{"id":617324,"date":"2026-10-01T10:32:15","date_gmt":"2026-10-01T10:32:15","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/617324\/"},"modified":"2026-10-01T10:32:15","modified_gmt":"2026-10-01T10:32:15","slug":"casios-crystal-g-shock-is-the-most-expensive-ever-made","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/617324\/","title":{"rendered":"Casio\u2019s Crystal G-Shock Is the Most Expensive Ever Made"},"content":{"rendered":"

Now, nine years later, in what Casio is calling the culmination of an \u201ceight-year project\u201d (so presumably the ball started rolling soon after the excited reception Ibe\u2019s crystal concepts got on stage at MSG<\/a>), G-Shock is launching a three-watch collection using blue sapphire as an expression of what happens when G-Shock toughness meets Japanese engineering. The flagship model, and by far the most expensive, is the $80,000 MRG-D5000, the first-ever retail G-Shock with an outer case and bezel hewn entirely from blue sapphire crystal.<\/p>\n

The collection is called the \u201cBlue Rose Project\u201d because the blue rose<\/a> is viewed as a symbol of making the impossible possible since it doesn\u2019t exist in nature. It sees the super-expensive MRG-D5000 released alongside the $9,500 MRG-B5000SA-2, and the GMW-B5000SB-1A for $850.<\/p>\n

Only 20 of the $80,000 MRG-D5000 full-sapphire G-Shocks will be made, putting these rugged \u201cluxury\u201d timepieces somewhat implausibly in the same price bracket as a Patek Philippe<\/a> or Porsche Macan<\/a>. This is quite the flex from a company that also sells its watches for less than $90<\/a>.<\/p>\n

The 2017 concept watches required metal bracing to hold the crystal sections together, which is partly why they couldn\u2019t pass G-Shock\u2019s rigorous toughness tests. The new MRG-D5000, however, is a fully functional G-Shock, taking construction lessons from the MR-G engineering team who found that dividing the outer case into multiple interacting components could disperse impact more effectively than a conventional single-piece construction.<\/p>\n

G-Shock fans will have already seen this technique employed in the titanium MRG-B5000<\/a> from 2022, but this \u201cMulti-Guard Structure\u201d has now been reengineered specifically for sapphire crystal, with Casio claiming the construction takes inspiration from traditional Japanese timber-frame techniques, using interlocking pieces rather than placing stress around screw holes or other details that could result in cracking.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Now, nine years later, in what Casio is calling the culmination of an \u201ceight-year project\u201d (so presumably the…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":617325,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[6],"tags":[110768,501,206,111,139,69,145,2044,3604],"class_list":["post-617324","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-technology","tag-casio","tag-design","tag-luxury","tag-new-zealand","tag-newzealand","tag-nz","tag-technology","tag-time","tag-watches"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/617324","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=617324"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/617324\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/617325"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=617324"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=617324"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=617324"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}