Celebrating 30 Years of Seasonal Pair Collection,the story behind the special collaboration with VERDY.
Girls Don’t Cry, the project by graphic artist VERDY, has teamed up with G-SHOCK and BABY-G for a new collaboration.
The story goes back to 2019, when VERDY designed a special Girls Don’t Cry × BABY-G model for a Valentine’s Day campaign marking BABY-G’s 25th anniversary. Created exclusively for friends and family, the watch was never made available to the public. Now, seven years later, that original idea has evolved into a matching G-SHOCK and BABY-G set, released for the first time as part of the Seasonal Pair Collection.
To celebrate the release, we sat down with VERDY to talk about his memories of G-SHOCK, the thinking behind the design, and the role time plays in his creative process.
G-SHOCK: A Japanese-Born Streetwear Icon
ーー What does G-SHOCK mean to you personally?
VERDY: G-SHOCK is a watch I’ve worn and loved for years. It was the first watch I ever owned, and I’ve also given one to my wife. These days, we collaborate on projects, and G-SHOCK supports what I do in all kinds of ways. I feel like our partnership has grown stronger and stronger over time.
ーーWhat do you find most appealing about G-SHOCK?
VERDY: Of course, I love how functional it is—you can wear it pretty much anywhere without having to worry about it. But it also means a lot to me that G-SHOCK is a Japanese brand. Lately, I’ve been thinking more and more about what it means for me, as a Japanese artist, to work with a Japanese watch brand.
And when you think of watches in street culture, you think of G-SHOCK. I think that’s true almost anywhere in the world. What makes that even more special to me is that it all started in Japan. That’s something I’ve always been really proud of.
ーーWhat do you remember about your first G-SHOCK?
VERDY: The first one I actually owned was a BABY-G that I bought when I was in fifth or sixth grade. I’d seen G-SHOCK in magazines and went to a store to check them out, but the one I thought looked the coolest was actually a BABY-G.
Later on, I started wearing G-SHOCK as well. One memory that really stands out is when Bunta from TOTALFAT gave me a navy G-SHOCK around ten years ago. It meant a lot to me that he gave it to me, and I loved the way it looked, so it quickly became something I wore every day. That’s why, when Wasted Youth collaborated with G-SHOCK in 2022, I chose navy for the colorway.
The Idea of Giving Behind Girls Don’t Cry and the Matching Watches
ーーThis collaboration builds on the model you created for friends and family in 2019, this time bringing G-SHOCK and BABY-G together as a matching set available to the public for the first time. How did that come about?
VERDY: I’d wanted to release it for a long time. Back in 2019, the project wasn’t originally intended for sale—it was something I designed as part of a Valentine’s Day campaign. I was really happy with how it turned out and hoped we might be able to release it, but that wasn’t how the project had been set up, so it never happened.
Since then, we’ve continued working together in different ways. G-SHOCK has supported events I’ve organized, we’ve collaborated on other projects, and we’ve even created G-SHOCK watches specifically as gifts. Through all of that, I’d always had this idea in the back of my mind that I wanted to make a G-SHOCK with Girls Don’t Cry as well. Then this opportunity came along. Since the 2019 model was a BABY-G, the idea was to build on that and create a matching G-SHOCK to go with it.
ーーWas there a particular reason you wanted to make the watches as a matching set?
VERDY: A big part of it was simply that it was something I’d want myself. A set of two also makes a great gift, and I liked the idea of presenting them together as a pair. Girls Don’t Cry has always been rooted in the idea of “giving,” so it felt natural to create something that people could share with someone important to them.
ーーSince the idea of “giving” is already at the heart of Girls Don’t Cry, this collaboration feels like a particularly natural fit.
VERDY: Exactly. Girls Don’t Cry actually started as something I created as a gift for my wife. So whenever I work on a collaboration, one of the basic questions is whether it’s something she would want and whether it feels true to the project.
BABY-G also holds a special place for me because I’d given one to my wife before. So when I was approached by BABY-G in 2019, it felt natural to work on the project as Girls Don’t Cry. This time, I wanted the watches themselves to carry that same idea of giving. I designed the pair with a simple idea in mind: one for me and one for my wife.
Give Them as a Gift—or Wear Them Your Way
ーーWhat details were you most particular about when designing the watches?
VERDY: The Girls Don’t Cry logo is repeated across the bands in an all-over pattern, and there’s a small heart on the band loop. Angels have always been part of the visual language of Girls Don’t Cry, so for this collaboration I created new artwork for the case backs. The BABY-G features an angel, while the G-SHOCK has a devil, creating a devil-and-angel contrast between the two. That’s probably my favorite detail.
ーーThe black-and-gold watch case also feels very thoughtfully designed.
VERDY: I travel a lot for work, and I’d often thought it would be useful to have a case for carrying watches. So this time, we designed the case to hold one watch on each side, and to separate into two individual cases. That means you can give one of the watches in its case as a gift or take both with you when you travel and choose whichever one you feel like wearing that day. That was the kind of use I had in mind.
ーーWho would you like to see wearing this Girls Don’t Cry collaboration?
VERDY: I’d be happy if people gave one to their partner, and I think they could also make great gifts for friends or family members. Or you could keep both for yourself and decide, “Maybe I’ll wear the BABY-G today, or maybe the G-SHOCK,” depending on your mood. There’s no one way to enjoy them. I just hope they find their way onto a lot of people’s wrists.
ーーFinally, we’d like to ask about the relationship between time and creativity. Do time constraints help bring an idea into focus, or is it important to create without thinking too much about time?
VERDY: That’s a really difficult question. I’m actually the kind of person who comes up with good ideas right before a deadline. Even when a project is going smoothly, I keep thinking until the very end that there might still be a way to make it better.
So I do think there’s something about having a time limit that can lead to better work. If there were no deadline at all, I’d probably never stop. Having an end point is what lets you finally say, “Okay, this is finished.” At the same time, I’m always thinking about work anyway, so maybe I don’t think about time itself all that much.
ーーIs that because, even though it’s your work, it’s also something you really want to express—so you end up thinking about it all the time?
VERDY: Yeah, I think so. I love what I do, and I’m lucky enough to be doing the kind of work I really want to do. I’m always thinking about how I can make something better or create something more exciting.
More than anything, I want to make things that excite me. That’s really the one thing I care about most. And whenever I’m creating something, I’m always hoping that the excitement I feel will come through to other people too.
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