Casio is pushing G-Shock into unfamiliar luxury territory with the Blue Rose Project, a three-watch collection led by the $80,000 MRG-D5000. According to WIRED, only 20 examples of the flagship will be made, placing it in the same price bracket as high-end Swiss watches or a Porsche Macan. The move is a striking contrast for a brand whose standard G-Shocks sell for under $90.
The MRG-D5000 is the first retail G-Shock with an outer case and bezel made entirely from blue sapphire crystal. The project traces back to 2017, when G-Shock creator Kikuo Ibe showed sapphire prototypes at a 35th-anniversary event in New York. Those watches took over a month each to machine and required metal bracing, so they never met G-Shock's toughness standards. Casio says the new collection is the culmination of an eight-year engineering effort.
To make sapphire work, Casio developed a new Multi-Guard Structure inspired by traditional Japanese timber-frame construction. The outer case is divided into interlocking components that disperse impact better than a single-piece design, and the assembly is entirely screwless. The process is so demanding that, according to WIRED, only one person at Casio's Yamagata factory can currently perform it. All three watches retain G-Shock toughness, 200-meter water resistance, solar charging, and radio-controlled timekeeping.
The other models are the $9,500 MRG-B5000SA-2, limited to 500 pieces with a grade-5 titanium case and two blue sapphires, and the $850 GMW-B5000SB-1A, a full-metal black watch with four round brilliant-cut sapphires. The collection's name references the blue rose, a symbol of achieving the impossible—a fitting theme for a rugged watch made from a material known for being brittle.