‘Cool & Fun’ Made In Japan: A Visit To Casio G-Shock Watch Headquarters
It was 1983 in Japan when Casio first released the now famous G-Shock watch collection. Its inventor, Mr. Kikuo Ibe developed the durability-themed watch quietly with an intent to end the frustration with what he and others felt was an industry of fragile timepieces. When it was first released, the modern-looking plastic watches were intended to appeal to active professionals such as police officers, construction workers, and emergency
rescue personnel who needed timepieces that they didn’t need to worry about. Over the last 30 or so years, the Casio G-Shock has indeed been extremely popular with these groups of consumers, but as a product its popularity went far beyond its existence as a useful tool worn on the wrist.
A Quick History Of The Casio G-Shock The brilliance of G-Shock wasn’t apparent at the time when it was first released, as it was radically tech-themed and nerdy in a time when most Japanese business professionals still adhered to the classic dress watch look so deeply engrained in the hierarchical business structure of the society. Brands like Seiko and Citizen had elaborate dress watch collections with specific models intended for people to get in steps as they went up the corporate ladder. Sport watches were for, well… sports. And it wasn’t easy to adapt the society’s way of thinking from preferring a more traditional metal dress watch to something black and plastic.
Interestingly enough, 13 years after the original G-Shock debuted Casio finally came out with what it hoped was the Casio G-Shock for business people with the MR-G (or “Mr. G”) collection in 1996. With a metal case and bracelet, Mr. Ibe and his team perhaps for the first time developed a Casio sports watch for style that would live up to the legendary “abuse-resistance” of the G-Shock – though for a more sophisticated audience. These days, most consumers take the “shock-resistance” and other durability features of G-Shock and competitor watches for granted. People more or less assume that inexpensive sport watches will be items you can drop, throw, submerge, vibrate, smash, and scrape with minimal if any damage whatsoever. That’s the GShock legacy, and it is ironically something people rarely remember to credit to Casio, even though the company is largely responsible for the timepiece you wear and never need to worry about.
In the 1980s Casio was interested in aggressively-priced volume watches that would serve the needs of people everywhere doing things that require durable modern timepieces. The 1980s was the heyday of the quartz watch, but prior to the time when people had mobile phones or other devices on them in order to tell the time. A youth population keen to look cool and standout, but who also needed the utility of telling the time quickly adopted the Casio G-Shock as its gadget of choice – which, as Casio eventually found out, would be what made their hard work in Japan famous around the world.
In 1997, Casio G-Shock watch sales spiked dramatically. Casio thanked adoption of American youth pop culture and street culture (including everything from music to extreme sports) for a surge in popularity and sales. At this time, the market started to see something new: Casio as a fashion item. G-Shock and other Casio watches began to be introduced for what they looked like and a dizzying array of styles, colors, and themes appeared around the world. Casio was responding to the market, but at the same time they were simply following their core philosophy of adapting to what consumers wanted while also producing specific watches for an increasingly niche assortment of lifestyles and needs. This philosophy remains very consistent today.
After 1997, Casio G-Shock sales began to fall with a serious dip that Casio simply attributed to the fact that “everyone who wanted a G-Shock had one.” Some claim that the popularity of the G-Shock watches among so many people constituted a fashion trend, and that by definition it wasn’t meant to last. Other’s point out that the Casio G-Shock was too well-designed to be continually purchased again and again by the same consumers because it simply lasted too long. For that reason, Casio was intent on offering returning customers new reasons to buy products as opposed to having to purchase the same product again (a laudable strategy in an age of rampant planned obsolescence). It wasn’t as though G-Shock sales fell apart after 1997, but Casio clearly felt that they needed to reevaluate the strategy of their strongest selling product in preparation for success in the 21st century.
G-Shock Watch Development & Assembly In Japan Before I talk about the “state of the G-Shock” today, I’d like to speak a bit more generally about how G-Shock watches are conceived as well as what they often mean to collectors. I have some personal ideas and theories on the success of the product as well as of Casio in today’s complicated and dense wristwatch market. In today’s world, anything designed and assembled inside of Japan is often seen as a premium product. That’s not just marketing but often true, as Japanese products (electronics and machinery, especially) are seen as being designed to perform well with a high degree of efficiency, user satisfaction, and of course reliability.
Casio G-Shock collectors know that the more expensive models don’t just boast better materials and often technology, but also that they are assembled (mostly by hand, actually) inside of Japan. Casio’s premium range of G-Shock watches are designed and developed in Hamura, Japan, and then assembled at the company’s manufacture in Yamagata. Casio as a corporate entity is headquartered in Tokyo and, like many large Japanese companies with over 10,000 employees (Casio has just over 11,000 employees across all business units), has a series of offices around the country as well as the world.
The heart of Casio’s watch business is, however, in my opinion, the R&D facility in Hamura. It was this location where Mr. Ibe originally designed the Casio G-Shock back in the early 1980s as well as where GShock watches are developed and tested today before anything gets to final production.
While photographic opportunities were limited at the Hamura facility, what I saw with my own eyes when visiting there was very interesting – and quite unlike what I’ve seen at most other watch companies, even in Japan. Anyone with a fondness for Tokyo’s Akihabara “Electric Town” will feel right at home in the facility packed with tech rooms and offices you’ll find there. It’s really an engineering nerd’s paradise, and you get the impressions the entire facility is more or less full of nerds trying to solve little problems one by one, and the higher-level management trying to reign it all in so that something marketable comes as a result.
A good example is the durability and artificial aging testing room where G-Shock and other watches are tested until they break. Casio developed a machine to simulate drops. Mr. Ibe originally wanted to make sure that the G-Shock would survive a fall of 10 meters. By contrast, most mechanical watches can barely withstand a four foot drop. At first, Casio tested the watches by throwing them out of a window. Later, a machine was developed to simulate the task. The problem then became that Casio was developing watches that simply wouldn’t break under the dropping conditions used at the time. So what did Casio do? They developed another machine which, currently next to the original, simulates even higher velocity drops. Casio mandates that G-Shock watches need to survive something like 50 or so high velocity drops, but the team there actually tests a lot of them to see how many times it takes until the watches break.
When they determine that a watch has been dropped enough times that it incurs some internal damage, the team excitedly takes the watch apart to see where the weak point was and then proceeds to find solutions in order to make it stronger. So far, none of the watches they have made will withstand the hundreds of drops the team has the patience to test. If they develop such a watch – which is not a stretch of potential engineering – they will just make a new machine that subjects the watches to even more dropping abuse.
Casio G-Shock (and other product) design development isn’t just about durability, but also about functionality. What Casio shares in common with fellow Japanese watch makers Citizen and Seiko is the desire to build watches the user does not need to worry about. Comfort and convenience are highly valued elements of any consumer product in Japan so it makes sense that the country’s domestic watch makers are motivated by these forces when inventing new products.
In the context of a watch, this means a timepiece which does not break, is always on time, and doesn’t need maintenance. This is why solar or motion-powered high-accuracy quartz watches are so popular in Japan. On top of that, the consumers in Japan seem to prefer watches that automatically synchronize with the country’s two atomic clock radio signals and, more recently, with GPS satellites around the world. It is all part of a unique homegrown philosophy about what makes a good product – and this is something that consumers around the world have come to appreciate from Japanese-made products, be they cameras or cars.
Where I feel that Casio differs from its competitors here in Japan is the design philosophy, which emphasizes different ideals and aesthetic values than many of the more traditional-looking products from Seiko and Citizen. Casio is more a dream watch for gadget lovers, whereas much of the competition goes to lengths to dress their gadgets in more elegant skins that attempt to somewhat obstruct the fact that the products are gadgets underneath. As for Casio, the gadget culture is both alive and very embraced. This begins with the employees, naturally extends to the product, and is reflected in many of the consumers.
Casio, like other high-volume watch makers, uses a lot of intelligent automated techniques to produce watches – but the amount of hand-assembly is surprising. This is especially true among their more high-end watches that are priced around $500 and up. These watches are assembled in Japan (and now, Casio is making a concerted effort of reminding people as such in their marketing materials), with similar levels of care and effort as one might expect in a luxury mechanical watch. Moreover, even though many of these watches have a look that classic G-Shock watch lovers will recognize, the technology and materials used are distinctly high-end. Sapphire crystals, complex metal cases, sophisticated polishes and coatings, and nerd-beloved over-engineering are found throughout the products. The Casio G-Shock Mudmaster is a good example. Casio states that it is intended to appeal to rescue workers and other rough environment professionals who need a timepiece that they can operate with their gloves and that can resist mud and dirt.
Casio continues to improve the Mudman and Mudmaster collection of watches to levels that its owners will probably never need. The pushers on the latest models are thoroughly engineered in some cases with up to four gaskets per pusher in order to prevent damage as well as both water and mud from entering. Yes, it works well, but I am sure even Casio is quick to admit that the population of people out there who require this functionality is extremely limited. More importantly, these are watches that gadget-lovers can appreciate and purchase (such as they do any luxury watch) in appreciation of the culture and craftsmanship that went into the engineering and design. It is the same mentality that prompts many people to buy a near-$9,000 Rolex Submariner, but just in a different flavor.
Let’s talk about G-Shock and other premium Casio watch production. Not all Casio watches are produced inside of Japan even if they are designed here. All three of the major Japanese watch companies - Seiko, Citizen, and Casio - have most of their volume products produced in other parts of Asia (such as Thailand), but with more high-end premium models produced inside of Japan. Within domestic production there is further differentiation of quality. For instance, at Casio, they have a “PPL” (“Premium Production Line) room where the company's absolute top products are made with an incredibly impressive level of care and production refinement.
Many people don’t realize that a full Casio G-Shock watch takes a total of 2-3 months to produce when taking into consideration all the parts that need to be made. Assembly of each watch takes about 3-4 days, and then each is tested for another 5-7 days. What is tested? Each individual watch produced at Casio Yamagata is water pressure tested and “aged” for several days in both a very hot room and a very cold room. Accuracy is something which is tested previously during the assembly of the movements, which of course also happens inhouse. The vast majority of Casio watch production – like the other Japanese watch makers – is highly vertically integrated. Often in ways the Swiss brands that boast “in-house” cannot match.
Casio is only now really trying to broadcast more of these messages that would probably make a lot of people look at the brand in a more prestigious light. For years, the Swiss luxury watch industry was a master of marketing while the Japanese were the true masters of innovation. With that said, I’ll give you an example of a favorite part of the Yamagata factory, a room where hands are perfectly aligned.
The room has two “G”-shaped production lines - that is, they literally form the letter G. The purpose of these production lines is to set the hands on the dial and then to clean and finally case the watches. First of all, the people working here are Casio’s "Medalists." For some reason, the brand doesn’t call the people here watch makers. I get that, but they aren’t any less skilled nor do they have any less craftsmanship or technical mastery. There are various levels of these Medalists, and they need both experience and to pass internal exams. There are Gold and Platinum-level Medalists and the top honor goes to “Meisters,” which have been working for at least a decade or so and have continually proven their skills.
Anyhow, these top-level production employees at Casio populate the PPL spots working in tandem with automated machines to efficiently produce high-end, cool gadget watches. The hand-setting “G� lines are a bit different in that they are much more traditional without having automated belts for the watches. This line begins with a series of processes designed to set analog hands on watches like the Oceanus, MR-G, MT-G, and some other high-end G-Shock models. Hands are manually set using specialized tools and precision cameras allow the operator to carefully check that the position of the hands are perfect. Further, the hands are operated to ensure that they remain perfect as they move. This isn’t just how high-end Swiss watches do it, but Casio takes it a step further. The placement and positioning of the hands must be absolutely perfect, and a healthy amount of time is spent on each individual watch.
Since the dial of the watch was just finished at this step, it makes sense to then immediately protect it by casing the watch. One of the processes involved in casing the watch is to actually put the case in an oven after the dial and movement are inside. This is done before the case-back is attached and is designed to “cook out� any moisture that might lead to fogging/condensation. Casio isn’t making traditional watches, but if you really compare what they are doing (along with their Japanese colleagues) their quality assurance processes are superior to those employed by most European luxury watch makers.
I particularly like this process because far too often even high-end quartz movements have hands that aren’t aligned properly and that don’t rest exactly where they should when ticking. Casio is fanatical about quality, toughness, and improving their products and processes, and it really shows. I love those values, and it makes my appreciation for the watches so much higher‌ especially at what are still very affordable price points for the majority of their products.
Growing Up Casio Casio probably understands the unique position it is in as a watchmaker today when it comes to being an important part of many people’s formative years. My own experience as a Casio consumer is a common story in that – due to price and practicality – the first watch I was given as a child was a Casio. Moreover, I continued to wear a stream of Casio watches until I was done with high school. I was deeply aware of the design and functionality of the watches I was wearing, and as far as my parents were concerned, the relatively cheap prices of each watch meant that buying a new one each few years wasn’t that big of a deal. Thus, it was an interest of mine that they freely entertained because it was cost effective. That really isn’t the case when it comes to most Swiss or otherwise traditional watches.
Parents are for the most part totally OK getting their kids Casio watches not only because they aren’t expensive but also because they are not prone to breaking. This is a really important point because a lot of parents who otherwise want their kids to have “nice watches” will not buy them until the kids are old enough to be responsible. That isn’t really a factor in something like a G-Shock because it will put up with a kid’s style pretty much better than anything else – and they also happen to look cool.
So what happened to the generation of kids starting in the early 1980s going until the early 2000's who “grew up Casio?” That’s right, they became nostalgic brand loyalists as adults, and it is this for reason, in my opinion, that so many otherwise snobby watch lovers are not only quick to collect G-Shock watches themselves, but also appreciate them on other people’s wrist to the exclusion of most other budget watch brands.
Thus, it is Casio’s current challenge to do two things. First, they need to ensure that they offer products appealing to today’s youth so that they can have an opportunity to grow up Casio as well. Second, Casio wants
to serve the needs of all its now adult, former child watch wearers who want something that is as cool as the Casio watches they remember, but with enhanced design and quality of execution, functionality, and also style. This is one of the major reasons why the high-end MR-G and MT-G G-Shock collections persist, and it also explains the modern era of high-end G-Shock watches which include products now priced at over $6,000 (limited editions at that price‌ for now).
The Intelligent Analog Strategy Effect One of the strangest things for me was seeing more and more Casio watches go from digital to analog. When it comes to legibility, functionality, precision, and convenience, digital screens are for the most part superior to traditional analog dials which use physical markers and hands versus dynamic screens. Why, then, are more and more high-end Casio G-Shock watches increasingly focused on analog displays? This includes both hybrid displays that include a combination of hands along with one or more LCD screens, as well as entirely analog dials which Casio has engineered to offer all or much of the same functionality that people have come to expect from the brand’s digital fare.
Some people have correctly pointed out that this is a sort of step backwards when it comes to functionality. That would be true, but I will remind those people that we don’t live in a world where people buy watches entirely for functionality anymore. The truth is that among adults analog-dialed watches sell better than those with purely digital faces. What is more, analog-dialed watches offer more personality than digital ones which can create a deeper emotional bond, leading to consumers having a greater desire to purchase those products. Remember, Casio’s marketing strategy with its high-end G-Shock collection is to appeal to that person who grew up Casio but who wants something cool that they can enjoy as an adult.
The name for this at Casio is called the “Intelligent Analog Watch Strategy,” and it is the idea that the company is engineering interesting and complicated ways to ensure that a G-Shock does everything a G-Shock should, but with an analog dial. I can’t stress enough the intense R&D budget that continues to go into this work. With digital screens, Casio didn’t have to worry about so much that they need to worry about with analog dials. This has resulted in them having engineering dials through which light can pass to reach the photovoltaic cell or hands that automatically realign to the proper position after the watch has been subject to an extreme shock, for example.
Complicated micro-motors and materials were designed to allow hands to move both quickly and attractively when performing functions other than telling the time; Useful low-energy consumption systems that provide light to read the dial in the dark; A “smart access� crown is meant to allow for a variety of functions using the crown in a way similar to that of a traditional watch while also being highly durable. This list could go on, but all of this time and investment is exclusively due to the fact that Casio wanted analog watch dials to do more or less the same things as digital watch dials. If anything, it makes a great story and it offers a staggering amount of variety for consumers.
The effect of the Intelligent Analog Watch Strategy for both Casio and consumers has been interesting. The corporate mandate that high-end G-Shock watches be analog spurred a sort of high-design renaissance, in my opinion, at Casio. This culminated in other advances and spending that found its way into many other elements of the watch from the complexity of the case to the functionality of the movement. Casio is intent on pushing its promise of consumer convenience as much as possible into the future. The latest trend has been to integrate GPS time synching functionality into more and more watches.
In the future, Casio hopes that as a more cost-effective solution it will be able to connect all of its watches directly to the Internet. This would be a step above the current atomic clock radio signal technology which works well in Japan, but has limited utility in many other parts of the world. For now, Casio is experimenting with Bluetooth technology, but it admits this is a short-term solution. Eventually, it wants to experiment with LTE and other mobile data broadcasting in its watches so that they can always be accurate, anywhere in the world, and still enjoy the G-Shock’s legendary level of being “worry-free.”
The insistence that many Casio G-Shock family watches appeal to a more adult demographic continues to prove interesting for Casio watch design. Yes, it is true that these are no longer watches cheap enough for kids to grow up with, but Casio hasn’t abandoned that part of the business. In true Japanese consumer product form, Casio wants to have attractive products for a variety consumer types. The major challenge will continue to be competition from other brands, as well as emerging technology products such as smartwatches – which is a segment that Casio has already entered as well.
‘Cool & Fun’ Made In Japan: A Visit To Casio G-Shock Watch Headquarters
“Cool & Fun” As The Driving Force Of G-Shock Watch Design In all my years visiting watch makers around the world, I’ve never until visiting Casio heard top-level designers freely mention that their goal was to make a watch that was “cool” and “fun” to use. The lack of marketinglanguage obfuscation at Casio is really refreshing. The designers are open with what inspires them, how they integrate those ideas into their products, and why they design the watches they do. Yes, it is true that like other watch makers Casio is engineering watches that will perform and survive more applications than most consumers need, but at least Casio isn’t asking its consumers to pay too much for the privilege. Again, Casio makes the perfect watch for the gadget lover who wants a cool item on their wrist that is actually very useful.
Casio’s G-Shock watches are meant to be for various types of activities on land, sea, or in the air. Some of the consumers will take full advantage of the durability and functionality, and others will simply appreciate the idea that they can enjoy the fuller promise of these watches someday. In any event, the much more democratic pricing at Casio (even with a push upmarket) means that a higher volume of people can share in these experiences – which is one of the reasons Casio is a much more social brand when compared to others.
In addition to Mr. Ibe, another long-time Casio employee is Mr. Ryusuke Moriai who is now the Design Manager of G-Shock. This prolific designer is responsible for some of the most iconic Casio watches of all time including the simple and effective F-91W and many G-Shock models. These men are inspired by functionality, but also their own lives and upbringings. When designing a new G-Shock dive watch, they look to modern submarines and other equipment, and when designing the G-Shock Mudmaster, they look at military vehicles, outfits, and tools for inspiration. Casio G-Shock is the brand that makes modern Japanese design iconic. If you grew up with Japanese cartoons and toys you’ll be immediately at home, but you’ll also find a lot to appeal to you if you are like most men who like high-performance machines.
What I think I inherently like so much about Casio is that it isn’t inspired by the world that came before it. So much of Swiss watch design, or that of other high-end Japanese products is based in design influences that existed before the designer was even born. Casio is rare in looking at today as well as the future in the design of pretty much all their men’s watches. This is even the case in dressier watches such as Edifice or Oceanus, which are more classic in their familiarity, but still thoroughly contemporary in their aesthetic.
I want a fun and cool watch more than pretty much any other design motivation. I don’t know that myself or most other consumers might articulate it that way, but when it comes down to it, prestige and tradition for most people are second place criteria when compared to the idea that a watch needs to stimulate the play-loving youth that still exists in us all.
The Future Of Casio G-Shock Where is Casio and G-Shock going in today’s complicated consumer electronics environment? With an allelectronic collection of timepieces and the most modern approach to design, Casio is perhaps in the best position to look ahead – even compared to its domestic Japanese competitors. Nevertheless, Casio is still cautious about deploying new technology before it is ready. Furthermore, today the watch game isn’t just about hardware, but also software. Casio currently has some internal software development capability but uses mostly outside resources when it comes to the majority of their software development.
This is a crucial component when it comes to developing better and more interesting smartwatches – even if they base their smartwatches on popular wearable operating systems such as Android Wear – as well as when it comes to the development of applications for smartphones which are required for both aesthetic purposes or communication purposes, like enabling a smart watch to be updated with cool watch faces or, ultimately, to help realize their goal of having watches that communicate directly with mobile data networks.
Casio is for the most part aware of where they have gaps, but in an uncertain environment I can imagine it is difficult for them to effectively plan and allocate resources. Japanese design is more careful and cautious than their neighbors in China or Korea, which means they come out with more complete products that tend to take longer. In an age when the lifespan of some of the technology in watches is less than a year, Japan’s manufacturing mentality is still trying to figure out how to adapt.
Casio doesn't only sell watches directly to consumers, but a large part of their business is selling watches in wholesale volumes to third-party stores. This is especially true in the context of the more high-end products they produce, such as Oceanus, Master of G, MT-G, and MR-G. While visiting the Yamagata factory, I was joined by a few retailers who sold these products along mostly high-end luxury Swiss watches. It was interesting to gauge the looks on their faces when they realized that Casio used at least as much if not more effort in producing their watches compared to more expensive brands.
Even though many Casio G-Shock watches look like Tonka toy trucks in display cases next to Cartier or TAG Heuer timepieces, I think the retailers could immediately appreciate that all of these timepieces share core values when it comes to purpose, construction, quality, and long-term appeal. Casio is getting more and more retailers to appreciate the deeper values of their products, which is something the Japanese brands are a bit late to the game in doing as compared with the Europeans. With that said, the stories they have to share are proving persuasive, and high-end Casio sales are certainly on an upswing in the traditional watch stores that currently carry them.
It probably doesn’t surprise you that Casio pays extremely close attention to the market and what competitors are doing. Japanese companies have been eagerly eyeing each other for years, so they know about what others are doing with smartwatches and other technology watches. Casio has certain standards of durability, utility, and longevity that they put to all of their watches, which might explain why they can seem to be slow to adopt new technologies.
In many ways, the geeks who make their awesome products also know that asking consumers to make sacrifices is a bad idea – what I mean by that is they don’t want to introduce new features to the detriment of other ones. This mainly relates to battery life: Casio could introduce more features into many of their watches but battery consumption could go drastically up. That might mean they could no longer offer solar power generation and total watch autonomy – which is something they would not want to ask of their customers.
While Casio has many slogans to explain their core values like promoting “Absolute Toughness,” one thing they haven’t expressly said but have historically demonstrated is what I mentioned above of not wanting to overstep when it comes to innovation. Casio products build on one another. Yes, Casio does produce some expensive models that each have different features and promises, but when it comes to their high-end watches you never need to take items off the list of features. Casio only likes to add features, and doesn’t want to remove them. For me, that is the major takeaway of Casio’s particular brand of innovation, and it feels like a mandate directly from the employees on the items they are responsible for proudly producing, while looking cool wearing them… and having fun in the process. gshock.com