Technology changes and as near as I can tell its hard to beat the overall reliability and durability that a G-Shock can provide. I'm thinking specifically about models with features like tough solar, atomic time, shock & low temperature resistance ... they seem pretty much bomb proof, the solar provides a newer-tech version of the automatic and the atomic time keeps you accurate and even automatically compensates for DST (I had a Casio Waveceptor at one point in time and, while not all that durable, the atomic time was a nice feature).

When it comes to choosing a watch specifically with reliability and durability in mind it's hard for the G-Shock not to land on the top of list. Frankly, I'm not a huge fan of the aesthetics of most of the models, but from a pure practical stand point they seem to have anything you'd need.