Production of digital Casio watches began in the mid 1970’s. Called the Casiotron, it featured a quartz movement with a digital display and an automatic calendar with leap years. With Casio’s history in mass production of digital products worldwide, it soon became a significant watch brand. In the 1980’s Casio introduced a number of market firsts to help boost demand. Watches could now be brought with altitude, depth and pressure measurements. During this time the G-Shock range was created for sports and outdoor adventure activities. The G representing forces on the watch that could be withstood. To be more precise, the design team were asked to design a watch to last for 10 years, withstand a fall of 10 metres, and remain functioning at a water pressure of 10 atmospheres.

The Casio G-Shock range has expanded massively since its creation in 1985. Most now have stopwatches, countdown timers, illumination and high water resistance. Some models now have atomic time keeping accuracy and Tough Solar powered movements. The brand is now venturing into the premium watch market with advanced materials such as titanium, and sophisticated finely detailed analogue displays. By introducing a vast range of colours, design features and limited editions, Casio models have become highly sought after as fashion statements.

High visibility and status has been gained in recent times with many celebrities favouring Casio G-Shock above more expensive brands. Stars such as Coldplay’s Chris Martin, rappers Eminem and Tinie Tempah and singer Pixie Lott have all been spotted shunning traditional celebrity brands in favour of Casio.

Baby-G - the range was created as an addition to the G-Shock brand. The Baby-G brand is a sports digital watch aimed at ladies and teenagers alike. Like the G-Shock, it is rugged. It is smaller, more compact, and comes in a wide variety of designer colours.

Tough Solar - this is Casio’s version of a solar powered watch. Instead of a battery, it has a rechargeable power cell. Solar panels are incorporated in the watches dial that convert indoor or outdoor light into electrical energy. Tough Solar is a feature that is used in the G-Shock, ProTrek and Pathfinder range of watches.

Casio Wave Ceptor - the waveceptor range receive time signals from time service broadcasting masts around the world. When the watch receives the signals the movement synchronises itself, and as a result maintains the same accuracy as the incredibly accurate atomic clocks. Wave Ceptor watches require no setting or resetting of time, date, daylight saving time, or year.

Sea Pathfinder - this ranges predominant feature is the digital compass for navigation and orientation. Aimed at water sports enthusiasts and fishermen functions also include tide graph, moon age data (perfect to tell you when the fishes will be biting) and yacht timers.

Protrek - a range for the more adventurous amongst us these watches have thermometers, barometers and digital compasses built in to aid navigation, be it to the top of Everest or just back home from the pub. Hardwearing and hardworking watches, Casio Protrek are designed to withstand all that nature can throw at them.