Discovering G-SHOCK’s New Full-Metal, Full-Analog Octagonal GMC-B2100 Series

It’s a matter of course in the journey of each and every watch enthusiast that he or she will someday stumble upon the G-SHOCK line of watches from CASIO, and have to come to terms with how they feel about them. A large majority of those folks will inevitably decide to call themselves a G-SHOCK fan. A major reason for this is the sheer number of watches in literally all shapes, sizes and colours that are available from G-SHOCK. In the market for a $100 beater to take to work down in the coal mines? There’s a G-SHOCK for you. Need a big, full-metal, golden digital watch for a night out in Dubai? Again, there is a G-SHOCK for that. In fact, there might be a G-SHOCK for pretty much everyone, for every need. The fact that there are so many different variants makes G-SHOCK a natural jumping-off point for the budding watch collector. It’s easy to find something that suits you, without straying too far outside your comfort zone.

That breadth of variety has come a long way since 1981 when G-SHOCK was just a twinkle in the eye of Casio’s head of watch design, engineer Kikuo Ibe. As legend has it, Ibe was bumped on the street by a pedestrian and dropped a fragile mechanical watch that was given to him by his father, helplessly watching it shatter on the ground. Thus, the seed was planted to create a watch that could pass the newly coined “Triple Ten” design criteria. The timepiece had to be tough enough to survive a fall from 10 metres, waterproof enough to withstand a depth of 10 atmospheres (100 metres), and have a 10-year battery life. Together with a three-man team dubbed “Team Tough”, Mr. Ibe got to work, and by 1983 Casio debuted the DW-5000C, the very first G-SHOCK. Many years of evolution and iteration would follow in the G-SHOCK line, from aquatic-oriented models to mountaineering watches to the wild materials and metallurgy of the Mr. G collection; there’s a little something for everybody.

Cut to 2019, and the release of a veritable phenomenon with the GA-2100, with its octagonal shape – itself an evolution of the DW-5000C, which already featured an eight-sided case (more squarish back then) and the AW-5000, the first anlog-digital G-SHOCK from 1989. Turns out the collector community as a whole are huge fans of having a fun, octagonal-shaped timepiece for about a fraction of the cost of a well-known 1970s icon. The success of the GA-2100 has led to another surge in G-SHOCK variants, and you can now find a nearly infinite number of these little octagons on the G-SHOCK website in pretty much any colour and material combination you can think of. There are tough, stealthy blacks, fun and summery whites and pastels, shiny silvers and golds, and everything in between. A quick dig through this author’s watchbox reveals that I have somehow acquired five of these without even realizing it.

This brings us to the main event today, and the next evolution of the G-SHOCK GA-2100 family, the new GMC-B2100 series. This new timepiece takes the now-iconic octagonal shape to its next iteration, ditching the digital elements of the GA-2100 series and going full analogue. Casio opted to give these introductory pieces the full-metal treatment, to complement the elegance that comes with replacing the digital readout with a three-subdial chronograph layout.

While it may look like a traditional chronograph, the subdial functionality remains very much G-SHOCK. The bottom subdial features two hands, and works as a totaliser for the chronograph, counting up to 12 hours in a familiar hour and minute hand layout, just like a tiny little clock. The subdial on the left shows the day of the week, and the subdial up top shows you what mode you are in and/or the battery charge level. That’s a whole lot of info in one small area. Speaking of the dial, these are available in a slate black or the lovely soft blue you see here.

Either variant features a lot of angular raised and recessed areas, from the subdials to the indices to the chapter ring, to give the dial a lot of depth and a complex, well-machined look. That complexity spills over to the case and bracelet, which are also highly technically machined, and feature alternating areas of polished and brushed finishing. The brushing nicely offsets the polish, lest the whole package starts to feel too fancy, a word that is not typically associated with G-SHOCK, in my humble opinion. The stainless steel bracelet features a standard fold-over clasp and, in a nice touch, recreates the dimples you would find on the classic resin-strapped G-SHOCKS, to make sure you don’t forget that even though this watch is a bit on the classier side, it’s still a G-SHOCK at heart.

Down in the engine room, you will find the G-SHOCK 5733 module. This module appears to not be out in the wild yet so info is very limited, but the functions included are time and day/date, stopwatch (chronograph), countdown timer, alarm, and a dual-time function. You can also connect to the Casio Watches app via Bluetooth for easy setting of the time, world timer (with up to 300 different cities) and alarm, which is a nice feature if you are averse to learning the complicated button combos necessary for some of the deeper features here.

On the wrist, the watch wears pretty much exactly as you might expect, with a substantial wrist presence, but never too big, despite its 46.3mm dimensions. Call it the G-SHOCK Goldilocks zone, a sweet spot they have pretty much perfected over the years. It feels heavy and solid but not overly so, and the wearability is greatly helped by the 12.4mm thinness of the case. It’s the oldest cliche in the watch-writing world to say it looks as good with a suit and tie as it does at the beach with some board shorts, but I think we can get away with using it here, just one last time.

As the next iteration in one of G-SHOCK’s most successful lines, the GMC-B2100 series has a lot to offer. It builds on the good looks and functionality of its predecessor and offers a more elegant and less sporty appeal. I look forward to seeing the world of variants of this model that are sure to follow, and picking up another one or five for myself. It is now available from the brand and its retailers at USD 800. For more details, please consult www.casio.com.