It should not come as a surprise that the all-metal new CasiOak sells well.
There are watches that we say, “This is it!” even at the first glance; the new all-metal CasiOak GMB2100 series is one of those kinds of watches. The series has been attracting attention since the day it was announced, and this demonstrated that it will be a cult piece.
As you read in our previous articles, we have written a lot about Gérald Genta, indeed we should write more. Genta has created such an iconic design with the first of its kind, which is the Royal Oak, with a screwed-in octagonal bezel, all-metal and integrated bracelet, that thousands of similar ones have been produced and interestingly, they have always been among the bestsellers. And the CasiOak, which is announced by Casio in 2019, is part of this tradition. Although these octagonal bezel watches with an integrated bracelet-strap were announced as the G- Shock GA-2100, watch enthusiasts calls them CasiOak. In an interview with Hodinkee, Junichi Izumi, Product Manager of Oris, states that he was surprised by this feedback: “I was actually surprised when I heard the feedback. The G-Shock started with the original DW5000 in 1983, and the AW500, the first analog hand-equipped model, came out in 1989. The theme for the latter was to remove all unnecessary elements from the watch, and after some 30 years, the leaner and meaner GA-2100 was born with modern technology within. From a product concept standpoint, we wanted to create an ana-digi version of the DW5000.”
The G-Design Room, which is responsible for the design of the series, also says that the octagonal shape of the watches comes from the history of G-Shock: “The octagonal bezel first appeared on the original DW5000. We were tasked to create a thinner and more compact.”
Now, at this point, we can find them both right and wrong: Because Audemars Piguet Royal Oak was announced in 1972, 11 years before the first G-Shock, and caused sensation enough. On the one hand, although this was not the goal at first, the new series now looks more like Royal Oak with its octagonal shape, screws, all-metal and integrated bracelet.
If the goal is still not to look like the Royal Oak and produce an affordable-digital display alternative, why not be convinced that optimizing a watch that Gérald Genta has already found the perfect form leads us to the Royal Oak?
The newly announced GMB2100 will be available next month in three different all-metal model versions. The new series brings together the brand’s own iconic and best-selling G-Shock with its latest series CasiOak. The octagonal bezel comes with an analog-digital dial display, and the watch is finished by a stainless-steel case and integrated bracelet. The all-metal concept is taken from the Full Metal series announced in 2018, and the watch has been produced as the thinnest “full metal” watches ever; so, the series found its perfect form. The new all-metal G-Shock GMB2100 series is in 44.4 mm cases (larger than standard G-Shocks) and only in 12.8 mm thin, that is, it is about 0.2 mm thinner than previous Full Metal watches.
CasiOak GMB2100 series includes classic steel (GMB2100D-1A), black ion plated steel (GMB2100BD-1A) and copper ion plated steel (GMB2100GD-5A) versions. The steel version is available for $550, while other two versions will be sold for $600. This series represents a mid-range price in the product range of the Japanese brand born in 1946, because the price range of Casio watches is 23-1,757 dollars. (Price range of the Royal Oak, the ancestor of luxury sports watches, is between $11,000 and $396,000, if you can find it.)
The new series features the same dial with the resin case CasiOak, which was announced a few months ago. These timepieces connect via Bluetooth to G-Shock Connected smartphone app, powered by Tough Solar solar charging. In this patent charging system from Casio, not only sunlight, but even the light of a fluorescent lamp is transformed into power.
Royal Oak and G-Shock together: A brand-new digital technology with an all-steel sports watch, sunlight charging system and Bluetooth, and most importantly, it is at very affordable price. That is to say, there is no reason why the all-metal CasiOak should not be trending.
