The G-Shock is the ultimate tough watch that’s water resistant, shock resistant, and built with uncompromising passion. In common with other G-SHOCK products the case is shock resistant and is water resistant to a depth of 200m. The new fitness watch from Casio is the latest and one of the cheapest offerings in Casio’s Move lineup of fitness watches.
The upper left side of the case is where you connect the charging port, which also has an optional base-style attachment. It is a bit odd to have the charging port as a design element on the side of the case , but it makes a lot of good technical sense why the charging port would be here as opposed to the back of the watch . Gear Patrol participates in various affiliate marketing programs, which means we may get paid commissions on editorially chosen products purchased through our links to retailer sites. Learn your favorite songs.Practice anytime, anywhere on a smartphone or tablet. The G-SHOCK Connected app also simplifies certain watch operations by letting you perform them on your phone screen. Casio has not really prioritized tech on the H1000 — it doesn’t even have NFC for Google Pay — which may be fine for watch people, but it’s not for smartwatch people, and it’s that group which it really needs to attract.
The GPR-B1000 is a GPS centred model, which can use the GPS receiver to maintain the exact time, down to the second. The battery is either charged by solar cells present on the face of the watch or via a wireless charger supplied with the watch, a first for a Casio watch. The watch hardware includes a heartbeat monitor on the titanium metal caseback. It also include GPS and the typical slew of sensors and features that smartwatches have (such as a microphone, speaker, vibrating alert, etc…). Casio claims about 1.5 days of battery life but up to a month in time-only mode. Casio has made use of its dual-layer LCD screen technology to good effect.
Casio has stuck to its guns when it comes to display tech, and we’re glad of it. You get the full colour display for smartwatch shenanigans, but also a second LCD layer that’s on all the time – much like a traditional digital watch. One slight oddity with the GSH-H1000 is that Casio included very few watchfaces. You only get an information-dense digital face, a basic analog option, and one that matches the layout of the monochrome LCD. That latter setting was my favorite because it felt less jarring shifting between always-on and active display modes. Obviously, you can download whatever watchface you like from the Play Store, but it’s clear that Casio designed this watch around the dual-layer mode.
The team’s early attempts at creating an unbreakable watch were futile. They first tried encasing the watch with a soft, rubber material to cushion the falls, but because of the amount of soft material necessary to prevent breakage, the watch became gigantic. The world’s most iconic gadget-watch universe mixing with the future of mainstream watches is something that, in principle, makes a lot of sense. The biggest divide between these worlds is actually between that of smartwatch technology and that of Casio’s engineers. The Japanese company likes to invent its own tech and deploy it when its veteran team of engineers feels like that technology is ready.
There is essentially a transparent LCD screen above the main 1.2-inch wide touchscreen. I have to say that Casio really got the screen experience correct, as much as possible, given technological and battery-life limitations. The new watch has an optical sensor to measure heart rate, as well as a compass, altitude/air pressure sensor, accelerometer, gyrometer, GPS functionality and more. This powerful hardware profile enables the watch to capture the data on distance, speed and pace which is so useful for people doing physical training.
CASIO’s shock-resistant G-SHOCK watch is synonymous with toughness, born from the developer Mr. Ibe’s dream of ‘creating a watch that never breaks’. Over 200 handmade samples were created and tested to destruction until finally in 1983 the first, now iconic G-SHOCK hit the streets of Japan and began to establish itself as ‘the toughest watch of all time’. Each watch encompasses the 7 elements; electric shock resistance, gravity resistance, low temperature resistance, vibration resistance, water resistance, shock resistance and toughness. The watch is packed with Casio innovations and technologies to prevent it from suffering direct shock; this includes internal components protected with urethane and suspended timekeeping modules inside the watch structure.
It hasn’t become hot or sweaty, and there were times where I forgot I was wearing it, mostly due to the balance. It sits perfectly on my 6.5-inch wrist without needing to be worn too tightly or loosely, due to a pair of soft silicone pads where the g shock watch strap meets the body. The case back is made from titanium which helps keep the weight down, aluminum has been used for the Start button, and the rest of the case is a tough resin that will be familiar to anyone who has owned a G-Shock before.
Here you can also customise the style of the watchfaces, quickly launch the heart rate scanner or into the ‘Timepiece’ mode. The other side of the case features protruding elements that look like they could be buttons, but aren’t. The central protrusion is the sensor for altitude/barometric pressure. Personally, though, I would like my smartwatch to be functional as a smartwatch, especially if I’m dropping $699 on it. I’m not about to dual-wield this thing with an Apple Watch, after all.