Few product brands final for more than than 35 years. Simply the Casio 1000-Stupor line is a cultural institution. Developed by engineer Kikuo Ibe after he dropped and bankrupt a pocket watch given to him by his male parent, the G-Daze line includes the globe's almost durable watch as accounted past observers from the Guinness Book of Globe Records after it survived the weight of a 25-ton truck. Today, the G-Shock's appeal stretches from military personnel to outdoor adventurers who need its resilience to weekend warriors who only like its fashion, a countercultural statement confronting the loftier-priced sleek minimalism and app-driven versatility of the Apple tree Scout.

Over the decades, the line has expanded across a range of digital and analog designs and an array of sub-brands: Baby G, Thou-Steel and the ballsy-sounding Master of G. There's as well a brand called Mr. G., and over the years he's had enough of companion brands: Mudman, Frogman, Rangeman, and Gulfman—a veritable Justice League of tough watches fighting the supervillains Water, Grit, and Shock. (Casio has shifted away from such gender typing with its recent Mudmaster series.)

The Yard-Shock Mudmaster is an entire line unto itself. [Photograph: courtesy of Casio]

Despite the hundreds of color and style variations over the decades, Casio notwithstanding sells a model, the DW5600E, that is almost identical to the original G-Daze watch that the visitor launched in 1983. Its hallmarks have included four corner buttons that are notoriously and intentionally difficult to printing and a bulky, loosely octagonal face with a matching plastic strap.

According to Tadashi Shibuya, senior product manager of the time products sectionalization at Casio America, the watch'south toughness transcends the fabric choice and price brackets. "Whether a customer is purchasing a $99 Chiliad-Shock or a high-end model at $vii,500, a shock-resistant structure and the ethos of accented toughness are built in. While we might exist better known every bit a resinwatch brand, nosotros take several materials we piece of work with, including stainless steel, titanium, and carbon fiber."

Casio'southward blueprint decisions assistance reinforce the watch's ruggedness. Simply ruggedness does not imply simplicity; the designs are often intricate, visually overwhelming affairs. On the analog front, you have the likes of the Casio Men'southward XL Series G-Shock Quartz 200M WR Stupor Resistant Resin Color: Grey With Camo Face—also known as Model GA-100CF-8ACR—a scout that pairs a busy name with a busy face. Beneath its hands are 3 smaller circular indicators and ii LCDs for alternating fourth dimension zones and the date.

Some 1000-Shocks are digital; some are analog. The GA-100CF-8A is both. [Photo: courtesy of Casio]

The digital G-Shock watches, on the other hand, tend to include printed text—lots of text. These indicators serve a range of functions that include the typical (branding), the functional (button labels), and the quirky (proclamation of features). The last feels unnecessary given that features need to exist advertised only before the lookout is purchased. Only there'due south a case for a kind of viral marketing chemical element for anyone else who happens to see your G-Stupor.

This "Cherry-red Back" Thou-Shock is a collaboration between Casio and shoe-fan magazine Sneaker Freaker. [Photo: courtesy of Casio]

And Casio isn't shy almost driving domicile the bulletin. The 21 words printed on the DW5600E face up include "Illuminator" below the Casio make and "Electro Luminescent Backlight" below the display. Both are redundant given that the two buttons on the watch's right side are labeled as controlling functions related to the lookout'southward backlight. And if you were unaware that the G-Shock make included shock resistance, the words "Stupor Resist" appear above the product make while the broader "Protection" appears at the top of the confront.

Shibuya explains M-Shock's verbosity. "Think of it as a kind of, 'functional expressionism,'" he says. "Of class, Water Resistance is indicated, that's manufacture standard, only our technology like Tough Solar or Bluetooth, that'due south similar having V6 or Hemi on your auto or truck. Sure, part of it is marketing, but nosotros want to convey the functionality of our watches." Only if the Chiliad-Daze were a automobile, that vehicle's visual identity would be more than like a NASCAR race entrant than an SUV with a lone sticker boasting of all-wheel drive or the number of engine cylinders.

The Thousand Shock DW 5600E in all its 1980s-aesthetic celebrity. [Photograph: courtesy of Casio]

The G-Shock paved the way for products that consumers bought even when they were designed for far more farthermost weather condition. The Hummer has gone the fashion of the dinosaurs that fueled it while Canada Goose jackets migrate from closets every winter. But unlike those brands, Yard-Shock watches don't command a huge price premium compared to popular fashion watches from Fossil or Swatch. So that may assistance explicate why its owners don't mind Casio doing a chip of bragging.

What happens to all this functional expressionism when Casio must bargain with the constraints of a smartwatch display? The visitor has created an outdoors-focused watch based on Google'southward Wear Os called the Pro Trek. Information technology's marketed as being tough—that is, for a smartwatch—but it's non a G-Shock.

Shibuya says that the company gets asked all the time about how it might create a smartwatch that lives upward to users' rugged expectations for its storied brand, only that whatever such production would accept to be a G-Daze first. "I believe you can residual assured that it will be uniquely Chiliad-Daze in its grade cistron, unlike annihilation nosotros have seen before." If Casio carries its tradition forrad, you'll be able to read all virtually it—correct on the confront of the watch itself.