G-SHOCK Turned Singapore’s IMBA Theatre Into a Walk-Through of the New 2500
The brand marked the official launch of the GMC-2500 and GAC-2500 with an evening of light, movement and fashion.
Summary
The brand marked the arrival of the GMC-2500 and GAC-2500 with an evening of light, movement and fashion.
G-SHOCK took over Singapore‘s IMBA Theatre on November 7 to launch the GMC-2500 and GAC-2500, two watches sporting fully analog faces that are built on the DNA of the iconic DW-5000C.
Staged under the theme “Toughness, Refined,” the night was presented as a journey through a series of zones. It opened with a history wall tracing the 2500’s lineage from the DW-5000C through the DW-6900, GA-100 and GA-2100. Next came The Awakening, a darkened space anchored by a centerpiece of hanging metal mesh lit in teal, inspired by the work of Japanese artist YOSHIROTTEN. Introspective questions placed around it asked guests what toughness means to them.
The main event unfolded in The Discovery zone, where guests gathered around a giant kinetic sculpture of the watch’s bezel and raised date disc for a four-part dance performance, charting G-SHOCK’s journey from raw toughness to something more refined. Towering projections then opened up the 2500 to reveal the components hidden inside its case, before the space turned into a runway styled around the modern urbanite who inspired the watch.
Back in The Awakening zone, guests could try the collection on the wrist and add their own answer to “What does toughness mean to you?” to a growing community installation. For Tomoaki Nakamura, General Manager of Casio Southeast Asia’s Timepieces Division, that hands-on approach was the point. “The keyword is ‘interactive,’” he said. “To realize that immersive experience, after our research we judged that Singapore was the best place.” Tomohiro Yuasa, product planner at Casio’s Hamura R&D Center, added that Southeast Asia has long been known internally as home to some of G-SHOCK’s most passionate fans: “We come into today hoping this launch will excite them even more.”
From Digital Icon to Analog Face
The DW-5000C was the watch that started it all, a digital square built around the idea of a watch that wouldn’t break when dropped. The new 2500 series translates that functional beauty into a clean analog layout. It’s also a first for G-SHOCK’s Basic series, which has never had a fully analog model at its price point.
“The general view in the watch world is that a fully analog watch is the basic standard, whereas we started out in digital,” Yuasa explained. “The 2500 is a starting point for offering that universal value of a watch to people worldwide, while keeping G-SHOCK’s functionality and uniqueness.”
The tricky part was keeping that functionality without cluttering the dial. The answer is a new feature called Multi-Mission Date: a three-cell window at 3 o’clock that shows the date, stopwatch elapsed minutes, or setting information, depending on the function in use. Once the year, month and day are set, it runs a fully automatic calendar, with no manual date correction needed. A small seconds hand at 9 o’clock can be put to sleep when it isn’t needed, saving power and extending battery life.
Beetles, Armor and Skyscrapers
Yosuke Nagayama, Head of Design at G-SHOCK, calls the layout “Two Eyes”: the small seconds and date subdial sit on opposite sides, leaving two thick hands to carry the time. Every element on the dial is built in layers, so light catches the indices and casts shadows across the face. The idea came from cityscapes. “When you look at high-rise buildings, the sun creates very long shadows,” Nagayama said. “Inside the face, there’s an architectural, geometric, man-made world.”
The signature octagonal bezel remains, but softened into rounder, more organic contours inspired by the rhinoceros beetle, or kabutomushi. “Beetles have survived for about 200 million years without changing their form,” Nagayama explained. “They have a very tough body, but they can take off quickly, so there’s also lightness.”
There’s a second meaning, too. In Japanese, kabuto also means the helmet of samurai armor. “Armor adapts to the wearer’s body when worn every day, until it becomes part of them,” Nagayama said. “We hope that by wearing the 2500 every day, it becomes part of the user’s body.” He also sees the layered dial as G-SHOCK’s answer to the smartwatch. “This level of detail, a kind of miniature diorama inside the face, is something smartwatches can’t do,” he said.
Built for a New Generation
The 2500 is aimed squarely at younger wearers who grew up on screens but are drawn to authenticity and heritage. “They don’t like inauthenticity,” said Nakamura. “They prefer authentic things, something true to the brand.” For Yuasa, that’s exactly why the DW-5000C was the starting point: “Everything is contained in it. It will always be our DNA.”
The GMC-2500 comes in five metal-cased versions, on either a metal bracelet or a resin band, with black, blue, silver and gold dials. The resin-cased GAC-2500 comes in black, green, white and yellow. The G-SHOCK 2500 is available now online and in G-SHOCK stores.
