Original and best
Celebrating over 25 years of rich design heritage, the G Shock watch, first designed in 1983 by Casio’s Kikuo Ibe, was created to defy the traditional concepts of a watch as a fragile and easily damaged accessory. The G Shock watch was a revolutionary new design constructed so that it was virtually unbreakable. In 1981, Kikuo Ibe accidentally dropped his watch onto his tiled office floor. The cherished timepiece, a graduation present from his parents, was now smashed to pieces. Being the Chief Engineer of Research & Development at Casio meant that Kikuo would take this disgruntled moment and use it to produce a practical watch that every man (and woman) could wear and would survive the punishments of daily usage. This resulted in the “Gravity Shock” wristwatch, or G-shock series. The first model, the DW-5000 was released in April, 1983.
Analogue shock
Technological development enabled the realization of the concept. Kikuo Ibe: “The Floating Module Configuration is a hollow structure which absorbs the shock in different levels and this hollow structure makes it hard to pass through the shock to the main module components. The G Shock is primarily a structural design. In other words the shock resistant structure more or less determines the exterior form. Under this circumstance the designers have communicated toughness through the rugged exterior form.”
In the early 80′s, Casio was emerging as king of the digital watch manufacturers through a process known as self-cannibalistic marketing. The idea was simple. By flooding the market with improved models of each watch, Casio would be its own fiercest competitor. If a model was improved or changed, the new version was immediately launched and sold alongside its predecessor. By the time the competition had an answer, Casio was several models ahead. Changing seasonally to hold the fickle youth market, with a continual procession of limited editions to hold the collector market. This explains the vast diversity in Casio watches during the 1980s. The main fashion for watches at the time was thin and delicate. Casio had engineers working on everything from watches that recognize images traced on the crystal with a finger to scientific calculator models. Most of Casio’s engineers were hard at work designing and creating wafer thin watches. Kikuo had the desire to make a watch for people whose lifestyles demand more than just a pretty face. From the fertile ground of Japan’s Economic Miracle came the idea of an instrument wristwatch that would be unbreakable.
Under Kikuo’s guidance developers worked for years following the “Triple 10″ concept that product should last 10 years, be waterproof to 10-bar pressure and survive a drop of 10 metres. 200 handmade samples were created and tested to destruction until finally in 1983, the first, now iconic G-Shock hit the streets of Japan – establishing its credentials as the toughest watch of all time.
Although beginning as a watch designed for workmen, the rugged industrial design quickly became popular. There is a collectors market for G-Shocks however unlikely it might seem. Centered in Japan it is a vast network of discussion forums and collectors clubs, books, and a host of enthusiast websites. G-Shocks have become semi-mythological cultural icons with a life independent of the Casio brand. While it will likely be mostly known among the masses for the brightly coloured and largely disposable plastic watches born of the 1990s G-Shock boom, it is the original genius which remains its soul.
The heavy-duty digital sports watch in its most quintessential form. Unlike most watches made today, digital or analogue, it is not a celebration banner of the wearer’s ego, but as a tool it serves silently and reliably, without fanfare or special attention. It is this authenticity which prevents its exclusion from the class of “real” wristwatches, indeed perhaps being the most real of them all. – Timezone.com
We’ve got 2 exclusively designed, bespoke, We Love… branded G-Shock watches to give away for the bright sparks who can answer this question: What year was the first Casio G-Shock created? Email your answer to ruairi@welove-music.com. The competition will close this time next week (6pm Friday 4th December). Good luck!
Personal website of Sjors – G-Shock collector and extensive reference resource
