My first G-SHOCK

The Story

It’s not just a watch; it’s a tool — a companion embedded with memories and stories.

Before we begin, I want to thank the entire team at Leather & Lume for everything they’re doing and for giving me the opportunity to share my story about my first G-Shock.

Hi, my name is Tony! This is the story of my first G-Shock, the GW-2310FB. But before we dive into the watch, we need to start with some background.

Ever since I was a kid, I always wanted to join the military. One of my favorite games was playing “Army,” picking up sticks that looked like rifles, running through creeks, crawling in the mud — the whole nine yards. From a very young age, I knew I was going to join the military, either the Army or the Marines.

When I was around 12 or 13, I started swimming laps because I wanted to stop being bullied and become more physically fit. I fell in love with the grind: the challenge, the hard work, and the discipline. I was there every day after school, rain or shine, getting a workout in.

When I turned 16, my stepdad, who served in the Navy, advised me against the Marines. He said, “You might as well join the Navy because you’ll end up on a ship like the rest of us.” No thanks. Being on a ship in the middle of the ocean wasn’t for me. I wanted to be in the fight on the front line, not on the sidelines.

Then life happened.

Then life happened. I started driving a friend to school after she wrecked her car; she lived just one cornfield away. We became close friends and eventually started dating. We had a lot in common: a love for the outdoors, a shared desire to travel the world, and a mutual goal of joining the military. She was set on the Air Force, and I was still focused on joining the Army to become a Green Beret. We thought it would be a summer fling, but we were wrong.

I fell in love with quality gear and wanted the core essentials to be the best I could afford at the time. Growing up, my mom always repeated something my papaw used to say: “Sometimes you get what you pay for.” That stuck with me. I was training hard, prepping physically for Special Forces, and I wanted gear that would last: quality running shoes, swim trunks, fins, goggles, a flashlight, a knife, and a solid watch.

For my 17th birthday, I had my eyes on one thing: a G-Shock. It had to meet military regulations, be durable, and be solar-powered because I didn’t want the battery to die on me. I showed my girlfriend the watch I wanted — the GW-2310FB — and sure enough, when my birthday came, she surprised me with it. That watch quickly became one of the most important pieces of gear I owned. In the military, if you’re not 15 minutes early, you’re late, and this G-Shock had my back through all the running, swimming, and training.

A few months later, it became official: she left for Active Duty in the Air Force. Turns out, we liked each other way more than we originally thought. She told me, “If we want to get stationed together, you’ll have to join the Air Force too.” I gave it serious thought. My only condition was that I still had to be in Special Forces. So I set my sights on becoming a Pararescue-man (PJ).

I talked to an Air Force recruiter and started training harder than ever, running miles and swimming over a mile every single day, including underwater swims. Those were my favorite.

My girlfriend graduated Basic Training, and if you want motivation, go to a BMT graduation. Just knowing I’d be standing on that same parade ground fired me up!

She completed Tech School, and we celebrated her 18th birthday. At 17, I asked her to marry me. She said yes. We tied the knot a few months later and got stationed at Wright-Patterson AFB, her first duty station. I finished my senior year of high school in Ohio, went to MEPS with a PJ contract, swore in, and then got called back due to a medical issue. It turns out I had hearing loss.

That one diagnosis disqualified me from all Special Operations roles, including PJ. I was devastated and madder than a hornet. I had trained for years, sacrificed so much, and in an instant, the job I dreamed of was gone. My recruiter told me, “After everything you’ve done, you deserve to pick any job from the list. It’s yours.” So I asked myself what the hardest, most fun thing I could do was. The answer was firefighting.

I completed BMT and Tech School and got stationed at Eielson AFB in North Pole, Alaska — in my opinion, the best state in the US, especially for someone who loves the outdoors. Hiking, camping, kayaking, four-wheeling, fishing, snowboarding, snowshoeing, and mountaineering — it had everything.

Being stationed at such a remote base in Arctic conditions, I had the opportunity to go through SERE training (Survival, Evasion, Resistance, and Escape). Mine was the fun one, focused on Arctic Survival and Rescue. When you’re operating in the Alaskan wilderness, a rescue mission can easily turn into a survival situation for you and your crew, so having more knowledge and training on the Arctic side was crucial.

Later, my wife changed career fields, which required her to go through the full SERE course — the real one. She asked me if she could take my G-Shock with her. I said absolutely: “It’ll take care of you. And if you ever feel alone, remember that the stars you’re looking at are the same ones I see. And when the course gets hard and you can’t see the stars, look at the watch. Know that I’m thinking about you and that everything is temporary.”

She completed SERE and all the other training. This watch has done everything I’ve ever asked of it and more.

It’s been with me through everything: timing laps in the pool, tracking workouts and runs, counting pulses on hundreds of patients, both living and deceased. It has endured structure fires, car accidents, in-flight emergencies, water rescues, water recoveries, SERE twice, a deployment, birthdays, weddings, and funerals. It’s been through it all — the good times and the bad, the easy times and the hard.

It’s not just a watch. It’s a tool, a loyal companion, a piece of gear embedded with memories and stories.

Wear your gear. Use it. Take care of it. Create memories with it. Not every watch is a tool, but you get the point. Wear what you love and enjoy it. Your taste will change, and that’s fine too. And remember, sometimes you get what you pay for.

— Tony H.