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G-SHOCK determined to rejoice its fortieth anniversary like a hip-hop star: with as a lot bling as potential.

Casio mentioned it wished to do one thing particular to remind customers that G-SHOCK — the sturdy, square-shaped watch that grew to become a shock icon — remains to be going sturdy, 4 a long time because it first launched. And what higher means than to take a watch recognized for its gritty utility, however make all of it gold!

And to actually make it a “Dream Undertaking” (the code title for Casio’s anniversary particular releases), designers employed AI to research your entire design historical past of G-SHOCK and generate a 3D mannequin that might function the muse for the completed timepiece.

Initially, firm executives believed the one-of-a-kind watch (dubbed the G-D001) would promote for between $70,000 and $140,000. However executives have been pleasantly stunned Sunday when one watch-loving bidder at New York Metropolis’s Philips Public sale Home claimed the one-of-a-kind timepiece for a whopping $400,050.

If that appears like a mere train in extravagance, Casio’s executives have been one step forward. A lot of the price ticket ($315,000) might be donated to The Nature Conservancy, with one other $85,050 going to the public sale home.

A lot of the income from the watch’s public sale will go on to The Nature Conservancy; (photograph/Casio)

G-SHOCK G-D001: AI Works With People

However the place does the AI are available, precisely?

Apparently, 16 designers devoted 2 years to creating the watch, in accordance with The New York Occasions. (Casio representatives couldn’t be reached for touch upon Tuesday.)

These human designers mixed their very own work with AI ideas, although the corporate didn’t specify what AI platform they used for this.

“For 40 years, G-Shock has gathered information on shock-resistance expertise,” Kikuo Ibe, the Casio engineer generally known as “the daddy of G-Shock,” advised The New York Occasions. “First, they let A.I. be taught in regards to the expertise, then they merged the A.I. and designers’ concepts, and that might make an authentic piece with no parallel on this planet.”

Based on G-SHOCK, human designers fed information from the 40-year improvement of the G-brand into an AI platform, which then generated a three-dimensional mannequin “optimized for elements together with structural energy, materials traits, and processing strategies for use.”

Sure, the watch case is simply as blingy because the watch itself; (photograph/Casio)

18-Karat Gold G-SHOCK

The G-D001, or Dream Undertaking #2, comes after the 2018 Dream Undertaking, which celebrated G-SHOCK’s thirty fifth anniversary. For that anniversary, the corporate created 35 specialty watches, which shortly offered out. This time, there’s simply the one watch, with a forty five.1mM spherical case, an analog dial, and 18-karat gold for the case, bezel, and band.

Sound garish? Perhaps, however it could in all probability pair properly with Pharrell Williams‘ $1-million Louis Vuitton purse — in each colour and the adverse press he acquired for carrying it.

Be taught extra about this one-of-a-kind watch on the G-SHOCK web site.