A History and Guide to G-SHOCK

Jacob Van Buren

Oct 28, 2025

Kikuo Ibe was in the midst of his day when he collided with a passerby. His watch was knocked off his wrist, and all he could do was watch as it crashed onto the ground. It broke upon impact. Ibe, an engineer at Casio, was distraught. The watch had been a gift from his father. Unfortunately, the damage was too severe. Sometimes, things just can’t be fixed.

The event lit a fire inside Ibe. The engineer was convinced that a better watch — one that wouldn’t break, regardless of the conditions faced — could be built. He assembled a team of three engineers, whom he christened “Team Tough.” Their objective? Build a watch that meets “triple 10 resistance": ten years of battery life, survive a fall from 10 meters, and have 100 meters of water resistance (or 10 ATM, if one insists on sticking to the ten metric).

Team Tough assembled nearly 200 prototypes and found nearly as many ways of testing them, including dropping them from upper windows at the Casio research and development center and even running over them with cars. Frustratingly, none could pass the tests. Then inspiration struck. One day, Ibe noticed a child bouncing a rubber ball. Upon further testing, he discovered that the core of a rubber ball does not feel the impact of being struck on a surface. Two years after they began their work, the first Casio G-SHOCK was released in April 1983 — the DW-5000.

The name “G-SHOCK” refers to the watch’s ability to withstand gravitational shock. The DW-5000 was the birth of a new genre, the digital tool watch. The original design was based on a “floating module,” a system wherein the quartz movement was suspended in a urethane foam cradle protected by ten layers. This includes the urethane rubber outer layer, steel underpinnings, and screw-down caseback. The buttons to interact with the module interfaced with the movement via oblong button shafts, again due to increased shock resistance.

The new model even surpassed some of the initial specifications, with 200m of water resistance and the ability to withstand a drop from heights greater than 10m. The watch’s feature set was also impressive. In addition to its water and shock resistance, the G-SHOCK’s unique octagonal form also features day and date functionality, a chronograph, backlight, and alarm as the basic suite of complications.

Still, initial sales were slow. The watch’s industrial styling proved somewhat polarizing, and in Japan, where traditional dress watches were still preferred. The American market was not much better. Casio released a commercial showcasing a hockey player using a DW-5200C — an early variant of the DW-5000 from the American market — as a puck; audiences declared it blatantly false, and sales continued to slump. Only after a television news station began testing the durability of the watch, showing it could, in fact, withstand the abuse, did interest begin to rise meteorically.

In 1985, the DW-5500C was launched. It even came with a new trick — upgraded mud resistance. Casio made it clear that the G-SHOCK series was intended to withstand abuse, the likes of which would destroy nearly any other watch. Fans nicknamed it the “Mudman,” a name that proved so popular the brand adopted it themselves.

Casio followed up the Mudman with the DW-6300 in 1993, the first ISO 6245-certified diver’s watch in the G-SHOCK family. Named the Frogman, it became a key component of the equipment issued to the frogmen of the U.S. Navy’sSEAL Teams as part of their preliminary training at Basic Underwater Demolition/SEAL (BUD/S).

FEATURED G-SHOCK WATCHES

The Mudman and the Frogman formed the beginning of what the brand came to refer to as the “Master of G” collection, one that multiplied in size by the end of the decade. The Master of G collection, of which all watches are readily identifiable by their “-man” suffix, has grown to fifteen models encompassing a range of environments and features, including tide graphing and moon phases for the Fisherman; pressure, temperature, and direction sensors for the Rangeman; and incredible magnetism-resistant structure for the Gaussman.

Casio also launched the AW-500 in 1989, a hybrid analog-digital model that marked the beginning of one of the brand's most popular models. Casio was not the first to introduce a watch with analog digital capabilities, but these models included the signature G-SHOCK features at affordable price points, driving their demand. Analog-digital G-SHOCKs have since become a cornerstone of the collection under the popular 2100 banner, combining the signature G-SHOCK style with more traditional analog timekeeping.

By the end of the 1990s, 19 million G-SHOCKs had been sold and over 200 models had been introduced to the lineup. The watches were seeing widespread civilian and military use, with some models even becoming flight qualified by NASA (currently, they are the DW-5600C, DW-5600E, DW-5900, DW-6600, and DW-6900). Today, G-SHOCK represents what might be someone’s first — and last — watch in a collection, a rugged, versatile, and capable timepiece capable of being with them through the long haul. The initial design brief has expanded to include occupations Ibe and Team Tough could only dream of back in the early 1980s, including Bluetooth and GPS integration, for some of the toughest jobs on the planet.

After forty years of boundary-pushing innovation, G-SHOCK continues to introduce new technologies and expand on the designs that have made it indispensable among those who need the most durable, whether that is underneath the sea, fighting fires in the wilderness, or just enthusiasts who love a chunky digital tool watch. Ibe proved that while you can't go back to fix what you have broken, you can build something new — stronger than what came before. To see more of our favorite G-SHOCK watches, check out the brand page on the Windup Watch Shop. As always, the Windup Watch Team is available via consultation to answer any questions you have. In addition, many of the products shown are eligible for free domestic shipping across the US.

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