PC meets the inventor of G-Shock: Kikuo Ibe!

[Puma Cat]

My experience with G-Shocks has been an interesting and fun journey.

Before I really got into watches and horology, I wore quartz watches for years and years, mostly a Citizen quartz watch. They were simply a way to tell the time.

When I got into watches big time in 2015, I got into this whole "watchonista thang" where I had strict requirements: it had to be a mechanical (no quartz), it had to metal-cased, and it had to have simple, clean and legible design. I quickly became a big fan of "tool watches" and particularly so of the no-nonsense Sinn Spezialuhren German tool watches. Here's a pic of my Sinn 556A...


I also bought a beautiful Tudor Black Bay "Blue" with ETA movement and the curved "Self-Winding" text on the dial....


These, and a few other "mechanicals", became my most-worn watches.

Currently, my most-worn mechanical is my Sinn U50 S BS, which is the Sinn U50 with a beautiful blue gradient dial and black Tegimented case and bracelet. This specific reference was limited to only 500 pieces worldwide, and I have #309/500.


Coupla years ago, though, on a lark, I bought a G-Shock Mudmaster for a great price that was on sale at Amazon. I got it, and what's funny was it was everything I told myself for years that I did not want in a watch: it was big, it was quartz, and it was...plastic! And...I found I f**king LOVED it!

It synced time on the G-Shock app on the phone, and it has a ton of functions, including Altimeter, Barometer, Stopwatch, timer, alarms, etc.
I would wear it when out cycling as I did not want to crash on the road racing bicycle and damage a mechanical movement, and I also wore it at the track when doing racing photography, etc. So, with that, I became a big G-Shock fan.

Here's my pic of my "original" G-Shock, my Mudmaster, ref. GGB100-1A3.


Lately, when riding the bicycle, I've been wearing this GM-2100CB-3A, which is a metal-cased version of the enormously successful G-Shock GA-2100/GM-2100 "Casioak" series, as it's smaller and lighter than the big Mudmaster. CB stands for "cioth band", which this model came with, though lately I've been wearing it on a Halios Seaforth rubber dive strap.


Long story short: despite all the "silly stuff" I used to tell myself about the watches I would wear, I became a big fan of G-Shocks.

So, when I got an email from Topper Jewelers in Burlingame that they were having a "meet 'n greet" with the inventor of the Casio G-Shock, Kikuo Ibe, I jumped on signing up for that event, and attended the event last evening.

The event was a sellout and Topper were wonderful hosts, providing snacks, beverages, beer, and cocktails for attendees.

The highlight of the event was the inventor of the G-Shock, Kikuo Ibe, signing the history of G-Shock book, and giving us a talk. Ibe-San described how, after an heirloom mechanical watch he had been given by this father fractured into pieces simply dropping from his wrist onto the floor, and he embarked on a mission working at Casio to make a watch that could sustain a fall to the ground and not break.



He spent months and months and developed over 200 prototypes and dropping them out of a 3rd story window at Casio HQ onto the pavement below, only to have them all fail.




He was then at a playground watching a girl bounce a rubber ball, and hit upon the idea of functionally placing the watch movement inside a cushioning system (he visualized the watch movement actually inside the ball itself), and finally hit on a design that actually worked.




And with that, the famous G-Shock was born.

The G-Shock became enormously successful, and no surprise, G-Shocks became very widely used by millions of customers who simply wanted a watch that would work and not break, as well as by firefighters, Navy SEALS, and soldiers, fighter jocks, paramedical teams, and "operators" in various armed and special forces around the world.



As of 2017, over 100 Million G-Shocks have been sold, worldwide.

Topper was also offering the book describing the history of G-Shock if you bought a G-Shock priced over $585.



And, while I was there I fell in love with the newest Mudmaster, and bought the new GWG-B1000-3A, which has the military green strap, and like all Mudmasters, a ton of functions including "waypoint" navigation (i.e., it will direct you back to a starting point, e.g. your car, when out on a hike).

Ibe-San signed my Mudmaster watch canister and also my G-Shock history book...


Unlike my original Mudmaster, this one has a metal bezel, case, and "case bumpers" with DLC (Diamond-Like Coating) and ceramic composite bumpers at 9 and 3 O'clock for the crown and sensor.

As you might guess...it's everything I told myself all those years I didn't want in a watch and...I f**king love it.

Here's some pics of my new G-Shock: I composited the G-Shock factory photos onto a different background just to add some interest to the pic...






Lastly, I composited one onto an outdoor scene, just to add some real-world use context to the image...


So....I've come full circle: started with a Mudmaster, and ended up with a Mudmaster.

[Masterlu]

Very Cool

[Puma Cat]

Originally Posted by Masterlu

Very Cool

It was great. Ibe-san is a wonderful and very gracious person. The attendees all loved him.

[clpetersen]

Great story, Stephen. Awesome pics. Thank you for sharing. So cool that the inventor is getting the accolades deserved.

What is a 'tool watch'?

[Puma Cat]

Originally Posted by clpetersen

Great story, Stephen. Awesome pics. Thank you for sharing. So cool that the inventor is getting the accolades deserved.

What is a 'tool watch'?

A "tool watch" is a watch built for specific applications or "use-cases", e.g. for diving, aviation, motor racing, etc.

Examples would be the Rolex Submariner, Tudor Submariner "Maritime Nationale", Omega Speedmaster, etc. For example, all Astronauts in the Apollo program wore Speedmasters, and a Speedmaster was used by Astronaut Jack Swigert to time the mission-critical "burn" that Apollo 13 had to perform to get back to Earth.

Sinn, in paticular, makes a number of tool watches for very specific use-cases, as shown below.

The EZM 3, developed for the German GSG-9 special forces dive team:


My photo of my EZM3...



And, firefighting and medical air-rescue teams....

The EZM7 was designed for use by German firefighting teams. The different color codes correspond to how long the firefighter can safely remain in the building that's on fire wearing specific firefighting protective gear.


The EZM14 was specifically developed for German air-rescue medical teams. It has a specially-designed "4-blade" seconds hand to allow the paramedic to get an accurate heart-rate quickly and effectively.





And, of course...G-Shocks. The Gravitymaster, designed speciically for pilots.

[brownbear]

Thanks for sharing, cool and interesting read!

[Puma Cat]

Originally Posted by brownbear

Thanks for sharing, cool and interesting read!

Thanks, Joe. Cheers.

[dkorbal]

Enjoyed the read. Very interesting. Thanks for posting Stephen.

[Formerly YB-2]

Originally Posted by Puma Cat

My photo of my EZM3...


And, the EZM7.

Interesting watches.
Are the Sinn watches left-handed? I keep thinking I "want" another watch. But, with several I don't wear am afraid it would soon join the others in the drawer.

[Puma Cat]

Originally Posted by Formerly YB-2

Interesting watches.
Are the Sinn watches left-handed? I keep thinking I "want" another watch. But, with several I don't wear am afraid it would soon join the others in the drawer.

No, but here’s why the crown is on the left side of the case: a watch with the crown on the left side of case is known in horology as a “destro crown”.

Some Sinns have a destro crown, but most do not. Sinn uses the destro crown for watch applications, e.g. with the EZM 3 and 7, to actually be worn on the left wrist, in use-cases where having the crown on the right side of the watch case could interfere with the movement of the hand, e.g. during a dive. I also knew a left-handed police academy firearms instructor who always wore an EZM3 because the destro crown would not interfere with the proper way he would teach cadets how to hold a sidearm. You’ll also note that in my photograph of my Sinn U50 above, the crown is at 4 o’clock, not 3 o’clock; again so that the crown does not interfere with the movement of the left hand during underwater operations. My EZM3 has a destro crown, and I wear it on my left wrist. At first I thought I would not like it, but actually, in out real-world use, it turns to be quite a bit more comfortable to wear a destro crown watch on the left wrist than a conventional watch with a crown on the right side of the case. So now, I actually prefer wearing a destro case watch on my left wrist. That’s the thing about Sinn, they are just like Porsche engineering: they think everything through very thoroughly.

In fact, I made up a logo graphic for Sinn a couple years ago in PS.