Coming down to the third (the previous two are here) and the final instalment of the beater watch, now, the price factor barges in. We know time is precious so bypassing the long, meandering route.
Cheap! That’s one of the most defining characteristics of a beater! Yet it survives Hell and returns to tell the story! True, if it wasn’t at a price you can easily do away with, you are not likely to put it through Hell. Or at least, dirty jobs. If it gives you second thoughts while strapping it on (crystal getting scratched, case dinged – maybe even a broken strap!) for your next fishing/trekking trip. A cheap watch doesn’t make you worry. You don’t feel bad when you leave it alone for weeks; mechanicals are a step back in this aspect.
Modern technology has expanded the life of batteries immensely and some quartz watches may actually make you forget when you went for a replacement last. That also kind of backfires and creates abrupt circumstances; it’s for them who are neat and systematic on the nitty-gritty of daily life. For the rest, solar power works wonders.
The solar watches got one thing in common; they are built nearly impervious to shock and damages. It might lose some of its aesthetic appeal (as with the NaviHawk) if the blow is hard enough, but not its sense of duty. With Casio G-Shock, you don’t need to worry even on that!
The solar quartz are often multifunctional than not. They are not as cheap as simple, analogue-faced quartz watches, but neither are the latter as durable and good-looking. It’s always a privilege if countdown timers, alarms and stopwatches are a part of your everyday life. From timing water-drinking intervals to setting alarms for your medicines and supplements and world time, the electronic beater watch is also sometimes a storeroom of personal, life saving info. Blood type and everything else you want your caregivers to know.
Even some of Casio’s early inexpensive digital watches had great features (compared to those times) to qualify as a beater watch. The Ana-Digi Sports Runner Lap Memory, for example; some of the sportsmen of the highest orders then had it adorning their wrists. It was a cult classic, but in a different way than today’s G-Shock, a hot favourite among the Japanese teenagers and Special Forces alike. Passion-following, so to say; however, people have also been mad enough to test and break G-Shocks to see how much their loved piece can withstand. It’s tough love, sort of.
The durability of G-Shock comes from a free floating movement inside the thick, urethane case, specially treated and made resistant to high levels of shocks and resulting damages. Designed for protection, large protruded structures guard the buttons while the deep sunk crystal almost never comes in contact with the hitting surface. The Casio G-Shock is universally loved for this incredible durability and all that also makes them look incredibly evil, if not ugly!
But the ugliness is also what makes this a true legend; ride-wet-and-hard watches that you can put away with the oil and mud still clinging on it. The Patek won’t do that; neither Rolex, or Lange! It’s the Jap giants and their torchbearer who dominate here! Gotta shock the little peaceful world around? Put on some G-Shock!
Watch(es) mentioned in this post are listed below. Click to see details and buy them:
https://www.creationwatches.com/products/casio-watches-73/index-5.html
Please inform if taxes will have to be paid in the UK on any purchase from you by a UK purchaser.