Actor Eddie Murphy spotted wearing a Casio

When Beverly Hills Cop hit theaters in December 1984, audiences were focused on Eddie Murphy's rapid-fire improvisation and the film's fish-out-of-water premise. Few noticed the modest digital watch strapped to Detective Axel Foley's wrist — but the horological internet eventually did. The Casio AQ-30W, visible throughout the film, has since become one of the more charming examples of a 'hero prop' watch that costs almost nothing yet carries genuine cinematic weight.

The AQ-30W belongs to Casio's early-1980s wave of combination analog-digital modules, a format the brand pioneered to compete with both traditional dress watches and pure digital sports pieces. The case is resin, the movement a quartz analog-digital hybrid caliber offering time, date, and a secondary digital display — practical features aimed squarely at an active, budget-conscious consumer. The watch was never about technical bravado; it was about affordability and function, which made it ubiquitous on wrists across America at precisely the moment Foley was tearing through Beverly Hills in a battered beige Chevy Nova.

From a collector's perspective, the AQ-30W sits in an interesting niche: vintage Casio digital and combination pieces have attracted serious attention over the past decade, driven partly by nostalgia, partly by the broader 1980s pop-culture revival, and significantly by on-screen appearances like this one. Condition is everything with these resin-cased pieces — the plastic degrades, crystal yellows, and bezels crack. A clean, fully functional example is genuinely scarce.

For Eddie Murphy, the watch was almost certainly a wardrobe department choice rather than a personal selection, but it proved inspired. The AQ-30W's everyman credibility reinforced Foley's street authenticity against the Rolexes and gold bracelets of Beverly Hills. It is, in retrospect, a piece of costume design doing exactly what it should.

On the secondary market, a presentable Casio AQ-30W in working order now fetches approximately $300 — a remarkable premium on its original retail price of perhaps $30-40, driven entirely by the Beverly Hills Cop connection and the growing legitimacy of vintage Casio collecting as a serious horological pursuit.