Most watch legends start with wealth or war. This one starts with an accident. A young engineer at Casio dropped a watch his father had given him, and it shattered on the pavement. Instead of shrugging, he asked a stubborn question: why should a watch break at all? At our bench in Durrës we see the answer to that question every week, because the watches built around it almost never reach our repair tray.
A Broken Gift and a Stubborn Idea
The engineer was Kikuo Ibe. In 1981 he pinned a note to a board that read, in effect, a watch that does not break. He called the effort Project Team Tough. The target sounded impossible for the era: survive a fall from about ten metres, resist water to ten bar, and run for around ten years on a single battery. People remember it as the Triple 10.
The problem was brutal in its simplicity. A watch is a tiny machine of delicate parts, and dropping it sends a shockwave straight through them. Ibe built prototype after prototype and threw each one from a third-floor window. Around 200 of them broke on the ground below. He was close to giving up.
The Bouncing Ball
The answer did not come at a desk. Ibe was sitting in a park when he watched a child bouncing a rubber ball, and he saw that the centre of the ball barely moved while the outside took the hit. The fragile heart of the watch did not need a stronger shell. It needed to float. He suspended the movement inside the case on a cushioned structure so that impacts travel around it and never strike it head on. That single idea turned a pile of broken prototypes into the watch that would not die.
In 1983 Casio released the first G-Shock, the DW-5000C, in Japan. The G stood for gravity. Its square resin case looked like nothing else on the market, and the shape is still with us: the modern 5600 line is a direct descendant of that first square.
The thread that ties this series together: the G-Shock belongs to the same family as the Omega Speedmaster that reached the Moon, a tool chosen for what it survives rather than what it costs. And it shares its maker with our own local favourite, the steel Casio A159WA, proof that the same company can turn ordinary prices into small legends.
The Advert That Made the Name
A tough watch still has to convince people. In the late 1980s an American advert showed an ice hockey player using a G-Shock as a puck and slapping it across the rink. A television programme cried foul and accused Casio of faking the shot, so they re-tested it live on air, hitting the watch again and again. It kept ticking. That broadcast did more for the brand than any slogan, and the G-Shock went from curiosity to icon.
From there it became standard kit for soldiers, firefighters, divers and builders, the people who cannot babysit a watch. Tens of millions have sold, and Casio still makes the square today, more than 40 years on, barely changed because it barely needs to change.
What the G-Shock Teaches About Buying a Watch
The lesson is not that you need a G-Shock. It is that Casio built a global reputation by doing one thing extremely well for a fair price, and that discipline runs through everything the company makes. You do not have to spend a fortune to own a watch that simply works, keeps quartz-accurate time, and survives normal life. That is the whole Casio promise, and it is why a Casio is one of the safest first watches anyone can buy.
We are honest about what sits in our cases: we do not stock the G-Shock line itself. What we do stock now is the next best thing, Casio’s own resin sport digitals built on the same formula of a tough case, real water resistance and a battery you can forget about, at prices that make them easy to say yes to.
The Casio Sport Digital You Can Buy From Us Today, from 67 Euro
If the G-Shock story sold you on tough Casio value, we now stock the watches that carry its formula. The Casio W-737HX is a black resin sport digital with 100m water resistance, a 10-year battery and the gold Illuminator light, two of Kikuo Ibe’s three tens straight out of the box, for 67 euro. It is not shock resistant and we will not pretend it is, but it is the same family of watch: resin, legible, ready for water and years of use. Prefer the stealth look? The Casio AE-1500WH is the all-black version with a big negative display, 5 daily alarms and the same 100m rating and 10-year battery, also 67 euro. And the icons are still here: the steel Casio A159WA at 61 euro with its own full story, and the Casio MTP dress models from 52 euro if you want hands and a dial. Every one of them is the same idea Kikuo Ibe started with: a watch built to be used, not worried about.
Already own a Casio that stopped? Nine times out of ten it is just a flat battery or a tired seal, not the end of the watch. We change Casio batteries and reseal cases at the workshop in Durrës, quickly and cheaply. See our Casio service guide or just bring it in.
Frequently Asked Questions
Who invented the G-Shock?
Casio engineer Kikuo Ibe. He started in 1981 after breaking a watch from his father, and the first model, the DW-5000C, launched in 1983. The breakthrough was letting the movement float inside the case so shocks never hit it directly.
What does the G in G-Shock mean?
Gravity. The whole design brief was a watch that keeps running after a fall, so the name points straight at the problem Kikuo Ibe set out to solve.
Do you sell Casio watches in Durrës?
Yes. We do not carry the G-Shock line itself, but we stock Casio sport digitals with 100m water resistance and 10-year batteries from €67, plus the steel A159WA at €61 and MTP dress models from €52. We also change Casio batteries and seals. Message us at +355 67 571 6090 and pay on delivery across Albania.
Own the Casio Sport Digital, from 67 Euro
The closest thing to the G-Shock spirit in our cases right now: resin sport digitals with 100m water resistance and a 10-year battery, from 67 euro. Try them at the shop or order today, and you pay on delivery anywhere in Albania.
Rruga Aleksander Goga · Durrës 2001 · Albania · +355 67 571 6090
Published by Iglisi Watch · Durrës, Albania · July 2026. Fourth article in our series on the watches that made history.