I’m going to take a flyer and bet that you are not wearing a watch right now. Even my father—who recently left me a voicemail that was just two minutes of beeping sounds while he attempted to send me a text message—has abandoned the watch in favor of his cell phone. In an era when absolutely everyone is carrying another, more useful object that tells him what time it is, the wristwatch is something we simply do not need.
Thereby does the watch join the necktie, the car stereo and the second pair of shoes. Our lives are chock full of stuff we don’t need, and fashion—itself probably the least necessary of all human endeavors, after Dancing With the Stars—is literally about style over substance.
Not to say that the watch industry hasn’t tried to make its products more substantial. Consider the G-Shock X Surfrider, available for a mere $130 from Casio. As its name suggests, it is aimed at surfers, and it is perhaps the first non-wax product to actually offer them something useful.
The G-Shock X GRX5600SRF-3 watch with tide graph and solar battery recharge, $130 from G-Shock.
The G-Shock X comes with a Tide Graph function, which tracks the tides at over 100 pre-programmed locations. It also features moon age and phase data. This kind of information is tremendously valuable if you’re a surfer, particularly if you’ve ever tried to surf somewhere besides your home beach. Best of all, it offers these functions plus timekeeping in the one context when you absolutely cannot have your phone with you.
Again, though, we enter the realm of things that the average reader may not find useful. Even if you live near an ocean, you are probably not tracking the tides so you can fit in a ride between work and dinner. You are most likely tracking the clock on your computer so you can fit in Facebook between coffee and lunch.
Consider, then, that G-Shock’s surfer watch also comes with a tiny solar panel, which virtually eliminates the need to change its battery. If that’s not enough environmental responsibility for you, the G-Shock X is also produced in partnership with the Surfrider Foundation, an international organization that works to protect the world’s beaches. A portion of G-Shock’s proceeds go to Surfrider, so you can consider your $130 a donation.
.jpg?1283294011)
One of several exciting situations in which you can wear your new surfing watch.
Environmental consciousness is probably not going to motivate your watch purchase any more than practicality, though. You want a watch that looks cool, and it is here that the G-Shock X’s genius lies. In an age where most wristwatches serve as bracelets for men, Casio has produced a yellow and green digital watch that looks exactly like a digital watch produced by Casio.
It’s a great move, since it captures what is perhaps the only genuine function of the contemporary wristwatch: throwback piece. There’s something undeniably eighties about the G-Shock X, which means you can wear it as a statement and not an affectation. The bright colors make it appropriate for jeans and a t-shirt in a way that a classical metal watch is not, and the kitschy design means you can display it in more formal situations as a sign of personality.
Do you need it? Unless you are Laird Hamilton, probably not, but we technically don’t need to dye our shirts different colors, either. The G-Shock X is a watch for the post-watch age. It’s somewhere between a clock and jewelry, between function and form, and in this way it tells us exactly what time it is.
Dan Brooks writes about politics, consumer culture and lying at Combat!
