G-SHOCK
Casio Has Included Toughness into the Wristwatches

Date：31, Jul, 2013
Investigated and Written by Misaka Youhei
About our introductory articles

Tweet

Looking back on Japanese 1990s, we almost wonder why those matters came into fashion, just like Nike's sneakers.

Casio's G-SHOCK also got fashionable in 1990s, too. It is not alright that you catch the wristwatches as one of old vogue. We Japanese must have the tough series at the present we have to go tougher to survive.

Though it was in fashion of 1990s, they firstly released G-SHOCK 30 years ago, in 1983. Late-bloomer is just the wristwatch.

One day in 1981, a member of Casio saw a watch break down into pieces. Then, he decided to produce tough watches never to break. Firstly, he tried to strengthen its protectors but it became like a softball and did not work as a wristwatch. How about a structure which absorbs a shock? There was just a problem. Precision of the parts had to go down for it. Such a defective watch finally worked no more. Finding no exits, He had wandered in a blind alley for a long time.

A day of the struggling time, he gazed at a girl playing in a park. She was bouncing a ball and it right away gave him a flash. Shocks never convey if the content floats. He found a breakthrough. It was just impossible to let the interiors float for real. Then, they produced a tough structure which supports with points.

Thus, April 12. 1983, they released the first series of G-SHOCK. It got popular in United States of America at the start, not Japan. It is said SEALs had used G-SHOCK for the toughness although we have no idea about the present. Flames of popularity leaped across borderlines and came to Japan. Nobody could deny that the wristwatches are from tenacious spirit of Japanese and naturally it still includes the toughness.