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Last week I spent some time in the company of Kikuo Ibe, the Japanese engineer and designer who created the G-Shock.
According to well-worn legend, in 1981 Ibe dropped and broke the graduation watch given to him by his father, smashing it beyond repair. Ibe, then two years into a junior role at the electronics company Casio, was spurred into action.
He would create the world’s first unbreakable wristwatch.
Two years and 200 prototypes passed without success. Then one afternoon Ibe stepped outside his laboratory to get some air in the park next door. That’s where he saw a child bouncing a ball.
Eureka!
Ibe reasoned that by suspending a watch’s module inside a hollow structure similar to the ball's, there would be cushioning enough to prevent damaging jolts and jars.
He experimented by dropping prototypes from the window of the ladies’ bathroom on the third floor of Casio’s Tokyo R&D centre.
G-Shock launched in 1983. It was not an immediate success.
Jewellers were often aghast at being asked to stock a reasonably priced resin timepiece alongside others made from precious metals. In America Casio was forced to try and sell the watches where it could – in sports and drug stores.
Watch shoppers don’t tend to browse there. But another demographic does – kids. G-Shock became popular with a new kind of customer, one who was into skateboarding, BMX biking, rollerblading or surfing.
G-Shock’s functionality, price and (later on) fun colours and endless variants made it an indispensable accessory throughout the 1990s.
Meanwhile, Casio doubled down on G-Shock’s abilities to survive cold, heat, shock, water immersion, being crushed by vehicles and blown up.
Starting in 1997, the company developed various transparent and semi-transparent resin cases, later blending them with organic textures and laser-printing.
This heralded a new age for colourful collaborators, a list of whom includes, but is by no means limited to, Takashi Murakami, Super Mario Bros, Wu-Tang Clan, Stüssy, Billionaire Boys Club, Kith, Supreme, Maison Margiela, John Mayer, Gorillaz and Transformers – as well as institutions including Nasa, McDonald’s, FC Barcelona and the Japan Coast Guard.
This year marks Casio’s 50th anniversary. Today G-Shock accounts for 60 per cent of its revenue.
What’s more, the watch remains in a category of one: endorsed by everyone from helicopter pilots to hypebeasts, rappers to r/Watches Redditors.
The fact that Dr. Rebecca Struthers, master watchmaker and one of the UK’s greatest living horologists collects G-Shocks makes sense.
Ibe had managed to defeat a foe that had plagued watchmakers for centuries: damage caused by violent vibrations.
We spoke via a translator.
About Time: It took two years and 200 prototypes to develop the G-Shock. What do you remember about that time?
Kikuo Ibe: It was difficult. We didn’t have the equipment to test out the functionalities and the durability of the watch. So, we had to work around it. What we did was, from the third floor, we dropped the watches onto the concrete. We did that so many times. Only to realise that it was the concrete that started to give way, and break. So, that was an interesting episode.
What was the biggest hurdle to overcome?
If you go back to the original G-Shock, the materials were something we found quite challenging. We knew we needed to come up with a material that was safe, that people can use without any worries whatsoever. And that led us to urethane. But when we went to the manufacturer of the urethane material, because it couldn’t be shaped in a very easy manner back then, they came back and said “We can’t do this. You need to either change the shape or do it a different way. Or we can’t abide by your request.” So that was the big block that we had to overcome.
And how did you do that?
We could not budge. Because we had this concept of creating a G-Shock that’s sturdy, something that’s safe for everybody to wear. There was no way whatsoever [we would entertain an alternative]. So, we said “We won’t be able to change the sturdiness of it and we won’t be able to change the shape. But what I can do is work with very closely so that we can come to a solution. A collective solution.” For the next four months, I went to that factory every day, and stayed there and discussed with them and decided on how we could come up with that solution. I was persistent. Making sure it was the kind of mould that we needed to create and the shape we needed to create. And the fact that they were willing to be on that journey with me, for that length of time… that’s how G-Shock came into being.
Over the last five decades, there have been G-Shocks with built-in solar power, with antennas for radio-controlled time adjustment, with pressure sensors, temperature sensors, compasses, pedometers, heart rate monitors and more. What were the challenges there?
One thing I can say about G-Shock is that people really do appreciate the high range of functionalities that we offer – the solar power, the sensors and whatnot. And that entails many parts. In order to actually fit that functionality onto the wrist and offer it to the public, we need to be able to fit it all into a high-density area. It needs to be able to perform to the original specification and keep going. And that’s really about combining everything together in that small space. I think that’s the biggest challenge we’ve always had with G-Shock.
Casio started out in calculators. The ability to dramatically shrink those devices made them extremely popular. Then it branched out into watches, cameras, keyboards, and other consumer devices. Is the story of Casio also the story of miniaturisation?
You’ve hit the nail on the head in terms of the vision we have at Casio. In the sense that we’re always about making sure that all these many parts work in this really high-density area and perform well, at a low electricity consumption. Those two key areas translate to all of our products at Casio. Low electricity, with high density and small parts.
The other key G-Shock strategy has been: “loads of product, all of the time”.
You can see there’s so many varieties out there. It’s always: “What’s new, what’s the next thing customers are looking for? What’s Casio going to come up with in new concepts?”
You worked with AI to produce a one-of-one gold G-Shock that was auctioned at Philips last December for $400,000, the most expensive ever sold. Will you continue to develop watches with AI?
AI allows us to open-up the possibility of the structure of G-Shock. And that allows us to introduce new ideas into design. So that stream of adopting AI into our development is going to continue.
And where would you like to see G-Shock go in the future?
I have this wild imagination. I have a friend on a different planet. When you see another planet, that usually means really severe conditions, of -260 degrees Celsius, up to 400 degrees. A G-Shock that can withstand such an environment is something I would like to see happen. So, I can actually go skateboarding or mountain biking with my alien friend. But it’s not just about the watch. It’s thinking about how all products that we have on Earth can survive out there.
How soon do you see that happening?
I think it’s going to be quite soon that people are going to be able to travel outside of this world. Sooner than we realise. Products that can cater to that are going to be very important.
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G-Shocks are already worn by astronauts.
Within a spaceship, yes. That’s actually a nice environment. It’s very comfortable. But once you’re outside of there… it’s not very hospitable. I’m hoping that technology is going to catch up. So then I will be able to take you with me and introduce you to my alien friend.
At this point Ibe whips out a set of printouts from his bag and places them on the table in front of him. They are his own drawings and depict his adventures in space in the year 2035. Leaving Earth on a rocket and then riding across the surface of a planet with an alien companion, the pair of them on BMX bikes and skateboards. They’re both wearing G-Shocks.
Does your alien friend have a name?
Mr. Taro.
And these planets… this one’s Earth. What’s this one?
It doesn’t have a name.
Would you really like to go up into space?
I actually get car sick quite easily.
Maybe a G-Shock collab with SpaceX?
I’m not really keen on the idea. And also I think my life will end before then.
Is there an idea for a G-Shock that you haven’t been able to make work?
After the first G-Shock, we followed-up with the Mudman, which added mud resistance. And this made the watch a bit larger. After that we wanted to follow up with a watch that the firefighters could wear, doing their jobs. We tried all sorts of things, all sorts of ideas. But nothing panned out, in the sense that the watch became too big that it wasn’t actually useful. So that’s something that I regret. That I wasn’t able to realise that as an idea for a watch.
What material were you trying to use?
At the time we were thinking of using materials for parachutes, because they’re actually fire-resistant. So, we tried to cover the watch with that. But then it just became too big and bulky. It wasn’t practical.
G-Shock broke through after it was adopted by youthful skateboarders and BMX riders. How important are young people to the brand today?
They are the most important source of inspiration that we have. We want them to be able to think “Ok, this is what we’d like to wear”. They wear it for the look and then they realise how tough it is, and how amazing the functionality of it is. Afterwards hopefully they think “Okay, so maybe there are other watches that we can go to” [ie: G-Shock’s more premium MR-G and MT-G lines]. So, a way to capture that market, and young people, is very important.
What makes a good collaboration?
First and foremost, the way that we always go ahead with collaborations is to have a win-win relationship. We can win. They can win. Which means they need to be G-Shock fans to begin with. And of all the collaborations we’ve had over the years… no failures whatsoever. We were always able to achieve that win-win relationship.
Is there anyone in the world who isn’t a G-Shock fan?
Oh yes. There were people who approached us and said “Can we [collaborate]…?” But they were not a G-Shock fan, so we didn’t pursue that. We couldn’t achieve that win-win.
In 1996 you released the first G-Shocks made from metal – the MR-G range. What new challenges did developing metal watches bring?
The original watches have a urethane case [to protect them]. With the metal watches we didn’t have that cover. So, it was all about “How can we absorb the shock?” And the solution that we came up with is probably not evident to the layperson’s eye. In the bezel there’s a sort of dip and that reflects the shock – it’s almost like a bumper. That was our solution.
I’ve heard that you were given a limited amount of time by Casio to develop the MR-G. When the deadline elapsed, the company asked you to stop, but you carried on in your own time – in secret. Is that right?
With the history of MR-G we’ve always had people against us. Not everybody was on board until the very end, literally. But we didn’t hear the words, “No. Stop. Suspend”. That word “stop” did not come through. When we started there was a common conception that “G-Shock = black”, that you can’t stray from that. So, it was always trying to shift them, in a way, to a new world. And there’s always difficulty when that happens. But the fact is that we were able to launch it and then we had that [positive] market reaction. “Okay, great, now we have an audience”.
What did you think of the Apple Watch?
Personally, I welcomed it. At the time people were losing interest in wristwatches. Because it wasn’t the thing to do [ie: watches were out of fashion]. But because Apple Watch came out of there was now a new focus on the wrist.
It didn’t torpedo your sales too badly?
It didn’t really have impact on G-Shock sales. We have a different price range, etc. So that sort of helped us to keep our market.
Why has the original G-Shock case shape proved so versatile?
It was a time when people wanted to go smaller, thinner. And this was sort-of the reverse – it was bigger, bulkier. What was important was that we left no stones unturned. We took out all the frills on the watch that we could. That’s the reason that the design came to this. And that’s the reason it’s been like that for so many years.
This story is from About Time, Esquire’s free newsletter devoted to the watch world, in your inbox every Sunday. Sign up here
Johnny Davis is the Style Director of Esquire. He was previously editor of the influential British magazine The Face.
