Casio’s Crystal G-Shock Is the Most Expensive Ever Made

At Madison Square Garden in New York City on November 9, 2017, at the G-Shock 35th Anniversary Celebration, G-Shock creator Kikuo Ibe showed off three sapphire-crystal prototype watches: one clear, one ruby, and one sapphire blue. Because machining sapphire was so difficult at the time, each watch took over a month to produce.

These were built with, for the time, high-end Casio features such as Tough Solar power and Multiband 6 radio-controlled timekeeping—but as they didn’t meet the G-Shock shock-resistance standards, the trio was never intended for sale. They were primarily a symbol of innovation for the Japanese brand, which started in 1983 specializing in super-tough performance timepieces.

Now, nine years later, in what Casio is calling the culmination of an “eight-year project” (so presumably the ball started rolling soon after the excited reception Ibe’s crystal concepts got on stage at MSG), G-Shock is launching a three-watch collection...

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