Casio Aims Its Analog G-SHOCK 2500 at New Buyers

Casio announced the G-SHOCK GMC-2500 and GAC-2500 on October 22, nine analog watches that put the 1983 square on a dial with hands and no digital screen. Japan gets them on November 7, and U.S. shops get them in November, from $145 for resin to $350 for a steel bracelet.

The homage is the easy headline. The brief inside Casio is a sales mix problem. Analog still accounts for only about 20% of G-SHOCK sales, and this pair is built to pull people who never wore one.

Analog Models Are Still About 20% of G-SHOCK Sales

Tomohiro Yuasa, who plans products in Casio’s watch business, said digital watches and analog-digital combinations make up 70 to 80% of G-SHOCK sales. He put analog models at about 20 percent, even though analog still dominates the wider watch market.

That gap, he said, is a group G-SHOCK has not really reached. The 2500 series started as a way to put G-SHOCK’s drop-proof brief on a simple analog watch those buyers might actually wear.

Casio America says G-SHOCK has sold more than 150 million watches worldwide. If analog is only about 20% of that machine, the brand’s volume still sits on digital modules and hybrid faces. A full analog square is a raid on a different counter.

Yuasa was blunt about the design bind. Lean too far toward a normal analog watch and the case stops reading as a G-SHOCK. Stay too close to the old digital brick and the analog buyer walks past it.

The $145 Resin Watch and the $350 Bracelet

Casio split that bet across nine models and three builds. The GAC-2500 is all resin. The GMC-2500 adds a metal bezel. The GMC-2500D puts a steel bracelet on the same analog module.

U.S. list prices land in three bands. Resin is $145. Metal-bezel watches with resin bands are $280, or $300 for the gold GMC-2500G-9A. The steel-bracelet pair is $350.

Japan’s tax-in list runs ¥20,900 for every GAC-2500, ¥37,400 for the silver GMC-2500 resin-band watches, ¥39,600 for the gold GMC-2500G-9A, and ¥49,500 for each GMC-2500D. The same design language now covers a fashion analog price and a full-metal one.

THE NINE 2500 MODELS

Casio’s spec sheets list the resin GAC-2500 at 46.7 by 44.5 by 12.7 mm and 47 grams. The metal-bezel GMC-2500 is 46.7 by 43.8 by 12.9 mm and 68 grams on a resin band. The bracelet GMC-2500D-1A specifications keep that 12.9 mm thickness and jump to 138 grams.

That is still a G-SHOCK footprint, not a thin dress watch. The $145 resin SKUs are the ones that can sit next to fashion analog without asking a new buyer to pay metal money. The $350 bracelet is the one existing G-SHOCK owners will argue over, because it is the analog square they can wear with a shirt.

Select models use bio-based resin, according to Casio America. All nine share 200-meter water resistance, LED light, and a 1-second stopwatch.

What the Three-Cell Date Window Shows

Casio calls the new trick Multi-Mission Date. A three-cell window at 3 o’clock does the work a digital screen would have done, without putting LCD on the dial.

Yuasa said a generic analog module could not handle that window, so Casio built a new movement for this series. Set the year, month, and day once, and the watch runs a full auto calendar through 2099. No monthly date correction by hand.

THREE JOBS IN THE DATE WINDOW

• Daily date: The three cells show the date in normal wear, which is the analog job buyers already expect.
• Stopwatch minutes: When the chrono runs, the same window switches to elapsed minutes instead of adding a fourth hand.
• Setting info: During adjustments, the cells show the data you are changing, including the year, month, and day used by the auto calendar.

The layout is lopsided on purpose, with the date stacked at 3 and a small seconds register at 9. Casio already proved an off-center analog square could sell in 2019 with the GA-2100, which kept a digital window. The 2500 series drops that window and asks the date disc to carry extra jobs.

If the analog outsider Yuasa wants is going to live with a G-SHOCK, this is the compromise. Hands for time. A disc for the functions that used to need pixels.

Magnets Hold the Hands When the Watch Gets Hit

Analog G-SHOCK has a physical problem digital never had. A hard knock can bend a hand or knock it off its indices.

Casio’s answer is a Magnetic Holding Structure. The hour and minute hands are not fixed to their shafts in the usual way. Magnets hold them, so a blow can dump energy instead of twisting the hand.

That is the quiet piece of toughness on a watch that otherwise looks like a fashion octagon. The original DW-5000C hid its survival gear in a digital module and a hollow case. This one has to protect thin metal pointers and still claim the G-SHOCK name.

Button guards are still cut into the case, the same idea as the 1983 square. The bezel top is sloped. Casio says the curves are there to throw light and shadow as the wrist turns, which is analog-watch talk more than tool-watch talk.

Softer Shoulders on the 1983 Octagon

Casio’s own notice frames the 2500 series as analog watches inheriting the original design of the DW-5000C. The octagon remains. The corners are rounder. The lugs flare in a way that, when photos leaked in September, made the watch read as a steel sports piece rather than a digital brick.

That silhouette did the selling before Casio named Multi-Mission Date. By the time the Tokyo notice went out on October 22, the case had already been living as a leaked object, judged on shoulders and thickness, not on the disc at 3 o’clock.

FROM THE 1983 SQUARE TO THE 2500 SERIES

1. 1983: G-SHOCK debuts with the digital DW-5000C, built so a drop would not kill the watch.
2. 2019: The GA-2100 analog-digital square shows that a fashion octagon can pull people who skipped digital G-SHOCKs.
3. September 2026: Nine analog 2500 listings appear on Casio’s Japan site and the photos spread on the flared lugs.
4. October 22, 2026: Casio announces the GMC-2500 and GAC-2500 as full analog takes on the first G-SHOCK.
5. November 7, 2026: Japan sales start across all nine models.

The 2019 square still had digits. This one does not. That is the whole product argument in one change. Casio is repeating a fashion-square play, then stripping the last digital crutch so the analog buyer never has to explain an LCD.

Existing G-SHOCK owners will still want the metal bracelet. The resin GAC-2500 in yellow, white, green, or black is the SKU that can land on a wrist that never wanted a shock watch in the first place.

Parking the Seconds Hand Stretches Battery Life

The small seconds hand at 9 o’clock can be stopped and started at will. Casio calls it a sleep function. Leave the hand parked, and the movement draws less power.

Casio America said that stop can extend battery life up to five years. Japanese spec sheets still quote about two years for standard use. Those are not the same test. Two years is the figure if the hand keeps moving. Five years is the figure if you put it to sleep.

The louder gap is solar. The 2500 series still runs on a replaceable cell. Analog buyers who live with automatic watches, or with Casio’s own solar G-SHOCKs, are being asked to accept a two-year service rhythm unless they park the seconds hand and treat the watch as a two-hander.

That trade is coherent with Yuasa’s target. A solar or Bluetooth analog module would have raised cost and complexity on the $145 resin watch. A coin cell keeps the entry SKU in fashion-analog territory. It also leaves the first complaint already visible: make the next one solar.

November 7 on Japanese Shelves

Casio’s Japan arm posted the lineup on October 22 and pointed to a November 7 shop date. The same post is the cleanest primary look at the nine watches together.

【リリース情報】11/7発売！初号機の機能美をアナログ時計で体現した“G-SHOCK”『GMC-2500／GAC-2500』⌚✨

☝️機能に応じた内容を日窓に表示する「マルチミッションデイト」
☝️日付修正の手間を省く、フルオートカレンダーを実現
☝️9時位置の秒針を任意停止し電池寿命を延長！秒針スリープ機能
詳細→ pic.twitter.com/LLqbJ5mYZd

— CASIO　カシオ計算機株式会社 ⌚🎹 (@CASIOJapan) October 22, 2026

The November 7 Japan launch prices are the tax-in figures in the table above. Casio America said the U.S. 2500 series arrives in November at select shops, on gshock.casio.com, and at the G-SHOCK Soho store, at $145, $280 to $300, and $350. Casio has not posted Indian prices.

The 2500 series reflects our clients’ growing appreciation for timepieces that are purposeful, innovative, and progressive while staying true to our brand’s renowned and most celebrated signature design

Shermeen Greenmun, Vice President of Timepiece, Casio America

Greenmun is talking to clients who already like the square. Yuasa is talking to people who have never chosen G-SHOCK. Both briefs share one product. The resin GAC-2500 at $145 is how the second group gets in. The GMC-2500D at $350 is how the first group is supposed to stay.

Japanese shelves take the full analog square on November 7, and the analog majority Yuasa named will meet it first as a ¥20,900 resin watch.