A Bezel Cut From Sapphire, And Only Twenty Of Them

MRG-D5000. Blue sapphire, no screws in the stone. ¥11,000,000. 1 December 2026. Twenty watches. One lottery seat in Japan.

Casio dated the release 1 October 2026. The watch is the G-SHOCK MR-G MRG-D5000. Sale day 1 December 2026. Price ¥11,000,000 including tax. Production 20 in the world. One of the twenty is assigned in Japan by lottery. The bezel is blue sapphire crystal across the front, assembled without the screws that usually clamp a G-Shock bezel to its case. A second piece of the same stone sits in the screw-lock case back, and the serial is engraved there. Casio’s name for the build is Multi-Guard Structure. The release calls it the first G-SHOCK to carry a shock-resistant structure in blue sapphire.

The same note lists two other watches that use the stone in smaller doses. MRG-B5000SA is ¥880,000 including tax, on sale 5 December, 500 pieces, with two-carat facet-cut blue sapphires at the top and bottom of the case, an alloy bezel, and blue arc ion plating on case and bezel. GMW-B5000SB is ¥110,000 including tax, on sale 7 November, with blue sapphires set at four points on the front of a full-metal bezel. Those are the watches a person can actually queue for. The D5000 is the one where the bezel itself is the stone.

Signal. What happened: Casio priced and dated the MRG-D5000, a 20-piece MR-G with a full blue sapphire bezel. Exact product: MRG-D5000, Multi-Guard Structure, serial on the case back. When and where: 1 December 2026. One piece in Japan by lottery. Nineteen elsewhere. Price: ¥11,000,000 tax included. A US listing has been reported at $80,000. Source: Casio Japan rel, 1 October 2026. Why it matters: MR-G marks 30 years in 2026, and this is the first time the line has put sapphire in the impact path instead of only over the digits.

stir

G-Shock began in 1983. Kikuo Ibe’s brief was a watch that survived a drop, after he broke one. The first squares, the DW-5000 and then the DW-5600, put a module inside a urethane case floating on a resin bezel. Shock went into the resin. The module did not see it. That idea is still the brand. Everything since has been a material laid over it: metal, carbon, Bluetooth, a mid-rate sensor, a limited colour.

MR-G arrived in 1996 as the metal top of the same idea. Cases cut in Yamagata. Later alloys Casio named, Cobarion among them, chosen because they work-harden. Clad bezels. DAT55G cases. A price that left the DW-5600 in another aisle. Thirty years from 1996 is 2026. An anniversary square could have been a recoloured module and a new buckle. Casio used the year for a material the brand had treated as a window.

The D5000 still reads as a 5000. PROTECTION is cut on the upper bezel. G-SHOCK sits under the glass. MR-G is printed on the module. A blue brick texture fills the ground behind the digits. The buttons are the usual four: adjust, mode, split, light. The shape is the origin shape. The change is what the bezel is made of, and how it is held on.

why

Sapphire is hard. It is also brittle. A steel bezel can be screwed down because steel yields a little and the screw spreads the load. Sapphire does not yield. A screw into a sapphire bezel, or a screw clamping a sapphire bezel the way a resin bezel is clamped, is a starting point for a crack. Casio’s release says the case and the bezel are split into multiple parts and assembled without those screws. Impact force into the stone was analysed, then the structure built to take that force. That is the whole Multi-Guard claim. Strength and the look of the stone, in the company’s words, on the same bezel.

The case back keeps a screw lock, which is a different job. It is not the impress face. Blue sapphire is set into it. The engraving on Casio’s product still reads DREAM PROJECT across the top, CASIO under that, SHOCK RESIST in the shield, MRG-D5000 on the right, MADE IN JAPAN along the bottom, WATER RESISTANT 20BAR on the left, and No. 00/20 at the top of the ring. The 00 is the template. Each of the twenty gets a number.

Reported dimensions are 51.1 × 43.2 × 16.5 mm. Weight 121 g on a Dura Soft rubber strap. The clasp is described as a new one-touch three-fold. Water resistance 200 m, which matches the 20 bar on the back. Power is Tough Solar, Gallium Tough Solar in one account of the release, with a reserve described in spec coverage as about 11 months in the dark and about 22 in power saving. Titanium parts carry a diamond-like carbon coat, which is how a sapphire-fronted watch stays at 121 grams. Five daily alarms, an automatic calendar, a white LED. The module is not the story. The bezel is.

flow

The 1 October note is a set, not a single watch. Reading only the 11 million yen line misses the way Casio priced the idea.

The GMW-B5000SB comes first on the calendar, 7 November, at ¥110,000 including tax. Full metal. Four blue sapphires set into the front of the bezel, not a bezel made of sapphire. No world limit is printed in the release table for this one. It is the watch that puts the colour in a shop window.

The MRG-B5000SA lands 5 December, four days after the D5000, at ¥880,000 including tax, 500 pieces. Two-carat facet-cut stones at the top and bottom of the case. Alloy bezel. Blue arc ion plating on case and bezel. Still an MR-G. Still not a sapphire bezel. Five hundred is a limited run a retailer can actually receive. Twenty is not.

A buyer who wants the blue and the MR-G name has the B5000SA. A buyer who wants four stones and a full-metal 5000 has the GMW. The D5000 is the version where the bezel is the material, the screws are gone, and the edition is small enough that Japan gets one.

 

View this post on Instagram

 

A post shared by G-SHOCK (@gshock_us)

show

Casio’s rel does not name the other doors. It says 20 worldwide, one in Japan, lot. A US product page has been reported at $80,000, with a register-to-buy step rather than an add-to-cart. That dollar figure is not ¥11,000,000 run through one exchange rate. They are two tickets for the same twenty watches. Packaging is described as specific to the run. The serial on the back is the count.

extend

The lottery rules themselves are not in the 1 October note. How to enter, when the draw closes, whether the Japanese piece is sold through Casio’s own shop or a dealer: not printed there.

fin

What is printed is enough to place the watch. MR-G’s 30th year. First sapphire shock structure on a G-Shock. Bezel cut from the stone. Case and bezel split so the screws never touch it. Serial on a sapphire case back. 121 grams. 200 metres. 1 December 2026. Twenty. One of them in Japan.