Casio G-Shock MudMaster GWG-1000

OK provided it does not rain – Purchased the watch in July and within 6 months had condensation under the watch face despite not being exposed to anything worse than rain. Worst customer service ever. Submitted under warranty expecting a replacement watch and instead was told to wait three (3) months whilst they investigated. Do not buy a Casio unless you are prepared to write it off. Their warranty is not worth a cent.

CASIO MudMaster GWG-1000 is the best of breed but missing BT – My other g-shock master watch I have had my old G-Shock a GravityMaster GW-A1100 for 7 years now. Still love it after all these years and I wear it everyday. It still brings a smile when I look at its beautiful face. Whilst its satin finish has slowly turned shiny and there are a couple of nicks on the plastic bezel, there is no scratches on the sapphire crystal glass and it essentially looks new apart from the wear-and-tear aforementioned. Regarding the nicks on the bezel, this is precisely what the plastic bezel is for. Must say I am not that gentle to it. But, I have always had a new bezel and strap on standby ready to swap out when the time comes! Whilst after market steel bumper bars can be added, I am pretty sure it would scratch the buttons.

Feeling like this is a GravityMaster review? Well, to understand why I bought the MudMaster GWG-1000, this background information helps. Find the GravityMaster review by me if you want to read more about it. One more thing, when I was shopping for GravityMaster, I didn't get the GravityMaster GW-A1000 despite it has a spherical mineral glass and it is slight easier to read given its larger hands and cheaper. The GW-A1100 is just so much more refined and sophisticated with hands mimicking aeroplane dials and sapphire crystal glass. MudMaster GWG-1000 has a similar look to the GW-A1000, albeit with aspherical glass, but much better sapphire crystal glass, the next toughest crystal next to diamond. It is not the latest model but I bought it anyway. Here is why:

New MudMaster and GravityMaster release In March 2019, CASIO announced the new GravityMaster GWR-B1000; and in July the same year, the new MudMaster GG-B100. Both are bluetooth enabled watches with phone app. This is fantastic because it means time sync with smart phone is finally here, rather than depending on Multi-band 6 - CASIO radio towers that is useless to me, because where I live - Australia - there are no CASIO towers. Not that I had to adjust time much at all through the years, but knowing time is always accurate is fundamental.

With the new breed of MudMaster and GravityMaster, CASIO is changing its direction in a bid to stay modern and relevant. Bluetooth enablement as mentioned is one, size and weight are coming down too. Some would say the size of the watch face should be relative to your wrist. It should never cover the entire width of your wrist. So you might not agree with my choice. Personally I absolutely love big G-Shock watches, even though it can sometimes give me trouble with dress shirt sleeves.

Old MudMaster GWG-1000 is 59.5x56.1x18mm vs 55.4x53.1x19.3mm of the new GG-B100. Old GravityMaster GW-A1100 is 53.8x48.4x17.3 mm vs 50.1x46.4x16.9mm of the new GWR-B1000.

If you look at these numbers, size has not come down remarkably. However...

New GravityMaster is not for me However, with GravityMaster, the rugged manly g-shock look has been replaced with traditional round bezel with big textured metal screw lock crown. Crown is good but it defeated the reason why I like this watch because the "bumpers" are missing. This crown is going to get marks and mark things. The carbon fibre bezel is so busy it looks too blingy, like a fashion accessory, too distracting. Some have reported the carbon fiber bezel is too thin in some places so it is weak and may crack if you try to remove the bezel. There is LED light and the date is not sunken beneath the framed window anymore making it easier to read. Awesome. But priced at USD800 it is quite a bit more expensive than its predecessor. I didn't even pay half of that when I bought my GravityMaster GW-A1100.

On the plus side, this new GravityMaster GWR-B1000 has kept all the premium features and screams premium whichever way you look at it. It is still Tough Solar, sapphire crystal glass, multi-motored design, fully analog dial face (no LCD), analog stopwatch with flyback. It even has LED light on top of Neobrite. And it is Bluetooth enabled for smart phone time sync.

New MudMaster is not a premium product Not so with the new MudMaster GG-B100. Tough Solar is gone, strap has disappointingly been replaced with the cheaper thinner strap without metal keeper. The metal keeper has always been a mark of premium g-shocks. Like GWR-1000 it has the blingy carbon fibre which doesn't extend to the strap like GravityMaster does. The crown is gone! Replaced by a button not that it improves usability. Sapphire is replaced by mineral glass. Tough Solar is gone so it is battery (CR2025) powered with claimed 2-years battery life (depends on usage). Plastic back instead of etched stainless steel back. It has one new sensor - step count - hence it is quad sensor (altimeter, compass, barometer and thermometer plus pedometer). Meh, all my pedometers had been free promotion items, they don't worth much at all.

Essentially every single premium feature is gone. For God sake, the markings on the face are just markings, they do nothing. Thank goodness at least its listed price has come down to USD350. Way cheaper than its predecessor GWG-1000. There are loads of G-Shocks like this. As far as I am concerned, it doesn’t deserve the Mud Master badge.

MudMaster GWG-1000 trumps Enough said about the GG-B100. Lets talk about GWG-1000 you came here for. One of the things I never liked about the MudMaster is the reversed LCD display. I love a true analog face of my GravityMaster GW-A1100. It is so satisfying to see moving hands! With the LCD display, some really awesome features are moved down there like stopwatch. There is no flyback with GWG-1000. Letters are made of basic dots, very crude. Fortunately at least the LCD on the MudMaster is purposeful. And despite it's reversed LCD, it is easy to read because it is big. The hands move away quickly and momentarily if they happen to be covering it. This is where having multiple motors really helps. Very neat! With the new MudMaster GG-B100, it takes a good few seconds GG-B100 to do the same, and thats a few seconds too many. Watching the minute hand spinning to get the hour hand out of the way is cringe worthy and drastically diminishes its practicality. I have never had to wait to see information such as date. Now I have to wait up to 5s or more?!

With GWG-1000, all the premium features are there - sapphire crystal, Tough Solar, screw lock crown, premium strap with metal keeper, satin plastic bezel with protruding bumpers protecting the crown and light button, engraved stainless steel back. It even comes with a LED light despite being solar powered. With the world cities removed from the new version, it makes me appreciate the world cities on the bezel of this watch so much more! All metal buttons which is even better than my GravityMaster GW-A1100. But I really came to the party because of the LED light!

Barometer has really grown on me. Having a local weather forecast on your wrist is awesome! The barometer graph is very effective. Now having LCD over analog hand makes sense! I am sold! This MudMaster GWG-1000 even has a battery gauge. Whilst my trusty GravityMaster GW-A1100 never died on me, it is so nice to be able to see a battery meter on the MudMaster GWG-1000, even just a L/M/H reading only. So satisfying to see the battery level is high!

Changing straps Like my GravityMaster, I already have a new bezel on standby should I need to replace it. Much better still, there are aftermarket straps compatible with the MudMaster GWG-1000. Getting a pair of connectors, such as the JaysAndKays GWG1000 Metal Adapters Kit, and you can put on 24mm Zulu or Nato strap and turn into an instant fashionista. Problem solved for those who don't like the cold of the metal back on winter days, when you put on the watch. With the zulu or nato strap, you have the nylon strap between the stainless steel back and your skin.

Changing watch bands and colour of the markings on the watch face is how CASIO makes many model variants. Kid you not, MudMaster with camouflage strap can fetch a few hundreds dollars more than the standard version. With zulu and nato strap, there are many designs available at a small fraction of the original watch band price. I have camouflage strap in grey, brown and green and I am still wondering if I should get a blue one as well. All of them cost USD10 each. There is also 007 aka Nato strap that is stripped black-grey or black-green-red design amongst many others, most of them for a couple of dollars each! I have a plain green one, just like the standard strap that came with the MudMaster GWG-1000-1A3 that is green. It is beautiful.

I still prefer to be able to sync time with my phone. Maybe in time I will get a Rangeman GPS GPR-B1000-1B which has a fully digital face, or whatever its successor will be when I am in the market for one. I am a desk-diver so feature like activity log isn't important to me. Thank God it is still solar powered and CASIO supplies a charger for those keen GPS user who drains the battery quickly. I like the fonts but I think it should have a colour screen. It is 2020!

Conclusion Thanks to the new version of MudMaster and GravityMaster, I decided to get the GWG-1000 and it is my new favourite G-Shock.