There Has Never Been a More Minimalist G-Shock Watch Than This One

Made in collaboration with Japanese brand Hender Scheme, this timepiece is specifically designed to showcase its materials.

Hender Scheme × G Shock DW 5900 Watch closeup

By Sean Tirman

Published May 22, 2025

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Updated May 22, 2025

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G-Shock is not a brand known for subtlety. Since its first launch in 1983, the watchmaking Casio sub-brand has hinged on big, brazen designs, often with vibrant color schemes.

However, in its latest collaboration, one of the brand’s most historic, iconic digital designs gets its most minimalist redesign ever, thanks to a Japanese brand known for its relatively toned-down premium leather goods.

For the right crowd, the Hender Scheme × G-Shock DW-5900 is poised to be a collector’s piece and future classic.

Hender Scheme × G Shock DW 5900 Watch front and back — Apart from the digital displays, the watch’s face is virtually featureless, allowing the materials to do the talking.

Drawing a blank

This Hender Scheme collaboration involves a few interesting tweaks to this iconic G-Shock watch. The most obvious is found front and center on the dial.

Apart from the quartet of digital displays and the barely contrasting light tan markers around the sub-dials, the watch’s face is virtually free of any detailing or flourishes. This design choice creates a stark, almost barren, minimalist contrast.

While these colors and styling are typical of Hender Scheme’s leather goods, they’re a brave new frontier for G-Shock — one that’s sure to be divisive among its fans.

That minimalism extends to the resin case (and rubber strap), where the color scheme is flipped. The case is light tan (what Hender Scheme calls “natural”), while the classic labeling around the bezel is white.

While these colors and styling are typical of Hender Scheme’s leather goods, they’re a brave new frontier for G-Shock — one that’s sure to be divisive among its fans.

That said, it does a good job of showcasing the watch’s materials, especially the included premium leather strap, while freeing it of otherwise distracting design elements.

Hidden inside the light tan resin case, you’ll still find all the expected hallmarks of a G-Shock watch.

Hender Scheme

Culture shock

Obviously, this G-Shock’s styling is wildly different from most of the brand’s other offerings. However, at its core, it’s still very much a G-Shock (a boon to brand fans).

That means, like other DW-5900 watches, it has an incredibly reliable digital quartz movement. It also offers 200m of water resistance, a world-timer function, a full-auto calendar, an EL backlight, integrated alarms, and a five-year battery.

The collaborative branding is also very subtle, found only in three locations: on the caseback, on the back of the included leather strap and hidden in the backlight.

While it might not be for everyone, there’s no denying the uniqueness and character of this especially minimalist G-Shock.