GPW1000-1A « AZ Fine Time Blog

Last week I had the distinct honor and pleasure of going to New York for the national release of the latest and greatest from Casio G-Shock. The event was held at the top of Trump Soho, and the image above is the beautiful view we had at the top.

The first stop on my visit was to the G-Shock store in Soho, where I met up with our friend Michael Eckhaus, the Director of Sales for Casio’s watch division. Coincidentally, the founder, father and creator of G-Shock himself, Mr. Kikuo Ibe was at the store signing autographs and taking pictures with some of his biggest fans. It was truly an honor to meet him.

The upstairs of the Soho store is where we met Mr. Ibe which was not just in any room, but practically a museum of some of the great models of G-Shock ranging back from the early 90’s. People were standing in line to meet Mr. Ibe, even a couple of which got his autograph on their arms, and went right away to go get it tattooed. Their fan base is some of the greatest out there, with a strong dedication to the world of G-Shock.

We even got ourselves a nice autograph for the store which is now on display. Mr. Ibe proved himself to be an extremely nice guy, and very funny to boot! The following he has created for the G-Shock brand is something like I have never seen, ranging from people who strictly collect G-Shock for colors, limited editions, and the funkiest pieces they can create, all the way up to avid collectors of high-end timepieces. The range of people into G-Shock is astonishing.

The whole reason I was even there was because of the launch of G-Shock’s newest technology, the new GPS Hybrid Wave Ceptor GPW1000. The technology they crammed into these pieces is overwhelming in a way, but thankfully it’s as intuitive as an iPad, maybe even the Apple Watch (which is still really yet to be determined). Overall though, The GPW1000 is very easy to use.

The event started and David Johnson (DJ), Vice President of Casio’s watch division started the night and when he did, you could tell he was incredibly passionate about their products. He’s not the only one, everyone at Casio takes great pride and works so well together, it’s truly impressive.

DJ then introduced Mr. Shigenori Itoh, CEO and President of Casio USA to take the stage. Mr. Itoh discussed the success of the Metal Twisted (or MT-G) G-Shock’s which he was a huge part in the development of. Mr. Itoh then introduced Mr. Ibe to speak about the challenges of creating the MT-G.

I mentioned Mr. Ibe was funny. The story he told was surrounded by a “little white lie”. With a team of 8 young designers, Mr. Ibe had motivated them to create what was thought to be impossible… A metal G-Shock that still maintains the durability of every G they had previously created. The “small white lie”, Mr . Ibe told his team was that there would be a BIG interview with a world famous magazine after the project was completed. Of course, he had no idea how he was going to get this interview, but he remained confident it would happen. He motivated his team, telling them they were the only ones who could do it. In the end, they got their “famous” interview and Mr. Ibe could wipe the sweat from his brow. A great story, and the entire speech can be seen in the video below…

While this video is 30 minutes long, it is very entertaining and very exciting. This proves the evolution of G-Shock in the watch world. They have some amazing new products that we know everyone across the globe will love.

Another part of the reason I was there, was Casio had asked me to speak at their event along with a couple of other retailers. My part was to talk about GPS and it’s use in watches today, but most importantly, the expectations of the new GPW1000. I had a great opportunity to play with the piece prior to the release and learned a lot about it. You can see our first hands on review of the GPW1000 HERE.

The watches unveiled that night were incredibly impressive and expand on G-Shock’s expansion into the luxury market (especially in this country). They introduced two new versions of Metal Twisted G-Shocks, one with black hard coating, rose gold and orange accents, which will be limited production under model number MTGS1000BD-5A. See it on our site HERE.

Another piece introduced was the MT-G Basel World Special. Getting to see it hands on was a treat. It has a truly unique finishing process utilizing a gold ion plating that is then layered over in black. Burnishing away the gold, and blending with the black plating that gives it a distressed or vintage look to it that only contributes to its character. This gives a weatherd bronze type color that expresses the toughness of G-Shock’s as they are worn over the years. Sadly, this model is limited to only 500 pieces globally, and will be extremely difficult to find.

The new GPW1000 models were also featured during the event, but the big news was at the very end. For the first time ever, MR-G is making its debut in the US market! Not only that, but this will feature a MR-G exclusive version of the GPS Atomic Solar Hybrid movement. This new MRGG1000B-1A will feature a 49mm wide by 16.6mm hardened titanium case and bracelet that also has a DLC (or Diamond Like Carbon) coating. This will be now the highest priced G to ever touch US soil at a $3,000 retail. These will become available in limited quantities at the beginning of 2015. See it on our site HERE. The crowd was amazed and ooh’s and aahh’s filled the room. The night came to an end and people relaxed, had a few drinks (including some GPS-tini’s) and chit chatted for a while. Afterwards, I was lucky enough to spend some time with some of Casio’s team and our friend Ariel Adams from aBlogtoWatch. Earlier, I brought up the new Apple Watch as Ariel and DJ had a great discussion about smart watches. While I think all of us there are big Apple fans, the topic of the “smart watch” was something discussed and ended something along the lines of “that’s not a smart watch. It still needs the phone in order to really do much of anything. Now this… (as he shows the GPS Hybrid) is a SMART WATCH”. A totally proven point as it is independently controlled, has tons of functionality , breaks down the Earth to a 2.6 billion piece grid, determines your location through GPS and is powered by light, not an outlet. I’ll admit, I was impressed by the Apple Watch, but DJ had an excellent point that I totally agree with.

Ariel got some really impressive pictures of the new G-Shock MR-G MRG-G1000 GPS Atomic Solar Hybrid and a great write up on aBlogtoWatch HERE.

Before I knew it the trip was over and I was saying good bye to NYC. I would sincerely like to thank everyone involved for such an awesome trip and being such a great company to work with. As I mentioned in the video, all of us here at AZ Fine Time are extremely proud to be a part of the ongoing evolution of G-Shock! Can’t wait to see what’s next!

The evolution of G-Shock is here! We would like to introduce you to once of the most impressive G’s to ever hit the market. Not just in design, but this is one of the most complex, highly functional, and smartest G-Shock’s to be introduced. Say hello to the new Casio G-Shock Sky Cockpit Aviation GPS Hybrid Wave Ceptor, the Gravity Master, GPW1000! We were fortunate enough to get a trial run prior to its national debut in the USA, test out its functions, and see just how this piece works. I think everyone will be truly impressed.

The new GPW1000’s are going to be solar powered, which is impressive in its self. The power it requires to sync to satellites nearly 13,000 miles away is huge, but not only does this piece have a GPS receiver, but also a radio signal receiver which means it could require more power. However, Casio has a very low power radio receiver and actually worked with Sony on the development of one of the lowest power consuming GPS receivers on the market. The GPS tech inside this piece is incredible and utilizes a grid consisting of over 2.6 billion points, or a 500m segment. This is ultra accurate for finding the correct timezone no matter where you are standing. The solar power reserve will last around 7 months, but can go a maximum of 18 months if in power save mode. There is a low power alert, and you can see the energy in the watch, every time you adjust back to timekeeping mode. When you go into timekeeping mode, the second hand will rotate between 12:00 and 6:00, with 12:00 expressing a full power reserve , and 6:00 meaning empty.

The lower right hand button will be to engage your GPS reveive. The watch will actually connect to a single satellite automatically up to once a day when exposed to bright light for 1-2 minutes. This will only adjust the accuracy, not the timezone. You can do this type of connection by holding the lower right button for a couple of seconds, or until the second hand points to “TIME” between 6:00-7:00. If you hold down the button for more then a few seconds and the second hand points to “T+P” between 8:00-9:00, this means time and position. You will then connect to multiple satellites, the mode hand around 3:00 will go up and down a couple of times, and generally within 30-40 seconds, the watch will pin point your location and adjust the hands to the timezone you are standing in while the mode hand indicates your current latitude. Another cool feature is that this piece will automatically recognize daylight savings, so there is never a need to adjust. Even in Arizona where we do not adjust for daylight savings, this piece will sync for mountain time, but it knows AZ does not use daylight savings, so it turns it off when necessary. On top of that, the watch will automatically connect to the radio control towers, if in range, starting at midnight.

You have a secondary timezone displayed at 7:00-8:00. This piece uses Smart Access technology to adjust this timezone. You simply unlock the crown, pull it to the first click out, your second hand will point to the city code your sub dial is set for, and then turn until it is for the timezone you want. Close the crown and the hands will have adjusted themselves. There is an option to switch to UTC time for the sub dial without turning the crown, you just hold the lower right button with the crown out one click. You can also manually set the central hands in the same way (minus the UTC quick adjustment), but you would pull to the second clock instead. Of course, it is more fun to use the GPS to set the timezone for the central hands. You have date and day of the week while in standard timekeeping mode. It also has airplane mode to turn off the GPS receiver. You simply hold the lower left button for more then four seconds to turn on or off.

By just pushing the lower left button once, your watch will then go into chronograph mode. This can measure from 1/20th of a second up to 24 minutes. The 1/20th of a second is displayed on the center seconds hand, seconds and minutes on the secondary time sub dial. Pushing the lower left button again will be for your count down timer mode. You use the Smart Access crown to adjust the hands on the secondary time sub dial to the amount of time you want to count down. An alert will sound once the timer has reached zero. Next, is your alarm mode. The alarm is again set by using the crown and the secondary time zone sub dial. With the crown closed push the lower right button to turn the alarm on or off. Your seconds hand will point to “ON” or “OFF”.

The resin case surrounds a DLC coated stainless steel bezel and measures out at 56mm wide by 18.8mm thick. The piece is no doubt large, but certainly is impressive and very good looking. These will have anti-reflective coated sapphire crystal, a unique and easy to use crown, Hybrid Mount Construction, Alpha Gel and 200m water resistance makes for the shock, gravitational force, vibration and water resistance that G-Shock requires.

The resin strap is inlayed with carbon fiber to add durability and has a stainless steel clasp and keeper. The overall construction and attention to detail is very impressive. There is Casio’s Neo-Brite for the hands and markers, but to give it that extra boost, there is an incredible LED light that gradually increases in brightness, and gradually fades out. It is literally strong enough to use as a flashlight in complete dark.

The GPW1000-1A will be the core production model which retails for $950. You can order this piece direct from AZFT HERE.

The GPW1000-4A will be the same price, and is going to be a limited production model. This is also $950 and is available for ORDER HERE.

The GPW1000-1B will also be a limited production model, also retail for $950 and can be ORDERED HERE. All three models are currently in stock! Stay tuned to the AZFT Blog to see as we attend and guest speak at the national press conference for the release of these new timepieces!

See the new Gravity Master GPS Hybrid G-Shock in action in our video below…