The Wild New G-Shock GA-V01 ‘CoolEyes’ Goes Where No Casio Has Gone Before

After some teases and leaks, Casio has officially launched the wild new G-Shock GA-V01 collection. The out-of-this-world, sci-fi design is like nothing we’ve seen from G-Shock, but that’s kind of the whole point here, right? While debuting as a China-only model, it’s hard to imagine these not finding their way onto the wrists of fans worldwide. But what exactly does GA-V01 mean? According to Casio, the “V” stands for “Vision” and “01” stands for “breakthrough,” so…I have no idea what that means, really, but damn, these look like fun.

While it may look nothing like a typical G-Shock, the GA-V01 is just as shockproof, water resistant to 200 meters, and has an unusually robust 10-year battery life. The specs here appear huge, though the amorphous design might have something to do with it. The resin case of the GA-V01 measures 58.2mm wide and 19.6mm thick, with a lug-to-lug height of 49.1mm. The total weight Is 74 grams, including the matching resin strap.

Now let’s look at the fun part: the design. You’ll notice the curved sapphire crystal and 3D hour markers that are placed outside the case and integrated into the bezel. Also, the two indicators are described as being “CoolEyes” by G-Shock (they look 1950s alien-inspired to me). Note the use of a new magnetic minutes hand, which is designed to help absorb impacts.

The debut GA-V01 collection comes in four variants: the GA-V01-1A in black, the GA-V01-2A in purple, the GA-V01-9A in lime green, and the GA-V01A-8A in silver. Again, these are limited to the Chinese market for now (though I have already seen some start to pop up on the secondary market, albeit with marked up prices). They each come in a very cool “CoolEyes” box that matches the watch design and actually resembles a rubber ball tested by G-Shock. The Casio G-Shock GA-V01 “CoolEyes” collection is priced at 990 yuan, or about $120 each. You can learn more about the collection here at casio.com — though you may need to have your browser translate the page.