Casio G Shock GX56-4 - The Biggest Ever

Casio might not be rubbing shoulders with Rolex, Tissot, or TAG Heuer, but that’s because the rest of these companies manufacture watches that might be classy to look at, but in its entirety lack a sporty feel. Anyway we have the King of G Shocks for review and this model is called the GX56-4. Read on to know whether this is worth your wrist (and money).

Design and Build Quality
The GX56-4’s design is the perfect definition of rugged. Right from the straps of the watch to its rubberized casing around the display, the GX56-4 is built like a tank! If there is any disappointment that is worth mentioning, it has to be the colour (orange!) of the watch which stands out. The fact is that while some might like the completely different color for sports watches, others might rather want to stick with the tried and tested black.

A well designed, strongly built timepiece

On a whole, I can say that the design and build quality of the GX56-4 is top notch. If there’s anything that I still don’t like about this watch, it’s only the generous dabbing of orange. It would have made some sense if Casio offered this watch in a few other colors, as well.

Features
There are four buttons around the display called Adjust, Mode, Search and Light. A single press of the Adjust button lets you switch between the Day and Date mode and the Time Zone mode. If you keep it pressed for a few seconds, you can make changes to the current time settings or various other settings like changing the time zones, setting up the alarm clock and so on. The Mode button lets you switch between different modes like the normal clock, alarm, stopwatch and timer. The Search button is meant to make changes in any of the modes like setting the time or the day and date. The light button obviously lights up the display and is quite bright.

Just like its design and build, the GX56-4 is also pretty much loaded in the features department. There are 49 different time zones you can set your watch to and it also has an automatic Electro Luminescent backlight. The watch has four different alarms, one snooze alarm and an hourly time signal. You can also switch between 12 and 24 hour formats on the GX56-4.

Two pinned buckle makes for a firm grip

When I said that the GX56-4 is built like a tank, I wasn’t exaggerating. It can take a good amount of physical beating (i.e. it's Shock Resistant), can survive water to about 20 bars (or 100 meters) and is also mud resistant.  The display has a tough solar panel which means it’s quite efficient for conserving energy as it catches sunlight during the day or fluorescent light at other times. Also the panel itself is resistant to clumsy scratches.

Performance
While I’m pretty impressed with the design and features of this watch, it still has to score big on the performance front to get a good rating overall. To test the shock resistance of this G Shock, I threw it around the lab for many times. I kind of felt that to be a little less demanding from a rugged watch, so I thought of playing catch with it as well. After all that violence, the GX56-4 really held true its word of being a rock solid watch. That apart, I washed it (in pretense of washing my hands) under running water, kept it in a mug which I later moved to a bucket and the watch also took a summer dip in the pool! That test also done, I finally buried it under some mud. After taking it out, I noticed that after washing the watch under running water, it was as good as new.

a tank watch?

The watch is not only built solid, it also feels a little bulky. But that doesn’t mean that the GX56-4 is too heavy for your wrist. Despite all that bulk, it fits well enough and even for those having small wrists, you’ll just have to tighten the strap a couple of notches and you’re good to go. Another good aspect of the GX56-4 is that it fits comfortably enough and even after very long durations, your wrist will not sweat.

Verdict
I think a price of Rs. 7,999 might look a little high. But think of what all you’re getting for it. A nice rugged watch, that can withstand some really rough conditions, has quite a bit of features to offer and on the whole, is an excellent watch. If there’s something that’s still making me frown, it has to be that odd orange color and if Casio can come out with some more colors, it will make a great buy. The G Shock GX56 has very similar features and comes in black, as well, so you can opt for that if you’re not too fond of this orange. 

The orange looks bothering to a certain extent