G-Shock Goes META With New Virtual World Collection

On the top of a remote mountain in Tibet, amongst the clouds, sits a guru.  For years he has pored over the sacred texts from Hamura and Yamagata, studying every word and every nuance.  Not only is he capable of superhuman feats such as being able to set any function on any G-Shock yet made without a manual, he is the only person in the world to know and understand every G reference number ever allocated.  He now has three more watches to add to the depthless pool of his G-knowledge.

Those nice people at Casio have announced the gift of the GA2100VB-1A, GA700VB-1A, and GA900VB-1A to the world.  If you’re a G-Shock disciple, you won’t need the Guru to tell you these are based on the original and well-loved GA2100, GA900 and GA700 models. 

According to Casio, each of these new Gs is “Inspired by the growing popularity of today’s virtual experiences, [and] evokes a sense of digital culture and aesthetics via minimalist black bezels and bands that are accented with vibrant blue violet coloring on the dials.”  We’re not entirely sure what that means, but the colour is certainly a heck of a feature.  It’s a bold, blue/violet that stands out against the standard black resin cases and dials.  It’s not subtle, but as someone who owns a Disaster Area stuntship-black 2100 Casioak, the colour makes the new GA2100VB-1A a LOT easier to read.

The GA2100VB-1A (snappy) has the now classic Casioak octagonal bezel as well as a thinner case than most Gs (it’s also nearly 30g lighter), being built around Casio’s carbon core guard structure.  It’s also fitted with a unique light fadeout feature.  The GA700VB-1A and GA900VB-1A both have their characteristic ‘go on – drive a Panther Mk V over me, see if I care’ chunky resin cases with metallic dials and hand shift functions.  The GA900VB-1A also swaps the usual bright bezel screws for neat black ion-plated items. All three watches include ‘Super LED’ backlights, so they’re as clear in the dark as daylight.

The hands of the new watches are worth a special look.  Each uses a completely different design, but all tie into the new blue/violet theme. The blue/violet design on the 2100’s hands is shaped like radio antennae, the 700 goes for sharp triangles, following the hand shape, and the 900 chooses an almost rocket-ship graphic.  They’re very different from anything else in the range and manage to make even some of the previously lairy Gs look a bit cardigan-and-slippers.

Typically, the three new Gs are as practical as they are striking.  As you’d expect, they’re shock-resistant and will happily go down to 200m without any fuss.  They’ve got enough alarms to make sure being late is strictly your own fault (you can snooze the GA700 and GA900 too, just for added jeopardy in the mornings) and you can time your resulting panic sprint to work with the 1/100 stopwatch.  Once you’re there, you can count down your day with the 2100’s 24 countdown timer or drop heavy hints in meetings with the 700 and 900’s 1 hour timers.  If those meetings get even more tedious than usual, you can happily scroll through the 31 time zones.  Once you’ve set the calendar you’ll pretty much never need to again as it looks after leap years, 28 days in February, all that sort of stuff.

It’s worth taking a quick look at Kikuo Abe’s first DW500C alongside these new watches.  You can see how Casio have come a very long way indeed since that first G, yet they’ve managed to retain the same ‘do what you want to me, I’ll be just fine’ ruggedness and design.  Yes, this trio is very much about a fashion aesthetic but without being frivolous and still being an absolutely proper watch. G-Shock.