The story of Casio G-Shock has become a modern legend: Kikuo Ibe dropped a timepiece gifted by his father and the watch cracked on impact.
Being at that time an engineer with Casio, he became determined to make the most resistant watch in the world.
Casio G-Shock
It was meant to be water resistant to 10 bar, have a 10-year battery life, and survive a 10 m fall onto a hard surface. More than 200 prototypes were tested by dropping them from rooftops or third story windows during more than 2 years, until it was ready to take off! The first G-Shock DW-5000C launched in 1983.
The popularity of the G-Shock surpassed all expectations, in 1998 19 million pieces were sold all over the World. Only during that year over 200 new models were created.
This year, in August, the 100th million G-Shock watch was produced!!!
The design had no less than 10 layers of protection, including a hardened mineral glass watch crystal, case and screwed down case back made of stainless steel, a rubber bumper and a urethane foam cradle for absorbing shocks, buttons and display attached with flexible cables. That is.
New models are introduced frequently and the basic models are updated twice during a year.
G-Shocks have become collectors items.
They are very popular among bickers, athletes, outdooraholics, firefighters, mountaineers, police officers, astronauts, paramedics, film directors, soldiers, average people.
It quickly was seen as the favored timepiece of skateboarders in Japan, and as more iterations were developed, it became a full cultural phenomenon. Though that might have been a surprise to some of its staff members, that phenomenon status continues to exist for decades and pushes forward the design and durability standards of the brand.
Models DW-5600C, DW-5600E, DW-5900, DW-6600, DW-6900 are agreed for NASA space travel.
Casio continues to add more and more new features and functions to the G-Shock timekeeper among which I note the solar battery charging, synchronization through radio signals, bluetooth,
digital compass, thermometer, barometer/altimeter, automatically adjusting the time zone, resistance to vibration and centrifugal gravity.
the G-Shock team set up an exhibition — with tons of products from G-Shock’s inception to present day — at Madison Square Garden in New York. The one-night event celebrated the brand’s incredible legacy over the last 35 years, starting out from one man’s quest to make a nearly uncomparable timepiece.
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