How G-Shock Frogman Watches are Built for Maximum Toughness

Introduction to G-Shock Frogman Collection

If you’ve ever worn a wrist watch, I’m sure you are no stranger to the name Casio G-Shock. The brand symbolizes toughness that no other watch makers can rival. Yet, only a limited handful of fanatic G-Shock fans know that there is the Master of G series that is made tougher than the other G-Shock families.

Master of G series are tougher than the rest because their designs have been tailored for extreme purpose needs. The G-Shock Frogman is one line from the Master of G collection that has been extremely popular.

The reason? It is because like its name suggest, the G-Shock Frogman has been designed to survive on land, muddy soil and underwater.

If you are in a profession that requires you to be operating under such condition, Casio Frogman would be the ideal choice. You don’t have to worry about condensation or corrosion as Frogman watches are well protected to prevent water from coming in. The case design has also been especially designed to prevent dust and sand from wreaking havoc to your watch.

Or if you simply want a watch that requires minimal ‘babysitting’ and yet still able to last for a decade, you have the answer in Casio Frogman’s watches.

The last Frogman model released in 2014 is the limited edition navy-themed GF1000NV-2. It was released with a price tag of around $700. But less than a year later, this model has become increasingly hard to get. As of my last check, it is fetching in the neighborhood of $1.2k.

If you are looking to buy a Casio Frogman not from investment angle, the highly popular GF8250ER-2 or GWF1000-1 will be the ones that you want to be looking at.

The G-Shock GWF1000-1 and GF8250ER-2 might have been released for a few years now but until today, they remain two of Casio G-Shock’s best-selling models.

Can the Frogman be Used for Diving?

All Casio Frogman watches meet all the technical specification for scuba diving. The video below shows the water test that is being carried out before each Frogman watch can earn its water resistant rating.

If you are a passionate diver and happens to be a G-Shock fanatic, the Frogman watches would be the perfect option.

However, G-Shock Frogman watches are not the only tough watches designed for diving use. For the casual divers, the other affordable alternative would be the Suunto’s line of dive watches. However, if you are a professional diver, you may want to check out our pick of the Top 3 diving watches.

Looking for the Best Buy below $200? Find out which 3 watches are Rated as the Best

Unique Characteristics of the Frogman Collection

There are few features that characterize a Frogman watch. First, all Frogman watches are Solar Powered or more commonly branded as Tough Solar Power.

It is not clear what the term tough is supposed to represent. The principle behind is pretty simple. Most of us have probably grown up with a solar-powered calculator that constantly recharges itself without requiring any battery replacement.

G-Shock’s Tough Solar Power works very much in the same way. It is able to convert not only solar but also fluorescent lights into energy that is sufficient to recharge the watch battery.

This means that if you buy a Frogman collection, you are virtually assured of ‘eternal’ battery lifetime and you’ll never need to replace your watch battery.

Looking for specific G-Shock model? Try our ultimate G-Shock collection database

Made as a diving watch, all watches labeled as Frogman will be in compliant to the ISO 6425 divers’ watches standard. To qualify as ISO 6425 compliance, a watch has to be water resistance for up to 200 meters.

In fact during the testing, these watches underwent pressure testing at depth of up to 250 meters. So, unless you are trying to break World’s diving record, it is good enough for most folks (like myself).

These two features alone were enough to propel the popularity of the initial G-Shock Frogman models. Later on, to strengthen its grip among hardcore divers and outdoor adventure lovers fans, two additional killer features have been added to all Frogman watches.

The two features are the Atomic Timekeeping and the Tide & Moon Graphs. G-Shock’s cult-like following seems to grow with every introduction of new features and the same applies to the Frogman line of watches.

That Unique Asymmetry

Another feature that makes G-Shock Frogman stand out from the rest of the G-Shock watches is the asymmetrical design of the watch case.

This is a bold design from Casio that not many other watches have managed to follow suit. The next time you bumped into a G-Shock watch and it does not look symmetrically balanced, you can be assured that 95% of the time, it is a Frogman line-up.

Timeline & Evolution of the Frogman series

I am a guy who is always fascinated by history and evolution. To help give you some perspective on the different G-Shock Frogrman models that have been released over the years, here is a list of G-Shock Frogman watches that have ever been made and sold in the market.

If you are aware of any model that is not found on my list, do drop me a line and I’ll be more glad to add into the list and I’ll thank you for that.

2010 Collection: GF8250

In 2010, a new addition to the Frogman collection was introduced. The new addition was the GF8250-9 model. Applying our G-Shock serial number decryption technique, the casing used for the watch is numbered 8250.

The color code is ‘9’ which is used to represent yellow. The GF8250-9 quickly turned into one of G-Shock’s most loved model.

Hence, the GF8250ER-2 model was released subsequently. With earth tone color combination, the GF8250ER-2 turned out be even more popular than its successor.

Due to the popularity of this model, it was selected as one of the base model for G-Shock 30th anniversary celebration and the G-Shock GF8230A-4 is the special limited edition model that uses this base design.

2009 Collection: GWF1000

In 2009, Casio released a new Frogman model that came equipped with the Atomic Timekeeping function. The new model was labeled with GWF1000 series.

There are many variants to this series, but most of them present nothing but cosmetic touch up to the basic GWF1000-1 model. As you can tell from the serial number, they are using the 1000 casing as the base.

For Military Watch Fans Only: G-Shock Premieres Military Cloth Band Models

2001 Collection: GW200

Way back in 2001, the Frogman model introduced for that year was the GW200 series. The basic model carries the serial number GW200-2.

This simply means that the case design is numbered as 200 and the original variant of this series come in blue color (‘2’). Subsequently, many variants of the GW200 model were introduced.

Some of them with face dial enhancements while some were just color variants of the basic model. This series include a G-Shock military inspired model labeled as GW200MS-1.

1995 Collection: DW8200

Going back earlier in time, the second generation of G-Shock born in the Frogman family was the DW8200 model. Due to the popularity of the DW8200 model, it continued to be in production for few subsequent years after it was introduced.

There are also many variation of colors, but most of them if not all of them are no longer in production today. Nonetheless, some people still claim their DW8200 models to be still perfectly functioning with some of them still fetching collectible prices in the market.

1993 First Ever Frogman Collection: DW6300

Exactly one decade after the first G-Shock was introduced, the first G-Shock Frogman watch was born.

It was labeled with DW6300 serial number. It is not clear to me how popular exactly this first generation was. There is not too much information available about this Frogman series.