G-Shocks are extremely popular watches and rightly so, they perform to an extremely high level, look good and are full of functions. As far as watches go, they are one of the best, but do they hold their value?
The short answer is No. However, not all models are equal and you may get lucky. Some rarer models might go up in price over time, but if you are looking to buy a bunch of G-Shocks with the hope of them funding you retirement, you will be very disappointed.
G-Shocks Are Affordable
The vast majority of G-Shocks’ range is super affordable. On average they are around £100.
Of course there are a few limited editions or extra special models that go far beyond this, but overall they are very affordable. This means that even if they do hold their value, you are not really holding on to much to start with.
If you have a 10k watch and it goes up or down in price by 10%, that’s £1000. You are going to notice that. If a G-Shock fluctuates by this amount you are not really even going to notice the difference.
If you have some sort of plan to buy G-Shocks and hold on to them for profit, you will probably find you don’t make any money, the increase or decrease over time is going to be pretty negligible.
It Is Easy To Buy A G-Shocks
It is very easy to get a G-Shock. While there may be a high demand for them, there is a high supply to match this. If people can easily get something, the price will not go up.
If we look at Patek Philippe Nautilus we will quickly see what happens when there is a high demand and a low supply. Patek only make about 60,000 watches a year and the amount of Nautilus’ made are actually only a part of this.
They then discontinued the watch, making the supply even smaller. This has taken the Nautilus from a second hand price of around 35K to 230k over the last couple of years. That is just insane.
When we look at G-Shock, you will see the supply and demand are a little different.
In an article on Casio.com they say that they have sold their 100th million watch in 2017. If we do some rough maths we will see how different that is to Patek.
G-Shocks where introduced in 1983, so by 2017 that is 100 million sales in 34 years. If all things where equal then this roughly means they sold 2.9 million watches a year. When you compare this to the 60k a year that Patek are making you can really start to see why one is more accessible than the other and you can start to see why the average G-Shock will not go up in value. They are amazing, but they are not that rare!
They Are Made From Cheap Materials
G-Shocks are mostly made from plastic resins with simple electronics. While they are designed in a pretty cool way so that they are extra tough, when you take them all apart they are made from pretty cheap and simple materials.
There is nothing wrong with this, but it does mean that there is no real value within the watch. A lot of luxury watches will contain precious metals. These will always hold their value, if not go up over time due to the fact they are rare, which is exactly why they are called “precious”.
Unfortunately resin isn’t exactly precious, so there is no real value within the watch. You also need to remember that a lot of these materials can stat to become weak and fragile and easily damaged over time, whereas a precious metal is not really going to degrade in this same way.
This all adds up to mean that G-Shocks will not really hold their value in the same way a luxury watch will, since their components didn’t really start with any value.
Buying Second Hand G-Shocks
I would suggest that that the vast majority of people buy a G-Shock to wear it. They are built to take anything and this is exactly why people want one. You put them on your wrist and just forget about it, you know it’s going to be totally fine. This generally means they are not treated in the same way as a luxury watch.
While they are extremely robust, they are not indestructible. If you are buying one second hand, they are not going to be in as pristine condition as they day it was bought. They are inevitably going to pick up some scruffs and some dirt along the way.
This of course means the second hand market is going to be full of watches that are going to be in the “used” condition rather than “brand new” or “mint” condition.
This is always going to affect their price and make them sell for less. I would say that usually they sell at about half the retail price if they are sold second hand.
Of course if you have a watch in mint condition it will probably be able to fetch more, but when you factor in the fact they are so easily available and cheap, it can be hard to sell something second hand at a higher price when you can often get it brand new for a very similar price.
Limited Edition G-Shocks
Rare models or limited editions are probably going to be the exception to this rule.
G-Shocks do bring out a lot of limited edition watches and some of them are going to be more popular long term than others. It will depend on the watch so it really isn’t as simple as buying a limited addition and hope it goes up in value.
There is also no guarantee that if they do go up in value, that it will be a significant amount.
However, if you try and buy the original G-Shock from 1983 it is on sale for around £1300-1500. This wasn’t really limited addition, but I guess no one realised how popular these watches would be 40 years later.
Most people will have worn those models to death not realising how historically important they might be, so being able to still find one in good condition is rare, hence its high price now.
Conclusion
As you can see, apart from a few exceptions, G-Shocks will generally not hold their value. They are relatively cheap watches, with cheap components and while that doesn’t take away from their greatness it does mean they are not sought after. When you factor his in with the fact that they are very accessible and easy to get hold of, there is no strong demand for them, which means the price does not shoot up.
G-Shocks are excellent and you really should get one, just don’t expect to use it as your retirement fund. Just wear it and enjoy it.
(You can read more about – Is The Casio G-Shock Square The Only Watch You Ever Need?)
Ian is the main writer at Horology Dream and is a lover all things watch related.
He has been a watch collector for over a decade and brings his knowledge and experience to this site to help you on your own watch collecting journey.
You can connect with him on Social media and talk anything watches or read more about him on his Author Page.
