There's a phenomenon beneath the ice sheets of the polar seas. As the freezing sea ice forces out salt, it creates a super-cold, highly dense plume of hyper-saline brine that sinks to the ocean floor. Called a brinicle (a portmanteau of "brine icicle"), this hollow tube of ice freezes the warmer ambient seawater around it, and when it reaches the ocean bed, the freezing brine spreads across the floor. When the brine comes into contact with any slow-moving bottom dwellers, it kills them, and traps the suckers in ice.
That's where the brinicle gets that ominous "finger of death" nickname. We don't know if this natural extremity was what G-SHOCK had in mind when they chose the brinicle as an inspiration for their latest Frogman model; we do know that the brinicle was chosen for its "sharp, quiet, icy beauty".
As the latest addition to the MR-G line, the MRG-BF1000EB arrives in an anniversary year, when the MR-G turns 30. The bezel of the MRG-BF1000EB is cut from COBARION, an alloy roughly four times the hardness of pure titanium. Kazuhito Komatsu, the president of the Komatsu Cutting Factory, hand-cut the facets into COBARION. Komatsu made his name faceting pearls using diamond-cutting techniques. Called Hana Shinju, this discipline treats organic material with the precision usually reserved for gemstones. Komatsu was also the first Japanese artisan to take first prize at America's "Gemmy" awards for gem-cutting. Given his experience, Komatsu is the perfect person to spiral the surface that looks like an icicle caught in mid-formation; where a layer of scratch-resistant blue arc ion plating finishes the effect, so the surface catches the light the way seawater does before it turns solid.
Another feature is the two front screws on the bezel. These screws, normally functional, occasionally decorative, are set with a lab-grown blue sapphire cut with 57 facets. On the caseback, you'll see the Frogman's diving frog mascot next to "MR-G 30TH" and an individual serial number. Only 800 are produced.
Two band options come with every purchase: a Dura-Soft band engineered to resist discolouration and ageing, and a titanium bracelet for when the occasion calls for an evening of sophistication. The bands and the watch sit inside a case co-developed with Proteca, the Japanese luggage house, which makes for a pretty swanky presentation case.
A watch built to survive ocean depths; a watch's design that's inspired by one of the ocean's stranger executions; a watch's bezel that's cut by a master craftsman, the Frogman has always lived at that intersection of brute durability and obsessive finishing. Thirty years in, it's still finding new ways to maintain that rep.
The 30th Anniversary MRG-BF1000EB retails for SGD 10,888 and is only available for CASIO-ID members to purchase at selected G-SHOCK stores like the Shoppes at Marina Bay Sands, ION Orchard and JewelÂ
