G-Shock watches have been around close to four decades now, and the Casio sub-brand shows no sign of slowing down. Having blurred the lines between myth and reality when it comes to an indestructible watch, the G-Shock family has grown over the years to include models that cater to a very wide range of clientele.

This is where the G-Shock GBD-200 comes in – a robust model that does more than tell time. Sporting the classic square form factor, it fits comfortably around the wrist with a myriad strap options and colours to choose from.

The GBD-200 is powered by the 3506 module, which means you get the basic timekeeping functions without other bells and whistles such as solar power and atomic timekeeping.

The watch is resistant to shocks and carries a 20-bar water-resistant rating (good for up to 200m deep), with a mineral glass display and resin band – a formula that has served the company well for almost four decades.

Display and battery

The GBD-200 relies on a Memory-In-Pixels display that is a step up from the old-school LCD. While not everyone is a fan of negative displays, all information can be seen at a glance without squinting. It works great in the dark with backlight, as well as when you are under direct sunlight.

While it is not touted as a smartwatch, the GBD-200 can connect to your smartphone via Bluetooth, jiving to G-Shock’s Move app.

And unlike your regular smartwatch, there is no need for you to charge it every day or every other day – the GBD-200 has a lifespan of approximately two years on a single CR2032 battery. The lack of smartwatch features is a necessary evil for the sake of battery life.

For the fitness-oriented, the GBD-200 is capable of keeping track of the number of steps you take each day, neatly displaying an estimated number of calories burned, a step tracker, an interval timer, and lap timer.

GPS tracking and timekeeping

Being a standard Casio quartz watch, you have an accuracy of +/- 20 seconds a month, but this should not bother you since it is synchronised to your smartphone via Bluetooth, ensuring the time is always accurate.

That said, the alarm system could potentially leave users confused. You can only set up four alarms via the app or on the watch itself, without the convenience of setting a custom repeat schedule as you would on your smartphone.

The alarm can be set to on, off, or snooze, where you will have to go through numerous layers in the menu on the watch, so it makes a whole lot more sense to use the Move app.

There is no built-in timer function, which is a rather strange omission for a digital timepiece. Thankfully, a stopwatch is available, and you can use it as a reverse stopwatch if needed.

Step by step

Connectivity is a cinch to set up, taking mere moments to hook up to your smartphone. From here, all activity on the GBD-200 is synchronised.

The integrated accelerometer tracks your steps, though there seems to be a discrepancy in the number of steps taken and the distance covered when compared with a dedicated running app on the smartphone.

For example, a week’s worth of almost daily 5km runs on the Strava and Nike Run apps translated to an inflated figure of 6km per run on the Move app.

So, those who are seriously thinking about getting a running watch should look elsewhere, as the GBD-200 is primarily a timepiece that serves as a general guide and works best as a pedometer.

The watch is capable of notifying you with a beep and/or vibration whenever you receive a message, call, or notification on your smartphone, but you would most probably end up disabling this as the novelty wears thin quickly.

While it’s ideal for knowing that there are messages to attend to, there is no way to reply via the GBD-200. Emojis and emoticons are shown as a simple, pixelated square, leaving you clueless on what is actually sent.

Bottom line

Casio knows it would be folly to position the GBD-200 as a smartwatch simply because it is not one. What it primarily does, it does excellently: namely be a watch that is so solid, you will be using it for a long time despite the abuse it goes through.

Some might say this is a glorified pedometer, which it really is. However, you will marvel at the virtual indestructibility of the GBD-200, which makes it worth every sen.

The G-Shock GBD-200 retails at RM735. For more information, visit the Casio website here.

Edwin Kee dreamt of being a pro-gamer only to have circumstances mould him into a programmer in a past life. He has since moved on to write about consumer electronics and other topics. Check out his blog at manatau.com.