The G-SHOCK G-LIDE, GBX100 is a digital watch with Mobile Link capability designed specifically for surfers and water sports enthusiasts.
If you ask just about anyone what kind of watch is safe to wear at the beach, in the ocean and even deep underwater, chances are you'll get "dive watch" as the answer nearly every time. It's basically a catchall for waterproof watches, despite the fact that most people do literally anything water-related more often than they go scuba diving — there's no "swim watch" or "sail watch" or "surf watch" category. That is, until now.
The G-SHOCK G-LIDE GBX100 is a digital watch with Mobile Link capability designed specifically for surfers and water sports enthusiasts. It's built on the brand's heritage of Absolute Toughness — with shock and water resistance down to 200M — as well as a battery of impressive features like tidal data, moon phases, sunrise and sunset times and more. The G-LIDE GBX100 also connects to the G-SHOCK Move App via Bluetooth low-energy connectivity, allowing wearers to gather and analyze detailed fitness-data as well as customize various display and data options in one streamlined, easy-to-use interface.
Buy Now: $160
While it's not a smartwatch in the typical sense, the G-LIDE GBX100 certainly has plenty of "smart" features, like the ability to notify the wearer of incoming calls, texts or emails; calendar notifications; a unique phone finder and in-depth fitness tracking capabilities, thanks to the watch's built-in accelerometer. But the G-LIDE GBX100 is meant first and foremost for surfers and water sports enthusiasts — it was designed specifically around their needs and uses, rather than attempting to be all things to all people.
For surfers and water sports enthusiasts, knowing the tides and tidal movement is essential to their activities, as is an awareness of sunrise and sunset times. Fitness data such as steps, calories burned, speed, distance, pace and lap time — while perhaps not essential — is certainly helpful to have, especially for active wearers.
With the G-LIDE GBX100, all of these data points are shared between the G-SHOCK Move App and the watch via Bluetooth low-energy connectivity. And best of all, due to the watch's ability to store data, the watch retains full functionality even while "untethered" (i.e. without a smartphone nearby).
Ultimately, if you spend a lot of time swimming, surfing or doing really any kind of water activity, yet you don't want a clunky dive watch weighing down your wrist all the time, the G-LIDE GBX100 is making some serious waves in the watch industry with its unique functionality, durable design and sleek aesthetic.