G-Shock’s GBM-2100A-2B is what happens when a G-Shock decides to dress for the occasion

I've had a complicated relationship with dress watches. They look great until they don't—until you're reaching across a table and the case catches the edge, or you're caught in unexpected rain and suddenly you're doing math in your head about water resistance ratings. The GBM-2100A-2B doesn't ask you to do that math. It's a G-Shock. You already know it's fine.

What surprised me is how good it looks being fine.

Casio added three new colourways to the GBM-2100 this year—burgundy, champagne gold, and this blue. Three watches, same bones, different moods. The blue one is the one I'd have picked anyway, and after weeks with it on my wrist, I have no regrets about that instinct.

An octagonal bezel with something to say

The 2100 series earned its "CasiOak" nickname because the octagonal bezel bears more than a passing resemblance to a certain Swiss sports watch that costs considerably more. It's a comparison Casio never courts officially, but the design community made it years ago and it stuck. On the GBM-2100A-2B, that bezel is stainless steel—forged, cut, polished—with a circular hairline finish on the flat face and a mirror polish running down the sides. It catches light the way metal should.

Underneath it, the blue dial is achieved through vapor deposition, a process that gives it a depth and shimmer that flat colour just can't replicate. In direct sunlight it leans iridescent. Indoors it settles into a cooler, more composed tone. Silver indexes and hands sit on top with clean contrast, and a horizontal grid pattern runs subtly across the face—the kind of detail you notice on week two, not day one.

The whole case sits at 49.3 × 44.4 × 11.9mm and weighs 72g. The GM-B2100AD-2A had been on my wrist not too long before this—full stainless steel, metal bracelet, beautiful in a way that lets you know it knows it. Also 165g of it. The AD-2A reminds you it's there by lunchtime. This one doesn't bother.

In defence of the resin band

People will want to swap this band out. I understand the impulse—there's something visually satisfying about a metal bracelet on a watch with a stainless bezel. But I'd argue against it, at least for daily wear. The bio-based resin band is light, comfortable, and completely unbothered by the kind of life a G-Shock is supposed to lead. It doesn't pick up surface marks. It doesn't need to be wiped down. It just gets on with it.

I wore this through a stretch of genuinely humid days—the kind where metal bracelets become uncomfortable by midday—and never once thought about the band. That's the best thing you can say about a watch strap.

The part where it's also kind of smart

Bluetooth connects to the Casio Watches app, which handles automatic time syncing, world time for 38 cities, five alarms, a phone finder, and even hand position adjustments from your phone. The first pairing takes some patience—I'd keep the manual nearby. After that, the watch largely disappears into the background of your day, which is exactly what it should do.

Tough Solar means the battery charges off any light source, natural or otherwise. I stopped thinking about it entirely by day three. Casio rates it at seven months of normal operation without any light exposure after a full charge. In power-saving mode, 18 months. There's a small battery indicator on the dial if you ever get curious.

One thing I haven't made peace with, across every (two to count by now) 2100 variant I've spent time with, is the digital display at 4 o'clock. It's small—genuinely small—and reading the date in low light requires more intention than it should. It's a trade-off baked into the format, and I suspect it always will be. Just worth knowing.

The case for spending Rs 19,995 on a G-Shock

Not everyone needs to spend Rs 19,995 on a G-Shock. Casio makes excellent watches for a fraction of that. But the GBM-2100A-2B isn't asking you to pay for specs alone—it's asking you to pay for a watch that handles a boardroom and a weekend with equal composure, that has a dial interesting enough to attract questions, and that will still be running without complaint in five years while you've replaced two or three other things in your life.

That's a reasonable ask. Most days, it's an easy yes.