Casio G-Shock GMW-B5000V-1
Last Seen: $1000 (Check pricing and availability)

Casio’s G-Shock has been known to make the toughest watch which is why military and law enforcement rely on them more than any other wristwatch. Enter the new Full Metal 5000 Black Aged IP, which like the first Full Metal 5000s launched in 2018, is a fully metallic version of the original square-shaped G-Shock design that premiered in 1983.

The limited edition G-Shock gave the it one of its newer white-on-black LCD screens, and an all-new deconstructed black ion-plated stainless steel case. The result is a very unique looking watch, that’s incredibly resistant to scratches, without really many changes, although there’s a significant premium for this upgraded aesthetic.

Dimensionally, the watch is the same as previous editions. The diameter is 43 mm across, it’s 12 mm thick, and the lug-to-lug length is 49 mm, which all represent conservative measurements, especially for a company known for watches that are typically substantial in size.

The clasp is a dual-push button deployant with nice “clink” sound when the pin locks into place and because it’s locking, there’s less worry of it opening, say underwater. And with a water-resistance rating of 200 meters, despite it not being a dive watch, it’s sturdy, well made, and highly capable of going in the water.

Resizing the links is pretty easy, all you have to do is push out the spring-loaded pins, which is far better than solid pins with collars.

Not only capable in the water, like all G-Shocks, this watch can withstand serious impacts, drops, extreme heat, freezing, and really anything you throw at it. You’d literally have to smash it with a heavy blunt metal object such as a hammer, repeatedly, to cause it to stop working.

4-push-buttons located at the 4 outer corners of the case control everything. The solid caseback, with laser engravings, screws-in to the caseback. The crystal is a mineral crystal, set below the fixed steel bezel, meaning it’s armored, which is great considering mineral crystal is easier to scratch than sapphire, but that won’t matter much because it’s very tough to get past that raised bezel.

The watch comes with a digital black LCD display with white numbers and fonts, driven by a solar-powered quartz movement which is calibrated via either an atomic signal as a backup or your phone’s incredibly precise internet time signal, the latter of which is done by connecting to your phone of the G-Shock app, which takes less than a minute, and once paired calibrates the time down to the second.

 

Additionally, thanks to the G-Shock Connected app, when paired to the watch via low energy Bluetooth, many of the functions can be controlled on the phone and communicated to the watch. And one really cool function is the ability to press a button that records the current date, time, and longitude/latitude coordinates, which can be viewed on a map within the app.

This is a digital quartz-powered watch and the battery will last 22-months on one full solar charge (light enters through the honeycomb grid that surrounds the dial), however, if the battery is low there is a warning. This means you will never be charging this watch like you have to do daily with a smartwatch, and no winding like you have to do with a mechanical watch. Plus, thanks to the Bluetooth timekeeping, with redundant Atomic radio timekeeping as a backup, once you connect and set the correct timezone, you won’t even ever have to set the watch again, everything will just be synced up perfectly. This is convenient, even for mechanical watch aficionados, in fact, you can use this as your reference timekeeper to set all your mechanical watches like an observatory chronometer was used historically, but this is many magnitudes more accurate.

In addition to automatic timekeeping the Full Metal 5000 comes with a world time function that has 39 time zones* (27 cities + coordinated universal time), daylight saving on/off, auto summer time (DST) switching, 5 daily alarms, a full auto-calendar, 1/100th of a second stopwatch, date/month display swapping, a battery level indicator, indication if the time signal was successfully received, and a countdown timer.

Reading all the display at different angles changes the look but at no time did I find it hard to read the actual time at a glance. Moreover, the blue LED backlight, available by pressing the button on the upper right side of the case, turns on in either 2 or 4-second bursts, so you can view the watch even in complete darkness.

This isn’t the G-Shock for everyone, but as a unique and fashionable flavor, the pre-aged G-Shock GMW-B5000V is a solid choice.

 

Specifications

-Case / bezel material: Stainless steel
-One-touch 3-fold Clasp
-Solid Band
-Stainless Steel Band
-Mineral Glass
-Shock Resistant
-Screw Lock Back
-Black IP
-Black ion plated case
-Black ion plated band
-200-meter water resistance
-Tough Solar (Solar powered)
-LED backlight (Super illuminator)
-Full auto LED light, selectable illumination duration (2 seconds or 4 seconds), afterglow
-Time calibration signal reception
-Auto receive up to six* times a day (remaining auto receives canceled as soon as one is successful)
-*5 times a day for the Chinese calibration signal
-Manual receive
-The latest signal reception results
-Time Calibration Signals
-Station name: DCF77 (Mainflingen, Germany)
-Frequency: 77.5 kHz
-Station name: MSF (Anthorn, England)
-Frequency: 60.0 kHz
-Station name: WWVB (Fort Collins, United States)
-Frequency: 60.0 kHz
-Station name: JJY (Fukushima, Fukuoka/Saga, Japan)
-Frequency: 40.0 kHz (Fukushima) / 60.0 kHz (Fukuoka/Saga)
-Station name: BPC (Shangqiu City, Henan Province, China)
-Frequency: 68.5 kHz
-Mobile link (Wireless linking using Bluetooth®)
-5 World time
-39 time zones (39 cities +coordinated universal time), daylight saving on/off, Home city/World -time city swapping, auto summer time (DST) switching
-1/100-second stopwatch
-Measuring capacity: 00’00”00~59’59”99 (for the first 60 minutes)
-1:00’00~23:59’59 (after 60 minutes)
-Measuring unit: 1/100 second (for the first 60 minutes)
-1 second (after 60 minutes)
-Measuring modes: Elapsed time, split time, 1st-2nd place times
-Countdown timer
-Measuring unit: 1 second
-Countdown range: 24 hours
-Countdown start time setting range: 1 minute to 24 hours (1-minute increments and 1-hour increments)
-5 daily alarms (with 1 snooze alarm)
-Hourly time signal
-Low battery alert
-Power Saving (display goes blank to save power when the watch is left in the dark)
-Full auto-calendar (to year 2099)
-12/24-hour format
-Button operation tone on/off
-Date/month display swapping
-Day display (days of the week selectable in six languages)
-Regular timekeeping: Hour, minute, second, pm, month, date, day
-Accuracy: ±15 seconds per month (with no signal calibration and mobile link function)
-Approx. battery operating time:
-10 months on rechargeable battery (operation period with normal use without exposure to light after charge)
-22 months on rechargeable battery (operation period when stored in total darkness with the power save function on after full charge)