G-Shock

The G-Shock was conceptualized in 1981 by Casio engineer Kikuo Ibe when he bumped into a pedestrian, and the mechanical watch given to him by his father popped off of his wrist and shattered on the ground. The G-Shock then was conceived as a watch which would have “triple 10” resistance, meaning it would have a battery life of 10 years, have a water resistance of 10 bar and could survive a fall of 10 meters.

A team of three individuals was selected by Ibe which was known as “team tough”. The team had assembled and tested nearly 200 prototypes but were still not able to achieve the conception criteria. During a visit to a playground, Ibe discovered that in a rubber ball, the centre of the ball does not suffer the effects of the shock during a bounce on a rough surface, which gave him the idea to implement that concept into the watch. With that in mind, the team set out to develop a watch using such a concept and in April 1983, the first G-Shock, the DW-5000C, was launched.