Casio has unveiled a set of six new tough outdoor G-Shock watches with colors and effects inspired by sparkling minerals. The Adventurer's Stone series were launched in Japan this week to mark the 40th anniversary of the original G-Shock watch, and hopefully a global release will be on the cards soon.
According to Casio, each of the six new watches takes design cues from rocks traditionally used to help adventurers navigate on cloudy days, when their light-reflecting properties would help people determine the direction of the sun.
Five of the watches have a bezel with a rock-like texture, and the top and sides of each watch have a glossy hairline and mirror finish. Each one is decorated with colorful ion plating that mimics the look of a particular mineral, and is finished off with a coordinating resin band.
The six models in the new range are:
- G-Shock M-5640GEM: (rainbow and black sunstone design)
- G-Shock GM-114GEM: (gold and black calcite design)
- G-Shock GM-2140GEM: (blue cordierite design)
- G-Shock GM-S5640GEM: rainbow and white calcite design)
- G-Shock GM-S114GEM: (purple and black calcite design)
- GM-S2140GEM: (gold and white calcite design)
Details of international prices and release dates have yet to be announced, but Casio fan site G-Central explains that the watches are expected to cost more than watches with a plain metal bezel due to the more complex manufacturing process.
Navigating using sunstones and other minerals was an interesting process, and geologists have only recently discovered how it would have worked. According to a paper published in Proceedings of the Royal Society in 2011, the rocks were used to depolarize sunlight, dividing it into two parts. By rotating the rock until the two beams of depolarized light are the same intensity, early navigators would have been able to estimate the position of the sun quite accurately.
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