Casio G-Shock watch returns to fashion with skaters and rappers – 07/17/2023 – Market

Developed by Casio 40 years ago with the aim of being an indestructible watch, the G-Shock started to be sought after by young Brazilians who want to follow the current fashion. The model appears in rap lyrics, hits by singer Shakira and sponsors the Olympic skater Pamela Rosa.

On TikTok, the five most watched videos when searching for the term “G-Shock” add up to more than 5 million views. The most viral ones show the vintage version of the watch, with a stainless steel bracelet and digital display. The owners extol how the accessory shines.

Casio projects a 3% increase in model sales around the world in 2023, without disclosing exclusive data for the Brazilian market. The rate was the same as seen in 2022, when the company began to record a resumption of demand after the end of the Covid-19 pandemic.

The inventor of the G-Shock, Kikuo Ibe, credits the good growth to the company’s actions to promote the product’s four-decade anniversary.

In an interview with Sheet, he said he was incredulous when he heard that, in Brazil, the accessory is not famous for being “indestructible”, as it happens in Japan. The model has been in the record books since 2017 as the most impact resistant wristwatch, even surviving being run over by a 24.9 ton truck.

During a visit to the newspaper’s headquarters, last Monday (3), the Casio team threw the clock against the ground to prove its indestructibility. At the Brazilian party celebrating the device’s 40th anniversary, held on Wednesday (5), the company showed videos of the watch resisting pressure from hydraulic jacks.

In Brazil, the watch inspires musical verses by rapper BK, who accumulates 3.6 million monthly listeners on Spotify. “I’m not that kid anymore / I traded the G-Shock for the Rolex”, says the lyrics of “Carta Aberta”. The musician, however, frequently appears in photos with Casio watches on his wrist.

Rapper Nill, 30, is also one of the supporters. He reports that he’s been fond of the watch since sixth or seventh grade in elementary school — the equivalent of today’s seventh and eighth grades. “I liked it because it’s a big watch and it had different colors,” he says.

Nill says that before he gained prominence, he only used G-Shock replicas. The original watch costs from BRL 350 – it is possible to find fake versions for BRL 100, even less. The singer claims that the copies were also resistant to falls, although they lost paint and shine over time.

Today, Nill, who releases his new album “O Resgate do Maestro”, says he no longer has any examples of the watch in his collection, but he praises the initiative of the manufacturer of watches, musical instruments and calculators to close partnerships with musicians. In 2018, the company announced an exclusive watch designed in conjunction with the British band Gorillaz.

Trapper Nill is also part of another Casio watch enthusiast niche: skaters. The brand sponsors the Olympic skater Pamela Rosa, two-time world champion in the street category — in which competitors perform maneuvers on a track with ramps, handrails and unevenness.

Gabriel Guerra, 24, is a communications consultant and has owned a G-Shock Classic since 2017. From skateboarding, he knew the watch’s resistance. “Mine has just a few scratches from falls I’ve taken.”

He says that, although he can check the time on his cell phone, he likes to have the accessory for the sake of style and for examples of family and friends. “My father and grandfather always had watches, which always made me want one.”

“Because I’m from this skateboarding community, I always felt that people used G-Shock. In 2018, the whole band started using it”, adds Guerra. He says he has two original Casio accessories and plans to buy a third.

In his perception, the watch broke the bubble of skateboarding and rap and became an accessory used by more people.

Illustrator Francisco Silvestre de Araujo Junior, 34, was introduced to the G-Shock, at the height of the model’s popularity, in the 1990s, but continues to use the model. He first bought a replica to test the style and then decided to go with the original after the pirated version broke. “I’ve already taken a fall from a bicycle and a skateboard and the clock is still intact”, he says.

On his visit to Brazil, the creator of the Kikuo Ibe watch displayed a G-Shock on his left arm. He, however, said that he spent 20 years without using the product he put on the market. “It was a lot of work, I don’t like to talk about it.”

Now, he has returned to using the watch during the publicity tour to promote the accessory. To promote the model’s 40th anniversary, the executive will travel to 17 countries.

Ibe recognizes that the popularization of cell phones had a negative effect on the sale of watches and appreciates the success of smartwatches for making people use the accessory again.

Casio itself is considered one of the pioneers of smart watches, since even in the 1980s and 1990s it launched watches with a calculator, camera and other applications. There are devices even for surfers, with the option of checking the height of the tide.

In the midst of this scenario, Ibe claims that the company sells much more today than in the decades in which the G-Shock consolidated itself in the market. “Before we sold in only a few countries. Now we are almost all over the world”, he says.

Casio does not disclose how many watches it sells per year, but says it has manufactured more than 140 million of the G-Shock since 1983. According to the company, the model represents 60% of sales in the category.

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Casio

Foundation: june 1957
Net income in the last quarter of 2022: US$ 3.941 million (R$ 19.229 million)
Market value: US$ 1.942 billion (R$ 9.476 billion)
Employees: 9,732
Occupation area: electronics, such as watches, calculators, and musical instruments
Competitors: Seiko, Citzen Holdings and Rolex