If we could hop in a time machine back to the early 1980s, we would find Kikuo Ibe—G-SHOCK's eventual inventor—hurling watches out of a third-floor window in his countless attempts to create “a durable watch that would not break even if dropped.” He would then crack them open to see which parts had failed and then make them stronger and repeat the experiment. But after toiling to little avail he found his eureka moment while watching children play with a rubber ball in a local park.
A watch floating inside a rubber ball would be almost totally shock resistant. This idea inspired what would become the first G-SHOCK and its five levels of shock absorption deployed inside a hollow watch case with the movement seeming to float in the air.
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The first G-SHOCK DW-5000C launched in 1983 to minimal fanfare. A few years later, Richard Dean Anderson wore the digital watch on the smash hit, network-TV show MacGyver and a star was born.
Today’s recreation, the DW-5000R-1A is nearly identical to the groundbreaking 1983 original. Just like the initial release, the Origin Revival features a stainless steel case, screw-back case, a flat resin bezel and resin strap. The color palette of matte black, red, and white also matches the vintage G-SHOCK.
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Beyond the hallmark shock resistance, the DW-5000R-1A now features 200 meters of water resistance (up from 100), a countdown timer, a stopwatch, an alarm function, an LED light, 12/24 hour time formats, and a five-year battery life (up from three).
The DW5000R-1A Origin model is available for $200 at select retail locations, gshock.com, and the G-SHOCK Soho store in New York City.
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