Forgive us if we print the wrong image alongside news of this release. The Casio G-Shock drops in 2022 already include a new camo line, a celebration of the Year of Tiger, and partnerships with Football Club Barcelona, Rubik’s Cube, and Toyota. Now G-Shock is going punk.
Later this month, G-Shock will launch the GW-M5610MOYC-1ER, a brand new collaboration with London’s Museum of Youth Culture. The design “celebrates growing up in Britain, showcasing some of Gavin Watson’s most iconic documentation of the (1980s) Skinhead, Rave, and Punk scene” while nodding to “the early punk zines.” Each GW-M5610MOYC-1ER comes on a resin strap flying the Union Jack above a British punk in a leather jacket. Every watch purchase will arrive in Watson’s bespoke, archival packaging with black and white images of this rebellious, late-twentieth century youth culture along with a Grown up in G-Shock limited edition zine.
This team-up makes sense as Casio launched G-Shock in the same era. Born in 1983, G-Shock was the brainchild of the legendary Kikuo Ibe, who sparked the outrageous idea of making a shock-proof, water-proof, even bullet-proof watch that could accept just about anything that this crazy life might throw at it and keep on ticking.
Grown Up In Britain at London’s Museum of Youth Culture aspires to chronicle 100 years of British vitality through contributors’ stories and photographs. This exhibition incorporates over 150,000 photographs, ephemera, and educational texts that celebrates youthful culture through the history of its style, sounds, and social movements. The Museum of Youth Culture represents the world’s most comprehensive collection of cultural content tailored for the specialist handling of young people’s heritage.
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This showcase includes some of Watson’s most iconic documentation of the rise of the early 1980s backlash to voracious capitalism, captured by teens and twenty-somethings in torn black clothing, scarred skin, shaved heads, leather adornments, and steel spikes, all captured in early punk zines.
“Being able to delve into our archive and unearth a massive variety of subcultures who wore G-Shock has been fascinating,” Jon Swinstead, the founder of the Museum of Youth Culture, said in a press release. “Throughout the various subcultures from street to punk, to the emerging subcultures in the modern day; the significance of G-Shock over the last 40 years within youth culture and growing up in Britain, evidently, is immense.”
The GW-M5610MOYC-1ER seeks to encapsulate that spirit in a style designed around the original G-Shock’s rectangular case that’s wrapped by a resin band sporting images from the museum’s Watson archive. Never compromising on functionality, the watch features a more advanced functionality than its ancestor with Multi-Band 6 Radio Controlled technology to ensure accurate timekeeping, and solar power for maximum reliability. Attributes also include a stopwatch, timer, and world time mode. This face is housed in G-Shock’s original slim, shock resistant, resin case that’s topped with tough mineral glass.
The collaboration is available beginning on Friday, February 18 through www.g-shock.co.uk and the G-Shock Carnaby St Flagship Store, priced at £149/$202.
Grown Up In G-Shock will be on display at the Museum of Youth Culture through Friday, March 4. Entry is free and donated proceeds from all events will help fund the Museum’s education youth work across the U.K.
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