This is not the first G-Shock I’ve owned, and it certainly won’t be the last. It is however, the most blinged out, intense, and heavy G-Shock I’ve worn. The Casio G-Shock GMWB5000TFG-9 is imagined to be the ultimate iteration of the venerable square G series, and comes standard with all of the features, design elements, and heritage of the entire line before it. I wore this blinged monster for a week or two and attracted a ton of envious glances, curious stares, and occasional rolled eyes.

Ever since the first DW-5000C, G-SHOCK has been constantly setting new standards in innovative design, tough structure, and powerful modules. Now to mark the 2018 35th Anniversary of the G-SHOCK come the GMW-B5000, a full-metal G-SHOCK with a Connected engine.

First Impressions

Wow, this thing is gold and shiny.. and heavy! Solid links and an all metal case, in addition to DLC-coated screw down caseback come together to make this a formidable piece. It’s not much bigger than the other square-g series, but it does certainly feel substantial. I was also immediately struck by the super crisp display. for an old-school lcd display, the numbers are crisp and nice.

Also of note, when sizing the metal bracelet, I loved the burly springbars connecting all links – no crappy pins here – this thing is solid metal, and solidly holding springbars.

On the Wrist

For starters.. it’s a super shiny gold metal G-Shock (Stainless steel, with a gold finish). So it gets some looks, especially on my medium sized wrists. It’s heavy, too – those solid stainless steel links and solid metal case give this thing a good amount of gravity.. but it quickly feels comfortable to wear. The fit and finish is nearly perfect, with no real sharp edges.

In day to day use, the watch is a pleasure. Crisp display for easy glances at the time. A few basic features that come in handy, like alarm and countdown timer. And solar power for worry free use, and atomic timesetting so you know it’s always accurate. Additionally, it connects to your phone via bluetooth, enabling a few extra features. In practice, although I did get all of the bluetooth features to work as intended, I didn’t find any of them particularly useful or necessary. I don’t think the bluetooth functionality changes my impression of this watch one way or the other.

Feature Review

• Stainless Steel Solid Band – It’s solid, and heavy. It will last forever.
• One-touch 3-fold Clasp – Love the locking mechanism in the clasp. No divers extension.. but this is not a divers watch. (but it is waterproof to 200m)
• Solar powered – This is a must-have feature for electronic watches. Genius.
• LED backlight (Super illuminator) – It’s so much better than the LED backlight in the ProTrek I reviewed last week. Bright and even, with a nice fade in and out. I still prefer EL backlights, but this LED one is not too bad.
• Time calibration signal reception – LOVE this feature. It sets itself every night, and is perfectly in time with my iPhone, and other internet-connected clocks in my house.
• Mobile link (Wireless linking using Bluetooth®) – Meh. It works, but I never really used the features.
• World time – Works, lots of cities.
• 1/100-second stopwatch – Works just fine
• Countdown timer – Easy to set
• 5 daily alarms (with 1 snooze alarm) – Love that there are 5
• Power Saving (display goes blank to save power when the watch is left in the dark) – Kinda weird that it’s blank sometimes, but if it saves power, I’m fine with it.
• Full auto-calendar (to year 2099) – yep
• Button operation tone on/off – Yep. I keep button tones off.
• Date display (day / month display swapping) – Yep
• Day display (days of the week selectable in six languages) – Yep
• Regular timekeeping: Hour, minute, second, pm, month, date, day – Um, yep.

Feedback

• Add additional bluetooth functionality to make the feature truly useful. Maybe displaying an indicator from the internet, or connection with IFTTT? (Like maybe an indicator if one of my stocks sets off an alarm, or an indicator letting me know how many unready emails I have, or if it’s going to rain, or something like that.
• Swap the LED backlight for OLED backlight.
• In the week wearing it, the gold finish certainly started to show signs of wear and scratching. In the long run, with daily wear, this watch will certainly develop a patina.

Should You Buy It?

Looking for the ultimate square G-Shock, and wanting to looked blinged out and stylish doing it? Then this one is for you. Looking for more of a low key daily beater G-Shock that’s tough as nails but wont break the bank? You can’t go wrong with the G-Shock GWM5610-1.

Final Thoughts

• Brand & Model: Casio G-Shock GMWB5000TFG-9
• Price: USD$600
• Who we think it might be for: Stylish partygoers looking for a blinged out and bulletproof digital.
• If I could make one design suggestion, it would be: Add more bluetooth functions to make the feature worth it.
• What spoke to me the most about this watch: Super bold design, heritage, solar, and atomic.

Specs

• Shock Resistant
• Screw Lock Back
• Mineral Glass
• 200-meter water resistance
• Case / bezel material: Stainless steel
• Solid Band
• One-touch 3-fold Clasp
• Stainless Steel Band
• 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
  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®)
• World time
  5 World time registerable
  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)
• 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 display (day / 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)
• 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)
• Size of case : 49.3 X 43.2 X 13 mm
• Total weight : 167 g
• LED:White