Introducing 2014 Trendiest G-Shock: G-Shock G8900A-1

Casio is a long-standing leader in the world of digital watches, and G-Shock is one of their most recognized lines. Buyers looking for the best tough watch are often impressed by the durability and build quality of G-Shock watches.

For this review, I decided to give the G-Shock G8900A-1 a try. G-Shock has been making awesome watches for over thirty years. Will the G8900A-1 turn out to be one of the best sports watches on the market, or will it fail to live up to expectations?

Casio G-Shock G8900A-1 Review

The Casio G-Shock G8900A-1 features a super bright LED backlight, which the wearer can activate by flicking the wrist or pushing the large button at the bottom. The watch supports up to five daily alarms and a countdown timer, and it can be set to flash the light along with the buzzer.

In addition to keeping the time of up to four cities, it also displays world time (UTC). Casio claims the battery will last three years.

All that’s great, but if you’re like most people, you’re most interested in how durable it is. The bezel of the G-Shock G8900A-1 is made of solid aluminum, making it resistant to damage from being struck from the top. The band is tough resin.

Band Material

Even if this is the best tough watch, you won’t want to wear it if it fails as a timepiece. Putting it on, the first thing I noticed is that the band is quite a bit thinner than G-Shock watches I’ve tried in the past.

Somehow, it doesn’t feel as rugged. But G-Shock’s bands have proven to be so tough that there is probably no harm in making the band slightly thinner.

The band is quite shiny, which makes it seem less appropriate for a formal setting. Your friends may be impressed that you’re wearing one of the best sports watches, but will a business client? The face on the watch seems huge, which isn’t a problem for me, but on a thinner man it may feel awkward.

Display

The display is great, and I think that making the numbers white on a blue background looks nice and is a real attention-getter.

The only downside is that the numbers can be hard to see outside in bright light. The LED backlight with wrist-flick activation is super convenient, but a big disappointment is that it only lights up the time display. The information at the top is not lit up.

Get Ready with the Manuals

Always a stumbling block for new users, the many features of the watch take some time to learn to use properly.

The manual is extensive and can seem daunting for someone looking to get started. And it is clearly made for the young, because the print is tiny. If you want to play around with the world time setting or the set buzzer flash, you’ll have to put some time into it.

In Summary

Anyone looking for the best sports watch will surely be familiar with the G-Shock brand, and this model shows that the line hasn’t lost its edge.

The only quibble I had was with the thinner band, but it’s up to the buyer to consider how much pressure they are likely to put on it. Otherwise, I was thoroughly impressed.

But don’t take my word for it, try it out for yourself. If you want to find the best tough watch on the market, you’ve got a lot of models to go through.

While the final decision is yours, I wouldn’t hesitate to include G-Shock G8900A-1 as among my G-Shock recommendation list.