News · Casio

Casio builds the MRG-D5000 around blue sapphire and a different kind of protection

Twenty sapphire MR-G watches put the structure beneath G-Shock’s impact resistance on show, with a Japanese list price of ¥11 million.

Hen & Mills Editorial · 4 min read · 2 October 2026

• Casio announces twenty MRG-D5000 Blue Sapphire watches, bringing a new sapphire-compatible shock-resistant structure to the MR-G collection that began thirty years ago.
• The 43.2mm-wide titanium-and-sapphire watch uses a blue sapphire bezel and screwless assembly around the crystal components, with a separately secured screw-lock caseback.
• The Japanese list price is ¥11,000,000 including tax, with sales from 1 December 2026; the US page lists October and offers purchase-opportunity registration.

A blue sapphire bezel on a G-Shock is an appealing contradiction. The material brings clarity and hard, bright edges to a design whose entire reputation rests on surviving impacts, so making the watch work is more interesting than simply making it blue. Casio's 1 October announcement explains the structure behind it, and confirms that this is a production watch rather than a display exercise. Just twenty will be made worldwide, marking a striking turn in the MR-G story that began in 1996. Meet the Casio G-Shock MR-G MRG-D5000 Blue Sapphire.

Casio says this is the first G-Shock to achieve shock-resistant construction using blue sapphire components. The bezel is entirely blue sapphire, while the case and bezel specification also lists titanium, with DLC treatment on the titanium portions. That distinction matters: this is not a claim that every part of the watch has become transparent crystal. The brand's photographs show the blue material doing the visual work around a familiar digital display, with dark metal details separating the buttons and the case's bright edges. It still looks unmistakably like a square G-Shock.

Sapphire without the screw holes

The central engineering change is the Multi-Guard Structure developed for the sapphire parts. Casio divides the case and bezel into multiple components and assembles those parts without the screws that could cause the crystal to crack. The brand says it analysed how an impact transmits force into the sapphire, then designed the protection around that material. I like that the structure has a specific problem to solve. The coloured crystal is immediately attractive, but understanding why it can belong on this particular kind of watch is what makes the release worth a closer look.

That screwless construction does not mean there are no screws anywhere. Turn the watch over and the back is a screw-lock design, also incorporating blue sapphire, with an individual serial number for each of the twenty pieces. The separation between the assembly method around the sapphire and the fastening of the back is useful to keep clear. A case can have carefully protected crystal components and still use a conventional means of closing the rear. Here, the back also gives the tiny production run a permanent, visible identity rather than leaving it to the packaging.

A familiar shape with considerable depth

The case measures 43.2mm wide, 16.5mm thick and 51.1mm long, and the complete watch weighs 121g. Those figures give the transparent-looking material a more substantial context: this is not a wafer-thin digital watch whose sapphire is purely a decorative cover. Casio lists 200-metre water resistance and antireflective sapphire glass over the display. I would want to try it on before deciding how that thickness sits against the wrist, especially because photographs of transparent edges can make a case's outline seem less imposing than its dimensions suggest.

The strap is Dura Soft rubber with a one-touch, three-fold clasp, and the stated wrist-fit range is 145 to 215mm. In the photographs, its dark colour keeps the emphasis on the blue case, while the brick pattern gives it a relationship with the display's surrounding design. I think rubber is the right choice here. It retains some of the familiar G-Shock character and gives all that bright material a quieter neighbour, rather than competing with it through another large, reflective surface around the wrist.

The digital functions still earn their place

The MRG-D5000 has Multi Band 6 radio-controlled time adjustment, world time across 38 time zones, a stopwatch reading hundredths of a second, and a countdown timer with a 24-hour range. Five daily alarms, including one snooze alarm, sit alongside a white LED backlight and a full automatic calendar. There is a pleasing lack of ceremony in that list. However unusual its construction becomes, the watch still gives its owner the straightforward timing functions that make a digital display useful, instead of reducing the electronics to a supporting role behind the material story.

Power comes from solar charging, with Casio naming the module's Gallium Tough Solar system in its announcement and emphasising its durability under intense light. The product specifications give an eleven-month operating period after charging under normal use without further light, or twenty-two months in total darkness with power saving engaged. Those are conditional figures, not a promise that every owner's experience will be identical. They do show that the watch's energy supply has received the same practical attention as the case, even when this edition's rarity makes ordinary ownership an unlikely prospect for most of us.

Casio G-Shock MR-G MRG-D5000 Blue Sapphire pricing and availability

The Japanese recommended retail price is ¥11,000,000 including tax. Casio's Japanese announcement gives a 1 December 2026 sale date and specifies twenty watches worldwide, including one for the domestic market. The international product page lists December 2026, while the US page lists October 2026 and offers registration for an opportunity to buy. The watch comes on its Dura Soft rubber strap with a folding clasp, and each of the twenty pieces carries its own serial number on the screw-lock back.

I find this more compelling as a piece of G-Shock engineering than as an object to aspire to buying. Twenty examples will put it beyond most collectors regardless of price, but the sapphire forces a useful question: how do you preserve the identity of an impact-resistant watch when its most conspicuous material demands a different approach? Casio has answered through the structure, not just the colour. That is the part of this release I would like to see influence the wider collection, long after these twenty have found their owners.