G-SHOCK DW5600

A rubber ball dropped on concrete does not pass the shock along to its middle. That observation is the whole reason the square G-Shock looks the way it does.

Casio's G-Shock DW5600 keeps its module floating inside the case rather than bolted to it, so the case absorbs what the wrist absorbs. Inside that module, the crystal oscillator and the other critical parts each sit in their own cushioning, which deforms on impact so the contacts never break. Outside, the bezel stands proud of both the glass and the buttons, meeting a drop from any direction before they do, and the band is stiffly curved where it meets the case so it works as a second shock absorber, this time for the case back. The shape is the original: the 5000 and 5600 series have carried it down unchanged, and the shock-resistant idea was drawn around it in the first place.

The display is drawn at a 16:10 ratio, which Casio picked as the closest match to the human viewing angle. Under it sits a stopwatch reading to a hundredth of a second for the first hour, then to whole seconds up to 23:59'59, with split times and first and second place finishes. There is a self-restarting countdown timer up to 24 hours, a multi-function alarm, and a flash alert that blinks the light along with the buzzer. The white LED is Casio's Super Illuminator, with an afterglow.

The calendar is already set out to 2099, which says something about what this watch expects of itself. Accuracy is quoted at 15 seconds a month, so you will be correcting it long before the calendar runs out.