15 of the best G-Shock watches of 2022: The ultimate buying guide to the world’s most durable digital watches

As legend has it, the famous designer Gerald Genta scribbled the design of Patek Philippe Nautilus on napkins at a Basel restaurant in the ’70s, it took just 5 minutes to land one of the biggest awards of all time. The story has been around for so long because it exemplifies both the free creation of Raging Bull era of watch design and the casual brilliance of the designer himself. The story of the Casio G-Shock is a very different one, but it tells you a lot about how this watch became the absolute legend it is today.

The time is 1981, the location is Japan, and the designer is Kazuo Ibe. Unlike Genta, an artist who dreamed of winding lines and whimsical shapes, Ibe was an engineer with a single goal: to create the toughest watch the world had ever seen. It will have to withstand a 10 meter drop and 10 bar pressure underwater and run for 10 years without a new battery. After two years of failed tests, smashed prototypes, and hours of playthrough, G-Shock was born. It doesn’t zigzag like the Nautilus, but it does have a certain Volvo-like boxy beauty. It’s also affordable and – most importantly – harder than the LSAT in Dothraki.

Forty years later, the G-Shock is one of the most successful watch designs in history, with countless variations and special editions, and the kind of fanatical cult often reserved for beauty and potty YouTubers. Toto toilet wash (also a Japanese invention, as it happens). While every G-Shock retains the durability of the original, the brand has doubled down on the technology inside, adding everything from satellite and solar timekeeping to a barometric sensor. and step counter. It may take you a long time to get rid of the more than 200 models in your current lineup, each with a unique combination of features and style, but all of the models below are middle-of-the-road successors. for Kazuo Ibe’s original design and is proof that genius comes in many forms.

Want to learn your terminology and find your next dream watch? Don’t Miss GQ’s Ultimate Guide to men’s watch.