Hotei Put The Guitarhythm Maze On A Metal Square For Year 45

HOTEI 45th CELEBRATION G-SHOCK GUITARHYTHM MODEL. Fourth collab. GM-5600 metal bezel. Autumn 2026 pre-order. Samples on the STAY WILD TOUR table from 5 September.

Tomoyasu Hotei posted 号外 on 3 September 2026. Fourth official G-SHOCK connection. The object’s formal name is HOTEI 45th CELEBRATION G-SHOCK GUITARHYTHM MODEL. HOTEI.COM logged the same line that day: special collide model four, autumn pre-order sale decided. Five years after the 40th-anniversary piece. The artist is Tomoyasu Hotei, former guitarist of BOØWY, solo from the 1988 album GUITARHYTHM, composer of “Battle Without Honor or Humanity.” English listings that scramble the name into a phonetic mash are wrong. The watch is a 45th-year stamp for that career, not a one-color fashion drop.

Base platform: GM-5600, the square 5600 case wearing a metal bezel. Band and face carry the GUITARHYTHM lattice. Black ground, grey pattern rising through the graphics. GUITARHYTHM mark on the case back. Dedicated box printed full-pattern, the same packaging logic as the 35th and 40th models. Sample units are scheduled for merchandise booths on HOTEI the LIVE 2026 “45th Celebration GIGS” STAY WILD TOUR. That tour opens 5 and 6 September at Takasaki Arts Theatre in Gunma and then runs 21 cities and 27 shows.

Hotei’s own caption is the brief. Another favorite item finished in a special year. A watch records time, so he wanted to record the “now” of the 45th anniversary. Fans answered in the same register: they had been waiting, they wanted it, some said they would skip nights out to afford it. Limited Hotei G-SHOCK pieces already have a secondary-market history. Used and unused 35th and 40th models still trade above original retail on Japanese auction and mall listings. Demand for a metal-bezel square with the full lattice is not a mystery.

STAY WILD TOUR
╭✨チケット完売✨╮
9/6(日)
高崎芸術劇場
10/10(土)
ロームシアター京都
11/5(木)
南海浪切ホール
╰━━━━━━━━╯
🎟️好評発売中！
9/13(日)札幌
9/19(土)石川
9/23(水・祝)仙台
9/26(土)新潟

▶️ https://t.co/5OuqH3wAB3
チケットが残りわずかな公演も！#HOTEI #布袋寅泰 pic.twitter.com/COxJpZSeMq

— HOTEI STAFF (@HOTEI_STAFF) September 3, 2026

stir

The circulating product still is specific. Square sil in black. Brushed metal bezel. Inverted digital display. Geometric lattice printed across the module window. HOTEI / GUITARHYTHM at the top of the face. That graphic is the same maze Hotei has used on guitars, stage clothes, album art, and earlier G-SHOCK collabs since the late 1980s. Seeing it on a watch is seeing a guitar finish reduced to a wrist.

Casio and Japanese day-of coverage describe the construction the same way. Metal-bezel GM-5600. Pattern on band and face. Black as the ground, grey as the pattern. Mark on the back. Box in full lattice. Closest production cousin, until a unique code posts: GM-5600UB-1 / GM-5600UB-1JF, the black ion-plated stainless-steel-bezel version with inverted LCD. GM-5600 construction keeps resin inside the case and hard stainless as a bezel cover, so the watch stays relatively light (about 73 g on the stock UB-1) while reading as jewelry-grade from arm’s length. Black IP on the bezel keeps the piece in Hotei’s monotone instead of flashing raw steel.

Expected stock-platform specs, unless Casio publishes a unique module later: shock-resistant square, roughly 49.6 × 43.2 × 12.9 mm. Mineral glass. 200-meter water resistance. Resin band, typical fit 145 to 215 mm. Inverted LCD on the UB-1 family. LED Super Illuminator with afterglow. 1/100-second stopwatch, 24-hour countdown, multi-alarm, hourly signal, flash alert. Full auto-calendar to 2099. Accuracy about ±15 seconds per month. Battery life about five years on a CR2016 on the current UB-1. No official statement yet says the collaboration changes the movement. Early reports treat the project as an exterior and packaging special. Price and exact module code remain unannounced.

That last gap matters for anyone writing a cart number into a note. The last two official Japan prices give a floor, not a ceiling. 2017 resin square: ¥17,000 excluding tax. 2021 resin octagon: ¥22,000 including tax. The current non-collab GM-5600UB-1JF already retails around ¥29,700 including tax in Japan because of the steel bezel. A signed, packaged, tour-tied version should sit at or above that line. Anyone budgeting should treat ¥30,000-plus as the realistic starting guess, not the 2021 number. Secondary-market 40th pieces still appear well above original ticket. That is the aftermarket tax on a sold-out artist watch.

Distribution pattern from 2021 is the best map until HOTEI.COM posts a form. Fan-club and HOTEI STORE pre-order first. Possible store-only extra. The 40th gave a two-pick bonus on store-exclusive orders. Later Casio shop and official online allocation. Very limited international trickle, if any. Casio has not confirmed a worldwide SKU. The 40th model did get export codes (GA-2100HT-1A / 1ADR) in parts of Asia and Europe, with a Casio US page later listing $200 and sold out. Assume Japan-first until the information page says otherwise.

four

A short lineage places the new square.

First collaboration used the three-eye DW-6900, the sil many people still call the classic G. It established that Hotei’s mark belonged on a tool watch, not only on a guitar or a jacket.

Second: HOTEI 35th ANNIVERSARY, DW-5600HT-1JR, 2017. Base: original square DW-5600. Monochrome GUITARHYTHM on the face and strap. GUITARHYTHM mark on the EL backlight and case back. Black IP on buckle and side buttons. Pre-sale 3 September 2016 at Beat Crazy Store and Hotei.com, also at venues on the 7th Beat Maximum Emotion Tour, ship February 2017. G-SHOCK Japan later set a March 2017 release at ¥17,000 excluding tax. This is the spiritual parent of the 2026 watch: same square family, same total-pattern approach.

A Casio G-Shock watch with the Eric Haze collaboration face, resting on blue denim fabric.

Third: HOTEI 40th ANNIVERSARY, GA-2100HT-1AJR, 2021. Base: the then-new octagon GA-2100. Pattern on bezel and band, white indexes, branded case back, black-IP buckle, full-pattern box. Japan price ¥22,000 including tax. Pre-order ran through HOTEI STORE and the beat crazy fan club. General Casio retail followed in December 2021. That five-year gap is what made the 2026 号外 land so hard.

Fourth: HOTEI 45th CELEBRATION GUITARHYTHM MODEL, 2026. Base: metal-bezel GM-5600. Grey-on-black pattern. Autumn pre-order. Tour-booth samples. Details still to come on official HOTEI information pages.

Read across the four pieces and a method appears. Casio does not reprint the same watch with a new logo. Each anniversary takes the G-SHOCK shape that defined that moment (6900, original 5600, CasiOak 2100, metal-covered 5600) and lets the GUITARHYTHM graphic occupy it. The 45th model is the first time the collaboration has put steel on the square. That is the design argument of 2026: origin form, grown-up material. Between the two squares sits the 40th octagon, so the series now contains origin, trend, and origin upgraded.

A Casio G-Shock watch with the Eric Haze collaboration face and patterned strap, lying on blue denim fabric.

The pattern itself is older than the partner. It is a graphic system of interlocking rectangles, part circuit, part city plan, part fretboard geometry, that Hotei put on signature Fernandes and later instruments. A watch face is that language at wearable scale. Previous Hotei G-SHOCKs sold the box as part of the object. Collectors keep those boxes. The fourth model follows the same logic. Case back mark plus full-print carton is how the series tells you the object is dated, not generic.

tour

The watch does not float alone. 2026 is framed as Hotei’s Celebration year. 31 January and 1 February 2026: HOTEI 45th CELEBRATION GIGS at Keio Arena TOKYO, two nights titled EVE and BIRTHDAY. April 2025 already delivered GUITARHYTHM Ⅷ, the eighth album in the series that began in 1988. 2026 touring: HOTEI the LIVE 2026 “45th Celebration GIGS” STAY WILD TOUR, 21 cities, 27 shows, samples at venue merch. Official tour page dates the start to 5 September 2026 in Takasaki, then Sapporo, Kanazawa, and onward. Other 45th merch already in market includes a GUITARHYTHM pin-badge gashapon line from late April and Photomatic booth frames in 18 cities from 1 July.

Putting a sample watch on a tour table is a physical preview. People who will not read a spec sheet will pick it up between T-shirts and picks, feel the metal bezel, and decide before the online cart opens. Hotei onstage remains the best argument for the graphic. The maze is not a logo invented for Casio. It is the visual system of a player who has spent decades turning guitar-plus-rhythm into a private language. A watch that carries that language is consistent with how he already dresses a guitar body.

What is still unknown is ordinary for a teaser posted as 号外. Final reference number, likely an HT-suffixed GM-5600 variant, not confirmed. Japan retail price and tax treatment. Production quantity. Exact pre-order hour and which URL goes live first. Whether the module stays stock GM-5600 or gains a custom LCD segment, backlight color, or engraved serial. Export plan. In 2021 the September fan-club note also preceded full Casio retail copy. The useful action now is to watch jp.hotei.com information, HOTEI.COM STORE, and beat crazy, and to treat tour booths as the first chance to see the object in metal rather than in a compressed still.

extend

G-SHOCK collaborations are crowded. Many are colorways. The Hotei series has lasted because both sides share a form language: high contrast, graphic repetition, and a refusal to look fragile. A black IP square with a grey maze is not trying to become a dress watch. It is trying to be the same kind of hard, readable object Hotei has carried as a guitar finish for almost forty years.

For buyers the decision is simpler than the lore. If you collect Hotei objects, this is the 45th-year hardware. If you collect 5600s, this is the rare case where the square wears an artist system instead of a camouflage or a city print. If you only want a tough black digital, the standard GM-5600UB-1 already exists for less money and without the hunt. The collaboration tax buys the pattern, the case-back mark, the box, and the dated link to a tour year.

fin

Autumn 2026 is when that tax comes due. Until the official shop page goes live, the evidence is the 3 September copy on jp.hotei.com, the product still of a black metal square printed with GUITARHYTHM, and a musician saying he wanted a machine that would keep the present tense of year 45. That is enough to know what the watch is for. The rest, price, queue, and whether Casio repeats the pick bonus, will arrive the same way the news did: as another extra edition.