Welcome back to my column on specific G-Shocks. This week I’ve decided to focus on a very sturdy exploring model, the Gulfmaster. There’s a reason why it’s earned the moniker of MASTER, and you’ll get to find out why in the next few minutes. Excited yet? Here we go!

Knowing that this watch would be used by explorers, Casio knew they would have to make it tough enough to withstand any environment. Well, this watch definitely delivers. On top of the 200m water resistance and 100m shock resistance, it has a unique feature called Tough Movement. This is a godsend if you’re  in rough terrain or trip and jostle the watch. You see, when an analogue watch is hit, the arrows would most likely get knocked out of place. With ana-digi combos, that will mean your analogue and digital time would be different. Tough Movement gets around that issue by automatically putting the hands back to where they belong, so you’ll never have to worry about that issue!

To complement this, we have Tough Solar. Now, I have talked about this in my previous columns, but for those that are new (or have a bad memory), Tough Solar is a small range of solar panels fitted around the display. These panels are so powerful that even the smallest amount of light is enough to charge up the battery, giving you a practically unlimited supply charge, so unless things go catastrophically wrong, you won’t have to change your batteries.

One of the most impressive features is the “Smart Access”. This is kind of hard to explain but stick with me. Casio inserted a special crown switch, which allows you to switch to almost any function just by turning the crown. So you don’t have to keep tapping on the buttons to get to a compass, altimeter, stopwatch, etc. It’s impressive and really helpful!

Of course this wouldn’t be a review of the Gulfmaster without talking about why it is so good for explorers. Toughness aside, this has a triple sensor (which is actually four different sensors but for some reason Casio kept it as “triple sensor”. You have a digital compass with a bearing memory (so you can tell whether you’re still walking in the right direction). The thermometer helps you know how cold it is outside, so you know how many layers to put on. An Altimeter is there if you’re a mountain climber, as it can tell you how far up you’ve climbed. The barometer is the final piece of this triple sensor puzzle. If you’re up in a plane, this helps not only measure the pressure outside but will also give you an idea of what the weather will be like, helping you prepare for any turbulence.

To be honest, the only negative I’ve found with this watch is that it’s NOT for beginners. You need to know what you’re doing and why you’re getting this watch. But in all other respects this watch is an amazing piece of technology.

There are tons of other features, which would take at least a few more pages to discuss, so I’ll leave you here. If you’d like to see our full range of GWO watches, click HERE