For many activities, watches need to be able to withstand things that should break them. It could be DIY, Sports, playing with your kids, anything! Over time, watches have been designed to survive whatever gets thrown at them. Some watches take resilience to the extreme. These are the unbreakable watches.

The Casio G-Shock

The Casio G-Shock was invented in the early 1980s and it is one of the cheapest and most popular unbreakable watches for sale today. Historically, most watch brands did not try and make watches with more than minor protections against shocks, water or dust. A watch maker at Casio dropped his father’s pocket watch, and decided to make a watch that would not break when you dropped it. It took the development team hundreds of attempts to solve the problem. They eventually achieved their aim by suspending the movement within rubber cushioning materials in the centre of a metal watch case. The inspiration came after seeing a rubber-ball bounce in a playground.

A Casio G-Shock with high levels of shock protection. Safe to wear even while doing DIY!Casio now make a very large range of different G-shock watches, many of which can be used in extreme environments. They are all designed to be used outdoors, and there are even watches that have been designed with the United States Military for use by their Special Forces units.

G-Shocks come with a long list of standard features: 100M+ water resistance, shock resistance, alarm, a full calendar and a stopwatch. Some G-Shocks will also have a function to tell the time in different parts of the world simultaneously (a world timer), a thermometer and a compass. Some are solar powered, meaning that you do not need to replace the battery. They make a wide range, including Dive Watches, and often make Limited Editions and Collaborations. There are many G-Shock Collectors in The Watch Collectors' Club!

The Rolex Deepsea

Another watch that is marketed as unbreakable is the Rolex Deepsea. Rolex first released a dive watch in 1953, the famous Submariner, and it was designed to be tough, waterproof, and long-lasting. It is one of the most popular Rolex models today, and is one of the most popular stainless-steel sports watches of any brand. The Deepsea followed the SeaDweller in 1967 and launched in 2008 as Rolex wanted to make their watches even tougher and unbreakable down to depths of 4000m.

The Submariner was one of the first dive-watches. It was released to capture the demand that was being created by other Rolex models,(such as the Explorer and Oyster) for watches that could go anywhere. The subsequent SeaDweller and Deepsea models had thicker and stronger cases and crystals.

Like the G-Shock, the Submariner has been used by military professionals all over the world. For example, the British Ministry of Defence modified the Submariner for use by its divers. These “Mil-Subs” are now some of the most collectable watches for Rolex enthusiasts. The Deepsea was developed with famous film director James Cameron, who is an expert in deep ocean diving.

Richard Mille

Richard Mille watches are often the watch of choice for some of the world's most remarkable athletes. And that is for two reasons: they are very light, and unbreakable. Richard Mille’s watches are inspired by Formula 1 motor racing, and the study of shock-resistance. His watches use the most technologically advanced materials from aeronautics, F1 and medical surgery to ensure that they can withstand almost anything you can throw at them. Indeed, in the early days, Richard Mille himself used to throw them against walls to prove their toughness!

Many of his watches have a tourbillon movement (where part of the movement rotates within a cage to counter-act the effect of gravity on a movement) – these are traditionally very fragile movements. Not so with Richard Mille. The parts are suspended by braided steel cables in the centre of the watch, a bit like a fly caught in a spider's web. This makes the watch very shock-resistant, and some models can withstand up to 5000g of G-Force. That is more than 100 times what the human body can withstand.

Two athletes in particular are known for wearing their own models of Richard Mille watches whilst competing. For athletes who swing their arms and hit something very fast, the watch has to be very light but also able to withstand high speeds and the shock of the arm being stopped very quickly. Rafa Nadal wears one whilst playing in tennis tournaments (on his hitting arm),and Bubba Watson wears one whilst playing golf. Their watches experience the same forces as if they were continuously picked up and thrown against a wall for hours on end.

The technology and design required to make these watches is incredibly sophisticated. It’s easy to take the resilience of a watch for granted, but these three companies produce these watches to reassure their customers that they can wear them safely, no matter what activity they are pursuing. At The Watch Collectors' Club, we love to hear how you use your toughest watches, what you wear them for and what they've survived - come and tell us at our next event!