Casio’s S100X is already an unusual thing: a premium desktop calculator with a milled aluminium alloy body, tactile concave keys, and an FSTN LCD with a double coating that renders navy blue digits against white, recalling the look of a fountain pen on good paper. At $350, it is the only calculator that reads as a considered object rather than a utility.
The Special One goes further. Casio contracted Yamakyu Shitsuki, a lacquerware workshop in Sabae, Fukui Prefecture operating since 1930, and master artisan Ryuji Umeda spent a full month on each unit building up the finish using tamenuri: a technique that layers pure sap from the urushi tree until the surface holds depth rather than just colour. The result is black that becomes red at the edges, shifting with the angle of light. Each of the 650 units carries a laser-engraved serial number and ships in a presentation box with gold foil stamping.
It sold out immediately from Casio’s Japanese web store. The secondary market is where it lives now.