Casio finally put Wear OS into a G-Shock watch

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Casio’s G-Shock range has long graced the wrists of people wanting a watch that could keep up with the daily knocks of life. They haven’t been the smartest of watches inside though, but that’s changing with the $699 GSW-H1000, the first G-Shock with a color display powered by Google’s Wear OS platform.

That change means the typically-drab LCD display of every other Casio G-Shock is gone, replaced by a full-color touchscreen. It’s packed with sports features, has a titanium back for extra toughness, and all the protection you’d expect from the G-Shock name like shock resistance and water resistance down to 200m of depth.

READ MORE: Google finally adds YouTube Music streaming to Wear OS watches

That color screen is covered by a normal, monochrome LCD one, much like the TicWatch Pro, which we were impressed by. That will increase the G-Shock’s battery life substantially when in use, while still letting you use the second screen for Maps or other things when needed. While using the color face, you get about 1.5 days of power, stretching up to nearly a month if you use the monochrome face in “multi timepiece mode.”

As you’d expect from a rugged, outdoors watch, it’s stuffed with sensors. You’ve got GPS (inbuilt, not relying on your phone), an optical heart rate sensor, compass bearing, altitude, barometric pressure, and more. Pairing it with Casio’s app gets you 24 indoor workout options and 15 activity tracking modes for everything from running to snowboarding. Wear OS lets you have phone notifications on your wrist, plus the range of Android apps tweaked for being on a watch face.

It’ll be available in the US mid-May, with a price tag of $699.

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Joe Rice-Jones

Maker, meme-r, and unabashed geek with nearly half a decade of blogging experience at KnowTechie, SlashGear and XDA Developers. If it runs on electricity (or even if it doesn't), Joe probably has one around his office somewhere, with particular focus in gadgetry and handheld gaming. Shoot him an email at joe@knowtechie.com.