G Shock Watches

G Shock have become iconic watches, famous for their unique toughness. They were first introduced to the world watch market in the early 1980's, and although they initially failed in the Japanese market they were successful enough overseas to give their production an extended lifeline.

Their reputation for being extremely robust watches combined with their bold styling has proven to be a hit with the public and they have gone on to become extremely popular. For its time the G shock also represented a new approach to wristwatches which were still at the time generally considered fairly fragile breakable items.

The first was model number DW-5000C was released in April 1983 and was designed by Kikuo Ibe.

Its specifications were:

Retail price: 11,400 yen (tax excluded) High-impact structure (resist shock) 20 pressure waterproof Resin Band Screw back Stop Watch (1 / 100 second, a total of 60 minutes, rap, with alarm elapsed time) Timer (Combo unit: 1 minute, set up to: 11 hours 59 minutes, measured in seconds), with the remaining time alarm Time alarm bell Battery life of about seven years Auto Calendar 12/24 hour display switching system

Mr Ibe's wish to create an unbreakable watch was in part motivated by a traumatic childhood experience. When a schoolboy he had received a precious watch as a present from his father which he accidentally dropped and saw break into pieces on the floor.

Working hard at his lab in the outskirts of Tokyo Mr Ibe create new prototypes for constant testing: "Day after day, I would make prototypes and drop them from the window".

Through a moment of inspiration he eventually came up with the idea of a "floating module configuration", as a result of seeing a girl playing with a rubber ball at park near where he lived.

The "floating module configuration" used a hollow section between the case and the movement as a way of providing shock absorption. By supporting the movement at a minimal number of points the movement was effectively floating.

This was further combined with cushioning for key parts. Using this innovative type of technology was necessary because as Casio states:" If we tried to absorb shocks simply by encasing the module with urethane resin or other such materials, the case would grow to immense proportions."

The glass and buttons were also enclosed in Urethane to protect them from impacts, with the urethane protruding high above the glass to protect it. Even the band has been designed to act as a shock absorber by using a special combination of urethane resin and made to be scratch resistant. If the watch is dropped the band also helps to inhibit damage by using a 150 degree range of movement.

Triple Ten Development

Casio engineers established three guiding principles as a part of their design strategy, called the "triple ten" development it consisted of trying to create a watch that could withstand a 10 meter fall, be water resistant to 10 bar and have a 10 year battery life.

The engineering team created over 200 experimental prototypes and spent over two years testing them before finally achieving their aim.

Masters Of G

As part of their further development Casio introduced high end models showcasing new technology aimed at different activities and usually possessing special resistance qualities. These G Shock Watches became known as the "masters of G" series.

Identified by a 'man' suffix and featuring 200 meter water resistance the first of these was the "Frogman" aka DW-5500C, which was created with scuba divers in mind, released in 1993 it is almost certainly the longest running of g shock timepieces. Other models such as the Gaussman was ISO certified anti-magnetic.

Flagship Watch

G shock have become Casio's most iconic and best selling watch and continue to be very popular with unique limited editions further adding to their appeal and desirability.

More information can be found at the G Shock Watches website.