But while Casio is synonymous with watches, the company didn’t actually begin life selling timepieces. Casio was founded in 1946 in Japan in the aftermath of World War II. The founder, Tadao Kashio, started out by producing mechanical parts. He was joined by his brothers, who had expertise in electronics and by 1949 they had begun producing calculators. In the 1950s, they successfully produced Japan’s first electronic calculator, and it was small enough to be portable and desk-size.