Anutin’s ‘Casio Connection’ fuels power-play rumours over 1,900-baht watch gifts
Engraved watches given by Thailand’s PM Anutin stir talk of alliances, while a government spokesman denies the gifts carry political significance.
- Thai Prime Minister Anutin Charnvirakul is gifting 1,900-baht Casio watches, engraved with his name, to ministers, senior officials, and political allies.
- The gifts have created a so-called "Casio Connection," sparking speculation that they are a tool to cultivate loyalty, send political signals, and reinforce his power base.
- A specific instance involving Capt Thamanat Prompow receiving a watch fueled rumors that his party might be invited to join the governing coalition.
- A government spokesman has dismissed the political interpretation, stating the watches are simply personal gifts from Anutin to people he is close to.
Prime Minister Anutin Charnvirakul’s gifts of Casio watches costing about 1,900 baht have prompted speculation about political connections in Thailand. Engraved with his name, the watches have appeared on the wrists of ministers, senior officials and political allies, giving rise to the nickname “Casio Connection”.
Government spokesman Ekkapop Pianpses rejected the political interpretation. Anutin liked the model for its practicality and simply wanted to give it to people close to him, Ekkapop explained.
Anutin’s engraving turns a retail watch into a personal gift
The watch is the Casio AE-1200WH, a digital model known among enthusiasts as the “Casio Royale”, with retro styling and a world-map display. Its price is at around 1,900 baht, or less than US$60.
The personalised case back carries Thai wording identifying “Anutin Charnvirakul, Prime Minister”, alongside his name in English. Anutin reportedly buys the watches at markets and department stores during official visits, then commissions a shop to engrave them before presenting them as gifts.
Recipients working closely with Anutin gifted with such watch include Deputy Transport Minister Siripong Angkasakulkiat, Paradorn Prissananantakul, Jeseth Thaiseth, Polapee Suwanchawee and Worasit Liangprasit.
The recipients also extend into the Interior Ministry’s senior bureaucracy. Spring News named permanent secretary Unsit Sampuntharat and deputy permanent secretary Nirat Pongsitthithavorn among those who had received watches.
Thammanat’s watch fuels speculation about coalition ties
Capt Thamanat Prompow drew particular attention after photographs showed him wearing the watch while helping flood victims in Nan. The images became a talking point amid speculation about the Kla Tham Party potentially joining the governing coalition.
Spring News reported that Thammanat received the watch on August 13, 2026, and linked it to a purchase Anutin made during a visit to a department store in Bangkok’s Bang Kapi district.
Spring News also described speculation that Anutin had taken a watch directly off his own wrist and handed it over. That account added to interpretations of the gift as a political signal, without establishing that a coalition agreement had been reached.
Napon links personal gifts to loyalty and obligation
Napon Jatusripitak, a visiting fellow at Singapore’s ISEAS–Yusof Ishak Institute, offered a political interpretation of the gifts. Personal items from a political leader can encourage loyalty, deference and a sense of obligation to reciprocate, according to his analysis cited by Spring News.
Napon viewed the watches as a means for Anutin to cultivate friendships, followers and political groupings that could reinforce his power base. That interpretation contrasts with the government spokesman’s explanation that the gifts had no political significance.
Casio gifts contrast with Anutin’s luxury collection
Anutin’s modestly priced gifts sit alongside his own collection of expensive watches. Spring News reported that his asset declaration listed 22 luxury watches worth more than 60 million baht, and that he had recently worn a Rolex Day-Date to Newin Chidchob’s birthday celebration.
Watches have previously brought intense scrutiny to Thai politicians. In 2017, then deputy prime minister Gen Prawit Wongsuwan faced questions over luxury watches he had worn, with investigators examining 22 timepieces reportedly worth more than US$1 million. Prawit maintained that he had borrowed them from a wealthy friend who had since died. The National Anti-Corruption Commission cleared him of making a false asset declaration over the watches in December 2018.
For Siripong, the Casio’s appeal was personal. Spring News reported that the deputy transport minister received his watch after a Cabinet meeting and wore it almost every day, largely setting aside luxury watches costing hundreds of thousands or millions of baht.
“The value of what we wear is not about the price. For me, it is more about who gave it to me,” Siripong was quoted as saying by Post Today.
Source: Nationtv, Straitstimes, Indiatoday
