G-Shock is a line of watches manufactured by the Japanese electronics company Casio, designed to resist mechanical stress, shock and vibration. G-Shock is an abbreviation for Gravitational Shock. The watches in the G-Shock line are designed primarily for sports, military and outdoors-oriented activities; most G-Shocks have a chronograph feature, 200 metre water resistance and an alarm, with either a digital display, analogue display or a combination of analogue and digital displays. Other features such as a countdown timer, world clock, and a backlight are included in most models. Newer high-end models in the line also feature GPS, directional, pressure and temperature sensors, radio-controlled time adjustment (known as WaveCeptor or Multi-Band) and Bluetooth time adjustment achieved by connecting the watch to a smartphone via a dedicated application.
History
The G-Shock was conceptualized in 1981 by Casio engineer Kikuo Ibe when he bumped into a pedestrian, and the mechanical watch given to him by his father popped off of his wrist and shattered on the ground. The G-Shock then was conceived as a watch which would have "triple 10" resistance, meaning it would have a battery life of 10 years, have a water resistance of 10 bar and could survive a fall of 10 metres.
A team of three individuals was selected by Ibe which was known as "team tough". The team had assembled and tested nearly 200 prototypes but were still not able to achieve the conception criteria. During a visit to a playground, Ibe discovered that in a rubber ball, the centre of the ball does not suffer the effects of the shock during a bounce on a rough surface, which gave him the idea to implement that concept into the watch. With that in mind, the team set out to develop a watch using such a concept and in April 1983, the first G-Shock, the DW-5000C, was launched.
The shock-resistant design on the original G-Shock has ten layers protecting the quartz timekeeping module, including a urethane rubber bumper, the stainless steel case, the hardened mineral glass watch crystal, the stainless steel screwed down caseback, and the "floating module" where the quartz mechanism floats free in a urethane foam cradle, with the outer buttons and LCD module attached with oblong button shafts. The strap of the watch is also designed to protect the module during a fall.
Initial sales of the G-Shock line were slow in Japan as people preferred dress watches. In order to promote the G-Shock worldwide, the American division of Casio released a commercial in which an ice hockey player used a DW-5200C G-Shock as a hockey puck to demonstrate the toughness of the watch. The commercial gained negative publicity and Casio was accused of false advertising. A TV news channel then set out to conduct live tests on the DW-5200C to check whether it was as tough and durable as advertised. This involved repeating the action shown in the commercial. The watch survived the impact of the hockey stick, and the G-Shock gained popularity among the general public. The popularity of G-Shocks increased throughout the 1990s. By 1998, Casio had released more than 200 different G-Shock models, with worldwide sales at 19 million units.
In 1985, Casio released the DW-5500C, which was the first G-Shock to feature a mud-resistant structure. Called the G-Shock-II due to the new construction feature, it was nicknamed "Mudman" by collectors due to its mud resistance capabilities. Casio would then go on to release a mud-resistant line of watches in 1995 which would go on to be called Mudman.
In 1989, Casio introduced the AW-500, which was the first G-Shock featuring an analog display with a digital sub display at the six o'clock position.
In 1992, Casio released the DW-6100 equipped with a temperature sensor thus making it the first G-Shock to be equipped with a sensor. The watch also featured a resin (plastic) case instead of the original stainless steel case of earlier models for improved shock resistance. This move would transition into most of the models in the subsequent years, with the original G-Shock square design also adopting the same construction. By the early 2000s, the G-2000 model marked the last standard G-Shock to use a stainless steel case, leaving only a few speciality models in the line-up featuring the traditional metal case construction.
In 1993, Casio introduced the DW-6300 Frogman, which was the first ISO 6425 certified diver's watch in the G-Shock lineup. The Frogman also marked the start of the MAN or "master of G" line of G-Shocks which was used to introduce new features and functions in the G-Shock lineup. Notable watches which introduced such features are as follows: DW-8600 Fisherman (1996): First G-Shock to include a tide graph and moonphase feature. This model was a precursor to the more popular Gulfman series first introduced in 1998. DW-9300 Raysman (1998): First G-Shock to have tough solar battery recharging technology. DW-9800 Wademan (1999): First G-Shock with directional sensor. AW-571 Gaussman (1999): First G-Shock having magnetic field resistance. DWG-100 Lungman (1999): First G-Shock incorporating a pulse sensor. GW-100 Antman (2000): First G-Shock having the capability to receive time calibration signal from a radio tower. GW-9400 Rangeman (2013): First G-Shock incorporating triple sensors (pressure sensor, temperature sensor and direction sensor). GPW-1000 Gravitymaster (2016): First G-Shock having GPS-hybrid time reception technology. GWN-Q1000 Gulfmaster (2016): First G-Shock with quad sensors (pressure sensor, temperature sensor, depth sensor and direction sensor). GPR-B1000 Rangeman (2018): First G-Shock featuring GPS navigation and Memory-In-Pixel (MIP) display technology.
In 1994, the DW-6600 model marked the transition to Electroluminescent backlight technology for G-Shock watches from backlights employing incandescent bulbs in earlier models. The same year also saw Casio introducing the Baby-G branded G-Shock watches designed for women.
In 1996, Casio released the MRG-100 (also known as the DW-8900 in some markets) under its premium MRG lineup of G-Shocks which was the first G-Shock watch to feature full metal construction. The "floating module" concept was retained by cushioning the module between the metal case and metal bezel of the watch and an air-tight glass packing was added to improve shock resistance. Initially featuring a digital display, the MRG line would go on to adopt a full analog display featuring stepper motors for each hand and would be slotted as the top-of-the-line premium G-Shock lineup.
In 2008, Casio introduced the Tough Movement for high-end analog G-Shocks. The movement incorporates a light emitting diode (LED) photo receptor which analyses the position of the watch hands by the passage of light via a small hole in the dial. Every uneven reception of light by the phototransistor due to impact to the watch enables the stepper motors in the movement to correct the alignment of the hands requiring no manual adjustment. The hour, minute and second hands feature separate motors in order to allow for quick adjustment of the watch.
A similar series to the Baby-G called the G-Shock Mini was introduced in 2009. It is 30% smaller than a regular G-Shock and was originally marketed for women. However, they were later released in unisex variants intended for people who have smaller wrists. This series was later replaced by the S-Series in 2014.
In 2013, to celebrate thirty years of the G-Shock, Casio arranged a party in New York and showcased new models and prototypes of upcoming models. The party included a performance from rapper Eminem. A similar event was held on 9 November 2023 for the 40th anniversary of the brand featuring a performance from the Colombian artist J Balvin with the founder of the brand Kikuo Ibe also in attendance. As part of the 40th anniversary celebrations, Casio also released an inspirational video package where Ibe visits his younger self back in 1982 in order to showcase the brand's origins and to promote the "Toughness Is Embracing Failure" motto of the brand.
On 1 September 2017, Casio celebrated its 100 millionth sale of G-Shock watches worldwide.
Models
The line of watches now includes atomic clock, GPS and Bluetooth time synchronisation and tough solar technology. Many newer models feature metal (steel or titanium) bands and a mix of analogue-digital timekeeping, analogue timekeeping or digital timekeeping.
The DW models are standard battery-powered G-Shocks while GW models of the G-Shock come with either Tough Solar or Multi-Band atomic timekeeping or both. Models with the "B" prefix in its model name before the number are Bluetooth enabled, while those having the "P" prefix in the model name before the number have GPS time reception or navigation capabilities.
Twice a year, the basic models are updated. New limited models are introduced more frequently throughout the year. Special models are released upon the anniversary celebration of the G-Shock brand and are sold through selected retail channels.
Casio also produces collaboration models, often with popular fashion brands and artists, like A Bathing Ape (Bape), Stüssy, Xlarge, Eric Haze, KIKS TYO, Nano Universe, Levi's, Lifted Research Group, as well as Coca-Cola, Pulp68 Skateshop, Lucky Strike and Marlboro.
G-Shock watches are popular with mountaineers, firefighters, paramedics, people working in the offshore, police officers, astronauts, film directors (Tony Scott was often pictured wearing a GW-3000B, as are Ron Howard and Francis Ford Coppola) and soldiers. Ex-Special Forces-British SAS soldier Andy McNab mentions in several of his novels how his character Nick Stone relies on a G-Shock watch. According to Mark Bowden's book Blackhawk Down, the DELTA Operators wore G-Shock watches during the combat events of 3 and 4 October 1993.
The DW-5600C, DW-5600E, DW-5900, DW-6600 and DW-6900 models are flight-qualified for NASA space travel. Casio has updated the DW-5600E module, replacing the usual 1545 module with module number 3229 (in 2010) increasing the full-auto calendar to the year 2099 instead of 2039 in the previous module.Casio 3229 Module User's Guide last page; revision code: MA1012-A (refers to revision in the year 2010, month 12) The DW-5600UE and the DW-6900UE introduced in November 2023 had the updated 3525 and 3529 modules featuring a backlight consisting of a white LED illuminating the entire screen of the watch for an enhanced seven year battery life replacing the previous modules which had employed the electroluminescent backlight and had only a stated two year battery life.
In 2009, Casio introduced the GW-M5610, a solar powered variant of the DW-5600 incorporating Multi-Band 6 time reception technology and a design homage to the original DW-5000C which was an update to the earlier GW-M5600 model. The GW-M5610 would spawn many variants, the most notable being the GW-5000 which was a steel cased screw-back variant like the original G-Shock but featured diamond-like coating (DLC) on the case and caseback and the GW-S5600 which featured Casio's first application of carbon fibre in a watch strap along with the use of titanium in the caseback, screws and buttons, making it the lightest G-Shock model available. The GW-M5610 series saw an update in September 2021 which consisted of replacement of the previous 3159 module with 3495 module. The new module replaced the Electroluminescent backlight for an LED backlight, made the home time visible in almost all watch modes and increased world time cities to incorporate cities having odd time differentials along with adding time-swap feature with the home time, the ability to set DD-MM and MM-DD formats for the date and day display, the ability to display the day of the week in different languages and added the ability to set the count-down timer to 1 second.