Bloomberg G-Shock creator Kikuo Ibe sits in a makeshift showroom, surrounded by dozens of G-Shock watches that include a prototype model from 1982. It still works, his translator proudly proclaims. Durability is what people love about these watches, after all. Soft-spoken but with a lively sense of humor, the bespectacled Japanese engineer then goes through the history of G-Shock …

  Sirjan / AFP The pistachio trees at the village in southern Iran are long dead, bleached white by the sun — the underground water reserves sucked dry by decades of over-farming and waste. The last farmers left with their families 10 years ago, and the village has the look of an abandoned Martian colony. The dome-roofed, mud-walled homes are …

  Banjar Jembrana / AFP Wearing crowns and colourful horn coverings, the buffaloes haul wooden carts at high speed past paddy fields on Bali, with the racers aboard cracking whips in a bid to push their beasts on to victory. Hundreds of spectators cheer from the sidelines, hoping their team will come out on top in the annual festival on …