Casio has announced that it will be making a fancy Mr-G version of its popular 2100 series G-Shock.
The G-Shock came about in the 1980s with a watch conceived on the triple-10 principle: 10-year battery life; 10 bar (100m) water-resistance; and the ability to survive a drop of 10 feet unharmed.
The result was a no-nonsense watch that you could wear anywhere. And people liked what they saw.
The G-Shock is so popular now that it doesn’t need the “Casio” introduction, and it was announced that they had sailed past 100 million units sold several years ago.
Everything written so far points to a watch which, you could reasonably expect, also comes with a no-nonsense price tag.
So how does the watch pictured here justify its £4300 price?
Although G-Shock was developed to be tough, by the 1990s it was also clear that they were also rather cool.
So Casio started riffing on the design, and the biggest change came when the Mr-G line was launched.
It eschewed the resin cases used thus far, and suddenly we had a luxury, finely polished, metal G-Shock, with a higher price to match.
This new watch is the first Mr-G take on the 2100 line, the analogue/digital mix models with the slimmed profile and the octagonal bezel.
The Mr-G line often plays on Citizen’s Japanese heritage, and the new watch, MRG-B2100B, has a dial that nods toward the traditional woodwork technique called kigumi.
In kigumi, wooden pieces are skillfully interlocked without using nails or screws, and the dial of the watch is designed to give that effect.
The dial openings have a dual purpose. As well as giving the kigumi look, the gaps allow sunlight to get in to power up the radio-controlled solar movement.
The top bezel is made with a proprietary alloy that is roughly four times as hard as pure titanium.
The bracelet is made from another proprietary alloy, this time made from titanium, with a hardness around three times that of the pure metal.
This is not the most expensive G-Shock, they have broken the £5k barrier before. But when you can still buy an entry-level G-Shock for less than £100, it is pretty pricey.
Japanese companies understand something better than the rest of us. A brand can make entry-level pieces, but if the craftsmanship requires more moolah, they know that customers will be prepared to pay for it. Casio knows this, so does Seiko. How long before watch companies in other countries catch on?
