G-SHOCK… a term now known for about half a century. With a history dating back to the early 1980s, Casio’s G-SHOCK watches have long been known for their ruggedness and durability; their reliability even in harsh environments. While other companies manufactured digital watches that you couldn’t even wear in the shower, Casio designed and manufactured the G-SHOCK so that it could not only survive depths and conditions beyond unequipped human capacity, but still function reliably for years.
Recently, the OFFICER Team got its hands on one of Casio’s latest iterations of the G-SHOCK—the GD 010, in the three different color variations currently available: Black, OD Green and Orange. The mandate for our internal testing and evaluation process was simple. “Go wear it; abuse it; put it through its paces. Make sure it’ll take everything (reasonable) you throw at it. Let us know.”
One member of our testing team lives near the Chesapeake Bay near the mouth of the Patuxent River. The tides change and mix the salt water with the fresh water, stirring the sand, silt, crushed shells and even some Megalodon teeth in a sometimes frenzied fashion. So, what did this test team member do? He put a test watch in a minnow bucket (because it’s covered so the watch couldn’t come out) and dropped it into the water, tied to a pier, and left it… about ten feet deep for a week. Some people balk at leaving a watch, even one rated for 20 BAR (200 meters or 660 feet) in the water that long. But 10 feet isn’t even 1.5 atmospheres of pressure, so if it couldn’t take a week at that depth, how would it survive even a few minutes at 100 feet or more? When he pulled the watch out a week later, the bucket held sand, pieces of shells, one minnow that somehow got in and couldn’t get out and a dirty but functional G-SHOCK GD 010.
The team couldn’t find specifications on temperature extremes that the watch was supposed to be able to handle, but that didn’t slow them down. The same watch that went into the Bay went into a freezer set for zero degrees Fahrenheit and left for three days; certainly long enough for the watch to be frozen solid and anything inside that might be sensitive to cold to stop functioning. But when the watch was pulled out, it worked just fine. So, the obvious next step was to put it out in the sun, on a black surface, and let it cook on a day that reach the mid-90sF and leave it for just over 12 hours. It worked just fine after that, too.
What was left? Wear it. Get used to the functionality, the size, the weight. That was done by two test team members, each offering the same feedback when the wear test was complete. The watch was comfortable to wear, although it may be big on some wrists. The weight is negligible and the size reasonable for the attached durability. The watch was worn while the wearer was on the firearms range (handguns, rifles and shotguns all fired), hiking, doing carpentry, kayaking and rock climbing/repelling. Visibility at all times of day and in all lighting conditions was good, and the variety of watch functions more than any of the testers actually needed.
The information about this model of G-SHOCK on the website is extensive; far too much so to review it all here. You can find the information here: https://gshock.casio.com/us/products/collection/ga-010_gd-010/. The retail price on that website is only $99 which is an excellent price for such a durable and reliable timepiece, especially given the 10-year life estimated for the battery.
The OFFICER Media Group test team is happy to award the Casio G-SHOCK GD010 watch series our “Tested - Field Rated” seal of approval.
