Casio adds fitness features to original G-Shock digital watch
gizmodo.com
gizmodo.com
I love the fact that my watch is this wonderful, self contained unit that I never have to bother with charging or setting. It is in fact my second one - my first one got run over by my tractor and then got a ride through the attached lawnmower. I only found it months later twenty feed away hidden in a patch of zucchini squash. The band was destroyed and the case was mangled, but the display still worked and the time was accurate to the second. Incredible. When Casio says these watches are tough, believe it.
I've gone through like 4 smart watches and any time I'm in a harsh environment always default back to the g-shock.
I really wish they made a health tracker without a watch on it like the old original fitbit bracelets.
I would just wear the G-Shock plus the health tracker bracelet be perfectly happy.
100% in the garmin camp now though.
There's a "Tough Solar" G-Shock [1] with fitness features that doesn't need manual charging.
1. https://www.casio.com/in/watches/gshock/product.GBD-H2000-1A...
It uses a standard coin cell, but, does not have a heart rate sensor.
I have a 5610 that I bought recently with the 3495 tough solar module, as context.
Mine is CF-19 Mark 2, a Core Duo(32bit). Takes old ThinkPad AC fine when I need a paperweight with an LCD :p
We went just over 60m, when I finished up I saw the thing was still fine. After that, I believed their claims of bar pressure etc, when I see other watches that claim 50m etc, I wouldn't dare trust them to survive.
Timex Easy Reader, says 30m, failed on a dive that was no more than 15m.
Seiko SKX-007 OTOH, rated to 200m, I have taken it to about 30m with no ill effect.
I've since learned you can have a watch repair shop test this with a pressure chamber and a finely-calibrated displacement-measuring instrument, no water required.
Generally 30 meters shouldn’t be submerged, 50 meters is okay for swimming, above that diving is acceptable to certain limit. True diving watches start with 200 meters and preferably ISO diver's certification (which SKX has).
Of course I say all that and yet I have a Seiko spring drive tuna 600m saturation diver, even though it's never been deeper than a few meters and very unlikely ever to do so. But the engineering is fun to appreciate even if it'll never do even 1% of what it's capable of.
The G-Shock hit the ground first and slid along with me. Other than disfigurement on the part of the bezel that slid, the watch was fine. Later on, I filed off some of the chewed up parts of the rubber and the watch now only looks minorly scuffed. Years later it's been on swims, dives, hikes, camps, long bike rides, been with me through carpentry, and travel, and it's still going strong with mostly the scuff marks to show for. I also frequently shower with it. I love never having to think about it; the watch just works. I sometimes fall asleep with it on and forget I even had it.
You are reading it wrong. What it says is that if you use fitness one hour per day, you will have to manually charge it once a week
> a wired charger is also included. On a full charge, which takes around three hours, the watch will run for about a week when using the added fitness features for an hour a day.
They haven’t added features to the ‘original’ one at all. They’re releasing two _new_ G-Shock watches with more features, including some fitness features.
With the context it is certainly not ambiguous.
So the statement “Casio releases a G-Shock watch with fitness features” makes sense. “Casio adds fitness features to G-Shock digital watch” also makes sense. The “original” is a bit confusing to me. And judging by the comments here others, too.
I get why it’s in the headline. This fitness watch is sort of styled like the very first (= “original”, though given the plethora of G-Shock watches and their enormous diversity that seems like a weird way of framing it) G-Shock watch from 1983.
Maybe “Casio releases 40th anniversary G-Shock watch with fitness features”.
And it would not make sense when what they mean is "new model of Corvette gets Android Auto."
All because of this Wikipedia page: https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Casio_F-91W Scroll down to usage
I love not having to charge it and not having to worry about bumping it into anything.
(My new watch is a slightly updated model - W-217H-9AVCF, which is a little bigger and has a brighter, more even light in amber)
PS: Nobody's going to think you're a terrorist if you drive a Toyota, either.
What if you're driving a Hilux technical?
All I know is that the tacoma is built(assembled?) in the US. however I always assumed they more or less the same design.
…btw, "technical" means it has a machine gun mounted in the back.
I even tried googling for it, but couldn't find any articles referencing both Guantanamo and casio watches, aside from the general ones talking about the whole phenomenon of Al-Quaeda preferring those watches or pieces talking about incidents where the watch was actually used as an IED component.
https://watchesyoucanafford.com/the-venerable-casio-f-91w-di...
Or you were just a big fan of Napoleon Dynamite, who wore one as well.
Unfortunately Casios comparable digital display watch, the MRG-B5000D-1DR, costs about ten times as much.
But can it? I had one and it drifted like 20 seconds a month.
Also, 20 seconds means <2 min drift between the adjustments you make for daylight savings time.
I expect better from a quartz watch.
Quartz is (generally) accurate to about 0.5 seconds a day. (It varies, mostly by temperature.) Compare to a good quality mechanical watch, which is accurate to about 3-5 seconds a day. Cheaper mechanical watches, considerably less.
Casio "wave ceptor" watches receive the time signal every night, and so don't drift. Some other more expensive watches sync with the GPS signal, or with bluetooth to your phone.
If you demand accuracy without a regular sync, so called "high accuracy quartz" watches do exist, which can be accurate to about 15-30 seconds per year. The Bulova "Precisionist" line of watches are good examples of these.
Heh, you can get much better quartz watches than that if you're willing to pay for it. I have a Grand Seiko 9F super high accuracy quartz watch (SBGP017 is the model number if you're curious) that has gained just a little over a second in the year that I've had it. Citizen also makes high end quartz watches with similar accuracy (look up the Chronomaster).
Of course it's diminishing returns regardless, but the accuracy achievable is nevertheless impressive.
I might replace the battery soon; the battery drained early this year from wearing my jacket. In years past, it always survived through winter and into spring. It's been so reliable, I find it hard to blame the watch.
Maybe my arms are getting shorter?
This G-Shock only gives basic data too. I like the look of it, but $300 is just way too much. Part of the appeal of the G-Shock is 10 year battery, so you'd think they would go for something a little better.
"On a full charge, which takes around three hours, the watch will run for about a week when using the added fitness features for an hour a day. With them left on all the time, it will be dead in about 35 hours."
Many such Garmins can last for weeks with constant health tracking via wrist heart rate and accelerometer. It is mostly location tracking which increases discharge, e.g. ~5% per day health tracking and ~5% per hour GPS tracking. The heart rate sensor might just use ~1% per day for 24x7 usage.
On the other hand I never have to remember to charge my cheap Timex.
Instinct 2 is now $200 at Costco.
I think the watch technology is pretty mature. I feel cutting edge with a 3 year old watch. Sensor maybe not as good as AW but for anything that really matter you would wear a chest strap hrm anyways.
I say this as someone who loves their F91-W. It's a great watch and I like it. But I don't want to use it for the things I want to use a smartwatch for.
But $300 sure is a lot for it, although my impression has always been that "G-Shock" watches were inexplicably more expensive than they look, presumably as a branding thing. This is something I'd wait for to go on sale.
I feel Casio is taking us to the cleaners here.
Also note that that US$50 price does not include taxes. So depending on what state you're in, the actual price you pay could be 10% or more higher.
You might be. OTOH, you have far more robust consumer protection laws - ISTR reading that UK law requires that you be able to return a product to the place where you bought it for two years or so and get warranty service or replacement. Don't know how it works in EU countries, but that was a pre-Brexit anecdote.
In the US, there are numerous products for which any warranty service requires you to send it to the manufacturer. Only DOA can be addressed at the point of purchase.
- Casio F-91W: $14 which gets you a basic watch
- Casio AE1200: $40, modern module with timezones, stopwatch, timer
- Casio G-Shock DW-5600: $50, Similar to AE1200 in functionality, adds shock-proofing
- Casio G-Shock GW-M5610: $110, Similar to DW-5600E but adds solar, radio time-sync
- Casio G-Shock GW-5000: $300, Similar to GW-M5610 but has a stainless steel case instead of plastic
- Casio G-Shock GMW-B5000: $400, Similar to GW-5000 but has a stainless steel bezel and bracelet
- Casio G-Shock GMW-B5000T: $1100+, Similar to GMW-B5000 but in titanium30 day battery life, looks like a regular watch, but has health tracking built-in.
> Activity Tracker with Garmin Move IQ Automatic Activity Detection Features 1-year battery life Shows steps, calories, distance, intensity minutes and time of day on backlit display; monitors sleep Auto activity detection classifies activity type on Garmin Connect . . . it DOES NOT include a built-in wrist heart rate monitor.
I've got a friend that's been looking for a good fitness-tracking watch he can wear to work -- a government contractor that disallows use of personal wireless devices past the main entrance. No phones, smartwatches, nada.
The B5000 series has a press-and-hold to connect to bluetooth, otherwise pairing is not automatic. When it connects it will sync the clock to GMT (handy if multiband is not available) and also log your geolocation if you choose to configure that in the app.
I then got the real G-Shock gm-5610u for a daily watch and love it. I think Casio does great with non-smartwatch but I don't know who the submission's watch is for other than a collector. It can run for a day and a half on a charge at that price point? Go buy a Garmin.
But if you e.g. enable the detailed heart rate and sleep measurement the battery life is not more than a week and the quality of the measurement cannot be fully trusted & bigger latency (plus in the app the resolution of heart values is just one value per 5 minute). So it is not that good quality ... still worth the money.
(Oh and without a phone the Neo's clock drifts multiple seconds per week, vs about a 2 second drift for my F-91W over the course of TWO YEARS.)
The G-Shock range is famed for being simple, robust, and inexpensive, with epic battery life.
This is expensive, complex and has a poor battery life.
My 5YO Amazfit Bip was £60 new, still lasts a month on a charge even though used daily since 2018, can show notifications, screen and reject or take calls, and monitor my heart rate (badly) for 6 weeks when new. It has a daylight-readable full-colour display.
Yes, if I turn on activity tracking, it burns through a charge in days, but I rarely do.
I expected Casio to match or exceed that. This fails on all points.
I immediately sent her this and with her birthday coming up I’m thinking this could be a great gift. :)
Apple Watch SE starts at $249 and frequently goes on sale at $199. A regular Apple Watch of a previous generation can be bought at $299. Last-generation Apple Watch is $399 but is sold at $329 frequently.
For people who have iPhones it's a no-brainer.
I love G-Shocks and I hope this model will get down to more reasonable $170-180 range.
I would also recommend using it with GadgetBridge, and combined with Tasker you can do pretty much anything you want on it.
I love my G-Shock.
>GPS and a digital compass combine to guide you to your destinations, while the watch tracks your routes and stores waypoint information in memory, making this the perfect tool for survival activities.
Curious if that does the trick. I've occasionally considered a g-shock watch here or there but I always get lost in the hundreds of possible configs, and can't quite figure out what the master list of options I can choose from is.
Also, I would prefer a slightly sleeker form factor, similar to the G-shock in the OP, something that the Instinct is closer to.
Some of the G-shock designs are pretty ridiculous in my eyes. Way too much excess form without apparent function or benefit.