As an avid surfer, I?ve always wondered what a ?surf watch? would look like. Could a rotating bezel somehow tell me the direction of the swell or maybe the dial could give me some information about the tide level" Seems like there?s still some work to be done from an analog side of things, so I won?t hold my breath. But lucky for us, last year G-Shock released the GBX100 series, a rugged digital watch built with the surfer in mind, equipped with features including tide graph, moon phase and sunrise-sunset time displays.

More recently, G-Shock has announced the launch of the GBX100KI-1, the second iteration of the GBX model in collaboration with pro surfer Kanoa Igarashi. Igarashi is a rising rock star in the surfing world. His résumé speaks for itself, with countless contest wins and a handful of records as the youngest to ever break them. But most notably, Igarashi won the silver medal in surfing?s debut as a sport in the 2020 Tokyo Olympic games. There are many parallels between G-Shock, the GBX100 series and Igarashi himself; from their roots tracing back to their homeland of Japan to surfing itself, this collaboration is a perfect match.
The GBX-100KI maintains the base specifications as its predecessor. The resin case measures 50.9 mm wide, 46 mm spanning from lug to lug and stands tall at 14.7 mm; this is definitely a watch that will have to stay strapped over a wetsuit and will do so securely and comfortably with the urethane resin band and the doubl...