Timex Iron Man or Casio G Shock?

I am, and always have been a Timex fan. I see more Timex watches on people's wrists than I see G-Shocks... That tells me that Timex is doing something right, even if the watch community is obsessing over G-Shocks. 

I suspect that the watch community latched onto G-Shocks, as the "cool" or "in" brand in part because "normies" tend to wear Timex. 

Edit: here is my Ironman

Edit part deux: 

I actually think the Timex Expedition is a more practical everyday digital watch, and is as "real world" tough as a G-Shock or Ironman. It's thinner, which means it hits things less often when I'm wearing it. 

Yes, I did notice that some of the digital Expedition models were just as tough as the Iron Man Triathlon. I just picked the Iron Man as it came out just a few years after the G Shock. 😀 You are correct about the popularity of Timex. I see Weekenders on people's wrists all the time, far more than either of the watches in this post. 😂

I tend to see a lot of Ironman versions on people's wrists at work. They are well known to be reliable, and durable. 

they are generally cheap enough, get both 😜

Modern Timex as a successful international affordable watch brand is based on the Iron Man. Timex was able to leverage the popularity of the Iron Man after its introduction in the early 80's into what we see today.  If they don't catch lightning in a bottle there is no Weekender, Expedition or Marlin reissue. Both of your watches have important historical pedigrees.

Yes, the release date of the Iron Man is why I selected it instead of a similar Expedition. Wasn't it released about three years after the first G Shock? I believe the G Shock was released in 1983 and the Iron Man was released in 1986, and I am pretty sure this question and debate goes back to 1986 and continues on to this day. In fact, here is a link to a recent article comparing the two: https://survivalmag.net/casio-g-shock-vs-timex-ironman/.

Timex has improved both the WR and the crystal of the Triathlon, but I would like to see Timex re-release some solar powered variants, and I would like to see a solar version of the Triathlon, even though their solar technology lags well behind that of Casio and remains inferior. I do agree with the author of the article that the only fair point of comparison is the basic quartz G Shock, as it would not even stack up to the GWM5610 or the GW6900.

The two G Shocks I think are fair to compare the Triathlon to are the DW5600 or the DW6900. Personally, I prefer the square G Shocks, but the features of these two G Shocks are pretty much the same. When it comes to a preference between the DW5600 and the Triathlon, I honestly cannot decide which I think is the better watch.

Within the first paragraph I knew exactly where the article was going... G-Shock fan prefers G-Shock. 

I lost all respect for the authors opinions when I reached the point where the author says the G-Shock has more "tactical" looking numbers on the dial... That tells me the author's G-Shock is more about cosplay than practicality. 

Yeah, that is really what it seems to come down to. No one can give an objective evaluation placing one over the other. It all seems to be a matter of opinion. Perhaps I should take a closer look at them myself to see if I can't figure out which one I think is better.

Now I could do the usual comparison of features and functionality, design, and wearability, and create a list or grid comparing the various features: the G Shock has a smaller profile…yada yada yada…the Iron Man has a more readable display…blah blah blah…the Indiglo backlight is superior to the electro-luminescent backlight…homina homina homina...the Casio has 5 alarms…on and on and on…the Timex has 99 split time laps…etc. etc. etc., but that would be really boring, and wouldn’t answer the real question. There are differences between these two watches in terms of functionality, but they are small differences of degree, not large differences of kind. The real question is which of these watches is actually tougher. I want to do a comparison of survivability.

I will design a series of tests to compare the ruggedness and durability of these two watches. The first and most obvious test is the impact test. But I do not want to do a simple drop onto a hard surface. No, this test is dropping a cinder block onto each the watches from a height of 3 meters. The second test will be a low temperature test, so I will throw both of the watches in the freezer for 24 hours. This test is not very extreme, but it is the best I could come up with during the summer. The third test will be to see how well the watches hold up to dirt and grime. I will strap the watches to the soles of my wife’s gardening boots and let her wear them for an hour. I will test the water resistance by running them through the washing machine, and finally test the heat resistance and dry them at the same time using the clothes dryer. I will document the results and post them in a review when I am done.😉

The problem with most comparisons comes in when they move away from objective differences. When the difference between two watches is "feel", or how "tactical" they are, it's just an opinion. 

People have strong opinions one way or the other about most things, and that's fine, but people should also be explicit about their bias. I am biased toward Timex, I have yet to buy a G-Shock because I haven never found one that I thought was worth the cost compared against my Timex watches. 

Let me know how the testing goes... 😜

I certainly will. I plan to post my results in the form of a review once I have completed all my tests. 😂

During my early watch collecting hey days. Casio and Timex were my go two watches. I have few Casios and about two Timex. Casio upper hand for sure.

In terms of beater watches I'd go for timex over g shock just because of the price. I'd rather get a cheap timex and beat it up at work and buy another one once it breaks.

I used to have that exact same timex expedition digital watch as a beater! Lasted 7 years until the crystal got so scratched up i could barely read it. This is my beater that replaced it

You can actually find a G Shock DW5600 for less than $40 on Amazon.

Oh wow I didn't know that. Maybe I'll consider getting one as a beater watch when my current one breaks

I've got a DW5600 and a Iron Man Triathlon coming that I am going to use for some extreme testing. If the DW5600 survives, you are welcome to it free of charge. 😉

Oh wow thank you! I'd really appreciate that

Well, don't thank me yet. Let's see how well the watches survive my comparison challenges. 🤣