G-Shock

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Not to be confused with Shock G.
G-SHOCK BABY G

Owner Casio
Country Japan
Introduced 1983
Related brands Watches
Markets Worldwide
Registered as a trademark in G-Shock
Website gshock.com

G-Shock is a brand of watches manufactured by Casio, known for its resistance to shocks (e.g. hard knocks and strong vibrations). They are designed primarily for sports, military and outdoor adventure oriented activity; virtually all G-Shocks have some kind of stopwatch feature, countdown timer, light and water resistance.

History

The first G-Shock was in the 1983 Casio DW-5000C designed by an engineer working for Casio named Kikuo Ibe "[1] around the triple ten concept: the concept for a watch that has a 10 year battery life, is water resistant to 10 bar, and can survive a 10m fall onto a hard surface. 200 prototypes were tested by dropping them from rooftops, or third story windows.[citation needed]

Its shock resistant design has 10 layers protecting the quartz time mechanism, the major ones being the urethane rubber outer bumper protecting the steel watch case, the stainless steel case, the hardened mineral glass watch crystal, the stainless steel screwed down caseback, and the "floating module" concept where the quartz mechanism floated free in a urethane foam cradle, with things like the outer buttons, and LCD module attached with flexible cables, with the buttons mounted to the watchcase, rather than the quartz module.[citation needed] It was released in April 1983, seizing the unfilled recreational and sporting market for bulky, functional watches. For the next few years Casio released a handful of new models each year. The Baby-G models were released in 1991. The popularity of G-Shocks increased rapidly throughout the 1990s. By 1998, 19 million G-Shocks had been sold worldwide[2] and there seemed to be a peak in demand as over 200 new models were released in that year alone.[citation needed]

Today

G-Shock G2900, one of the basic models
G-Shock MR-G MRG-7100BJ-1AJF

This line of watches has expanded considerably since then and now includes atomic clock synchronization and Tough Solar functionality in the latest models. The Cockpit Series G-Shock is the official timekeeper of Nismo Racing. Many newer G-Shocks feature metal (steel or titanium) banding and ornate analogue timekeeping.

Twice a year (Spring/Summer and Fall/Winter collection) the basic models are updated. New limited models are introduced more frequently through the year. As with Swatch watches, G-Shocks have become collectors items. Arguably, the most sought after line is the Frogman. Limited edition Frogmans such as the Brazilian, Men in Yellow, Black Helios and Black Spots are some of the most desirable Frogmans.

Casio also produces collaboration models, often with popular fashion brands, like A Bathing Ape (Bape), Stussy,[3] Xlarge, KIKS TYO, Nano Universe, Levi's, Lifted Research Group, as well as Coca Cola, Pulp68 Skateshop, Lucky Strike and Marlboro.

G-Shock is popular with mountaineers, firemen, paramedics, police officers, astronauts, film directors (Tony Scott was often pictured wearing a GW-3000B, as is Ron Howard and Francis Ford Coppola) and soldiers. Ex-Special Forces soldier Andy McNab mentions in several of his novels how his fictional 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 & 4 October 1993. Since then, G-Shocks watches have become very popular with Special Forces groups in both American and other NATO nation units, due to their being "battle tested".

Models DW-5600C, DW-5600E, DW-5900, DW-6600, DW-6900 are flight-qualified for NASA space travel.

In 2012, Casio released GB-6900, a Bluetooth-capable model of G-Shock. Casio claimed the battery life of 2 years on a single CR2032 battery.[4]

Models/series

Astronaut Thomas Reiter during Expedition 14 wearing G-Shock 5900 on the International Space Station
  • The G
    • MR-G
    • MT-G
    • Giez
  • Tough Solar
  • Wave Ceptor
  • Pathfinder
  • ORIGIN
    • DW-5000-5200
    • DW-5600C
    • DW-5600E
    • DW-5900
    • DW-6100
    • DW-6600
    • DW-6900FS
    • DW-8200
    • GW-2500
  • AWG-101
  • AWG-100
  • Trending
    • GA-100C
    • GA-100MC
  • Cockpit Series
  • G-Lide
  • Baby-G was created as an addition to the G-Shock brand.

Limited Edition Models

  • MRG-8000G-1AJF
  • MRG-8000RG-1AJF
  • MRG-8100G-1AJR
  • MRG-8100R-1AJR
  • Go Green Project: G5600GR-7, G6900GR-3, G2300GR-3[5]

Module differences

Frequent updates have produced a proliferation of watches with different modules and slightly varying feature sets:

Module Solar Stopwatch Timer Alarms Time Also Displayed in Other Features Watches
Squares
3160 Yes →24hrs →24hrs 5 No other modes World Time G-5600E
2597 Yes →100hrs →100hrs 5 Timer, Alarm, World World Time G-5600-1JF/G-5600-9*
2924 Yes →24hrs →60min 5 No other modes Atomic, World Time, Day or Date view only GW-5600
1545 No →24hrs →24hrs 1 Stopwatch, Timer Auto-restarting timer, Flashing backlight, Screwback (5025) DW5600E, DW5025D-8 DW6900NB-7ER
3229 No →24hrs →24hrs 1 Stopwatch, Timer Updated calendar; years 2000 to 2099, Auto-restarting timer, Flashing backlight DW-5600E-1VQ
3063 Yes →1000hrs →60min 5 Timer, Alarm Atomic, World Time GW-M5600
3159 Yes →24hrs →24hrs 5 No other modes Atomic, World Time, Screwback (5000) GWM5610B-1, GW-5000, GW-S5600
3151 No →24hrs →24hrs 3 No other modes Tide, Moon, World Time GLX5600-1
3221 Yes →24hrs →24hrs 5 No other modes World Time GX56-1A
Master of G
3050 Yes →100hrs →60min 5 Timer, Alarm Atomic, World Time GW9000A Mudman
3089 Yes →100hrs →60min 5 Timer, Alarm Atomic, World Time GW9100 Gulfman
2422 Yes →24hrs →24hrs 3 Alarm, Site, Dive Dive Site, Dive Time GW200 Frogman
3184 Yes →24hrs →24hrs 5 Alarm, Site, Dive Time Tide, Moon, World Time GWF-1000 Frogman
4765 Yes →60min →60min 1 Alarm, World Atomic AWG100-1A AWG101-1A AWG100BC-1AV
3147 Yes →24hrs →24hrs 5 Stopwatch, Timer, Alarm, World Atomic, Alti/Baro, World Time, Temp GW9200 Riseman
3261 Yes →1000hrs →24hrs 5 Stopwatch, Timer, Alarm Compass, Temp, Moon, World Time G-9300 (New) Mudman

References

  1. ↑ "Smashing success". Archived from the original on 2010-06-06. 
  2. ↑ "The clock is ticking at Casio". Archived from the original on 2010-06-06. 
  3. ↑ http://www.stussy.com/gshock-watches
  4. ↑ "Casio G-Shock GB-6900 Bluetooth watch review". 
  5. ↑ "Casio G-Shock goes green with eco-friendly timepieces", press release (February 2010)

External links

Wikimedia Commons has media related to G-Shock.
Wikimedia Commons has media related to Category:G-Shock.


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