified version of Michael J. Fox’s plastic-clad CA-53W from the film, with a metal case added for robustness without sacrificing the thing’s guts. That original watch performed math operations – addition, subtraction, multiplication, and division – over eight digits while also keeping track of the normal timekeeping functions of any good digital companion. The new version conforms to the same old ideas, but includes a stopwatch for quick timing laps and alarms that beep in at whatever regular interval you set.
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Cues from the DeLorean start sneaking in through the keypad where the multicolored buttons pick up the hues from the car’s flashing time circuits – those red, yellow and blue flashes that told you when they were about to jump you through time. Those circuits, originally intended for dialing in exact destinations across the calendar, find an echo in the watch’s layout and turn what would have been a simple number pad into a dash inspired little homage. The face itself lifts the design cues from the vehicle’s rear lights and that unforgettable OUTATIME licence plate, blending silver tones with accents that catch just the right amount of light. A brushed metal band holds everything in place – complete with the Back to the Future logo etched into it – and keeps the whole thing looking and feeling right whether you’re wearing it on a daily basis or just keeping it on display.
When you turn the watch over, you’ll see an etching of the flux capacitor, the Y-shaped piece of technology that Doc Brown used to reach 1:21 gigawatts at 88 miles per hour. The fictitious heart of the time machine takes center stage on this watch, laser cut with such accuracy that you can’t help but want to get a closer look in proper lighting. The strap has faint impressions of the movie title going along its length; you have to trace your finger across the links to find them, but it’s worth spending the time to admire the detail.
Silver is the dominating hue here, giving the watch a clean and basic finish that allows the movie inspirations to show through without overpowering the traditional style. Casio designed this watch to last, much like the watches that came out in the 1980s – it can withstand scratches and daily knocks with ease, just like its 80s predecessors.
The box itself is modeled after a vintage VHS tape from the days when Blockbuster dominated Friday nights. Availability begins on October 21st, 2025, a date taken directly from the movie’s script, when Marty and Doc were aiming for a future that now feels uncomfortably close. You can anticipate to pay roughly $120 in the United States, £115 in the United Kingdom, and €119 in Europe.
