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Julian Ryall

From a corner of Casio Computer’s cluttered research and development facility comes a constant tap, tap, tap. Behind boxes of components, desks heaped with technical readouts and dismembered electronics, an experiment is taking place. The arms of a home-made testing contraption are rising and falling, dropping two G-Shock wristwatches over and over again onto a concrete slab.
The machine was devised by Casio’s engineers because previously the company had no equipment at the Hamura research and development centre, northwest of central Tokyo, to test a watch as tough as the G-Shock.
An engineer glances over at the device and agrees that the timepieces are in good shape despite being dropped every couple of seconds for a week.
While the G-Shock is renowned for its durability, it is equally impressive that a concept that in April celebrated 37 years of production is still considered cutting-edge.

The G-Shock is among the most instantly recognisable of Casio’s products, although the company got its start in the post-war years by revolutionising the calculator, before branching out into clocks, digital cameras, musical instruments and a range of other electronic devices.
Casio traces its roots back to Tadao Kashio, who was born in Kochi prefecture in southern Japan in 1917. His family moved to Tokyo when he was five, and Kashio started work as a lathe operator after completing high school.
The factory owner recognised something in the young labourer and encouraged him to take up studies at Waseda Koshu Gakko, the predecessor of Waseda University, between shifts.
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After mastering the skills required to make household goods, bicycle lamps and other items, Kashio in 1946 set up his own business, Kashio Seisakujo, in Tokyo’s Mitaka City.
As a subcontractor for larger operators, Kashio manufactured gears and components for microscopes and other technical equipment, and subsequently hired his three younger brothers – Toshio, Kazuo and Yukio – to work with him.
Toshio harboured ambitions of becoming an inventor and was an admirer of Thomas Edison. And although he had extensive knowledge of electrical components and systems, it was a simple analogue invention that first caught the public’s attention.
In the years immediately after Japan’s defeat in World War II, basic commodities were in short supply and smokers typically puffed their cigarettes down to the nub. Toshio created the “yubiwa pipe”, a finger ring and cigarette holder that enabled the wearer to get the last puff and simultaneously left his hands free for working.

The father of the young men, Shigeru Kashio, was given the task of marketing the product, and orders soon poured in. This simple yet ingenious creation earned enough capital for the company to develop the product for which it initially became synonymous.
In the late 1940s, virtually all calculators in Japan used mechanical gears and a hand crank. The drawback was that the motor for the devices was noisy and relatively slow. With his knowledge of electrical circuitry, Toshio found a way of getting around many of the problems by using solely electrical circuits instead of mechanical parts.
The first domestically produced electric calculator was completed in 1954. The brothers proudly demonstrated it to Bunshodo, a trading house that specialised in office supplies, but were told it was already out of date because it could not perform continuing multiplication.

Two years later, with that issue resolved, the next hurdle was mass production of a device that was typically so large that one calculator required an entire room and an air purification system. The Kashio brothers revolutionised the design of the circuits, reducing the number of relays from thousands to a couple of hundred.
The final version of the calculator had the keypad set into a desktop, with the entire device weighing 140kg (309lb) and costing 485,000 yen – US$4,643 at today’s prices – and mass production of the Casio 14-A began in 1957, the same year that the brothers decided to adopt the name Casio Computer.
Each of the four brothers is credited with bringing a unique speciality and strength to the company; Tadao in finance, Toshio in development, Kazuo in sales, and Yukio in production.
When it first came out in Japan, the G-Shock was not well received. A short while later, it was also released in the US, and in order to sell the watch there we had to demonstrate how tough it was
Kikuo Ibe, inventor of the Casio G-Shock watch
To meet soaring demand, the first Casio factory was built in western Tokyo and, by 1965, Casio had 50 sales outlets across Japan and had adopted electronic calculators that used vacuum tubes.
This technology permitted the brothers to dramatically shrink their devices and introduced the concept of a memory function, something other firms had not devised.
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Buoyed by domestic success, Casio began exporting calculators in September 1966 and established a European headquarters in Switzerland. A US office opened in 1970, followed by a German facility in 1972.
In the 1970s, the company listed on the Tokyo Stock Exchange, opened new production plants in Japan, and expanded into the UK and other markets with local offices. In 1974, the company branched into watches with the Casiotron, the world’s first digital watch with an integral calendar.
The 1980s were a time of further rapid development and innovation, with the company moving into electronic instruments. The Casio logo became increasingly prominent on keyboards in an era known for experimental electronic pop.
The Casiotone was released in 1980, and much enhanced descendants of that keyboard are still produced today.

The company then created the first solar-powered calculator in 1981, its first electronic dictionary the same year and, in 1983, the first digital diary and the TV-10, a pocket-sized LCD television. But it was another revolutionary design the same year that changed timepiece technology.
“When I graduated from high school my father bought me a watch,” says Kikuo Ibe, an engineer at the firm who hit upon the idea of the G-Shock watch.
“I kept it all through university and even after I joined Casio. That watch was very important to me, and back then people only had one watch and they took care of them for years.”
One day, Ibe dropped it onto a concrete floor and it shattered into tiny pieces. “It was at that point that I realised I wanted to make a watch that was impossible to break.”

In the 1980s, however, the fashion was for lighter and thinner watches, while the timepiece Ibe was proposing needed to be large and rugged. Even after being given approval to start the research and development process, he faced huge hurdles.
“The problem was that when you are designing a watch, there are many different parts that can break – the coil, the display, the bezel or something else,” he says. “We were not able to get all the components strong enough to withstand the levels of shocks that we wanted them to.”
Still struggling with a way to protect the watch’s internal parts, Ibe was taking a break in a park when he experienced his “Eureka!” moment. A child was bouncing a rubber ball on the floor and it occurred to Ibe that if the “brains” of his watch could “float” inside the ball, they would be protected from shocks coming from any angle.
Ibe began testing his prototypes by dropping them out of a third-floor window.

“The important idea was that the key parts of the watch would be ‘floating’ inside the casing, only connected at four points, meaning that whenever it is hit, no part of the watch takes the full impact,” Ibe explains.
Once the technology had been perfected, the next hurdle was equally testing: public perception.
“When it first came out in Japan, the G-Shock was not well received,” Ibe admits. “A short while later, it was also released in the US, and in order to sell the watch there we had to demonstrate how tough it was.”
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A US television advertisement showing ice hockey players thrashing a G-Shock around triggered a storm of accusations from viewers that it had been faked. A TV show recreated the hockey test – and ran the watch over with a truck – and it passed with flying colours.
The response was immediate; G-Shock watches became de rigueur in the US for outdoor enthusiasts and people with demanding jobs, but they failed to take off at home.

It was not until 1990, when the G-Shock had made the leap in the US to become the fashion among skateboarders, that Japanese youngsters noticed it. And as they imitated the fashions of America, the G-Shock came home.
The past two decades have seen more technological breakthroughs at the company, including a shock- and water-resistant mobile phone, a miniaturised computer, and fingerprint verification devices.
One of its most recent releases, however, was the G-Shock MTG-B2000 watch, in September. This latest enhancement is built of metal and resin, to keep the weight to a minimum yet still provide the protection that Ibe insisted upon for his designs.


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The Casio 14-A calculator went into mass production in 1957, the same year that the brothers decided to adopt the name Casio for their company.[FEATURES] Photo / Handout

The four Kashio brothers (from left) Toshio, Kazuo, Tadao and Yukio - as the first all-electric Casio 14-A calculators begin to roll off production lines. [FEATURES] Photo / Handout

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Released in 1974, the Casiotron was the worldâs first digital watch with an integral calendar. [FEATURES] Photo / Handout

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JAPAN - MAY 17:  Three watches manufactured by Casio Electronic Company Ltd. On the left is the Model PRT-40E with altimeter, barometer and thermometer functions. In the middle is the Model VDB-200B-1 with touch screen, back light, stopwatch and address book functions. And on the right is the multi-function Casio digital watch with built in infra-red transmitter to control household appliances.  (Photo by SSPL/Getty Images)

JAPAN - JANUARY 01: In this undated photo, Casio founder Tadao Kashio is seen in Japan. (Photo by Kyodo News Stills via Getty Images)

Casio started out making calculators, moved into digital watches, keyboards and cameras, then launched its famous G-Shock watches. Photo: Shutterstock

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Casio pioneered the electronic calculator before branching out into clocks, and digital watches, cameras and musical instruments
It also invented the G-Shock watch, famous for being unbreakable, which is in its 37th year of production



Casio invented the unbreakable G-Shock watch, now in its 37th year of production, but before that it had pioneered electronic calculators, and launched digital watches, musical instruments, cameras and a pocket-sized TV.


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