Japanese electronics giant Casio has teamed up with Ethereum shell developer Polygon Labs to launch its virtual G-SHOCK watch on Polygon’s protocols, starting with an NFT-based collection of community access passes.
Starting Sept. 23, users will be able to claim one of 15,000 NFT-based G-SHOCK creator passes, giving them access to a dedicated Discord channel for the project, a statement said. Casio customers who have already registered for a CASIO ID on the company’s membership site can participate in the pre-distribution phase from September 23 to 26. This will be followed by a public distribution phase on September 26-29.
The news comes two weeks after Casio filed a trademark application with the U.S. Patent and Trademark Office on Aug. 22, covering virtual clothing and watches, NFT-supported media, and virtual goods stores. Casio hopes to capitalize on the shock-resistant watch’s popularity; the company says it has shipped more than 100 million units of the watch since 1983.
Community co-creation
During the first community initiative, Casio invites users to submit design ideas for the G-SHOCK Maker Pass and vote on its appearance, with the winning design becoming a variant of the NFT Pass.
Casio said it chose Polygon to launch its web3 venture because it “enables lightning-fast transactions to make the process of creating and managing their NFTs seamless, easy and carbon neutral.”
“At its core, our virtual G-SHOCK is built to be accessible, innovative and inclusive, meaning the user experience should be frictionless and simple. This is why Polygon was the most natural and logical choice for us,” said Casio Senior General Manager of Timepieces Takahashi Oh. “The goal is for the company and users to work together and develop the G-SHOCK brand, which celebrated its 40th anniversary this year.”
The collection will be available to residents of the US, UK, Germany, Italy, Netherlands, Spain, Portugal, Austria, Japan, India, Singapore, Indonesia, Malaysia, Thailand, the Philippines and Vietnam, Casio said.
Casio joins other brands launching NFTs on Polygon
Casio joins other major brands such as DraftKings, Adidas, and Starbucks in launching Ethereum scaling solution initiatives. Sports betting DraftKings launched an NFT marketplace on Polygon in 2021, with the first drop featuring NFL star Tom Brady. It became a full validator for the network later that year.
In 2022, Adidas and Prada announced an NFT project on Polygon with user-generated content. Subsequently, in April this year, Starbucks also served a new NFT collection on the network.
“It is inspiring to see more and more global brands embrace decentralization by expanding their presence in the web3 world,” said Jordi Baylina, co-founder of Polygon Labs.
Weekly trading volumes of Polygon-based NFTs fell to their lowest level in a month last week amid a broad slump in activity in the NFT sector.