G-Shock Move Pro Gets Wear OS By Google

As G-Shock ventures further into activity based wearables, they are making the move to Google’s Wear OS with the new reference GSWH1000 in an effort to streamline the user’s experience. The new watch sits alongside the Move GBDH1000 models, (which I reviewed against options from Apple and Garmin) and while it adds a new slick interface, it ditches the ability to solar charge, one of the biggest assets of the older models. Is the new OS enough of a draw to make the jump? 

The GSWH gets a tidied up case design compared to the GBDH, however the size is slightly larger in every dimension except for the case thickness, which shaves off nearly a millimeter of depth, going from 20.4mm to 19.5mm. While large, the case material and shape of the underside make for a somewhat reasonable experience on wrist. There’s no sugar coating this one, though – it’s an enormous watch.

The big news here is the move to Google’s Wear OS, and the addition of a new LCD touch screen display. The new OS allows the watch to tap into Google’s many bells & whistles like assistant and maps, not to mention sync with tools like gmail and messaging. The new interface provides plenty of flexibility when it comes to customizing displays and dashboards to the most mileage out of the built in sensors, which include: optical sensor (heart rate monitor), accelerometer (step counter), gyrometer; magnetic sensor (digital compass); pressure sensor (altitude/barometric pressure). 

The biggest difference in the new model is the lack of solar charging, which was sacrificed to make way for the new screen. This means you’ll need to connect the watch to a magnetic charge terminal rather than simply keeping the watch exposed to light. The screen is undoubtedly much better than the GBDH model has, but I’m not sure it’s a compromise everyone will appreciate. For what it’s worth, the new screen gets dual layers to balance a monochrome, always on layer along with a higher resolution LCD for colorful map displays and the like. 

Like the solar models, the GSWH syncs with the G-Shock Move app, which will track progress and keep stats along with handling updates to the software within. This works with both Android and iOS powered devices so the watch itself is agnostic to your prefered hardware. The GSWH1000 is priced at $699 and is available directly from Casio. G-Shock.