In4mation x G-Shock GLX-5600X | Purple rain

$120

Hawaiian street brand In4mation introduces its 2nd collaboration G-Shock model, the winter edition G-Lide, based on the square case prefered by discerning fans of street culture.

The G-Shock 10th Anniversary Watch by LRG

$600

Following the success of LRG X G-Shock "Time is Money". Casio and LRG have teamed up once again to celebrate LRG's 10 year anniversary with an exclusive G-Shock Frogman. The Frogman is the flagship model fro G-SHOCK and features a patented shock resistant design along with unique functionalities including 200M water resistance, a dive timer and tough solar technology. "10 Years of Playing" will be Casio's first special brand collaboration using Frogman model and will likely be the last. Only 1,000 units of this watch will be produced making this collaboration extremely limited.

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I.C.E.R.C. x G-Shock G-9100K Gulfman

I thought (like most of the times) I should write about the G-Shock I strapped on. In this case it’s the DW-9100K-7JR. Since the beginning Casio profiled as a environment friendly company. This is seen best by the packaging used on most G-Shocks. The simple cardboard boxes are made of recycled paper. On some boxes there is even a small note about the environment friendly materials. I think it sounds even better in German. The boxes are described as "umwelt freundlich", friendly for the world around us.

You might sometimes think, why does my beloved G-Shock not come in a great box. I think the answer is simple. Casio watches are in the first place designed to be worn, not to be collected. Therefore most G-Shocks are mass products. I think actually most watches in the "affordable" (<$1000.-) segment are.

Since several years Casio also supports projects that do research for preservation of endangered nature. Since 1994 Casio supports the conferences of the International Cetacean Education and Research Centers, in short I.C.E.R.C.

When Casio released the new Master of G in 2007, the Gulfman, also a special limited edition was announced. The white I.C.E.R.C. atomic Gulfman. It was released to support and give public awareness of the "2007 Dolphin & Whale Eco-Research Network" and the work of the I.C.E.R.C.

I had already ordered it months before release, it looked so nice on the stock photo's. It was still a surprise when I opened the package. I was amazed. In my opinion the most beautiful G-Shock released in 2007 (sorry Dawn Black!).

I used an reflected image of this watch in a Christmas ball for my last G-Peopland New Year card. Although it looks "Photoshopped", I only mirrored the image (because the original photo was already a mirror image) and slightly changed hue.The watch isn't just plain white. I think it's best described as ivory. The metal ring around the display, the lettering and the screws are in gold tones, which match this watch perfectly.

When the electro-luminescent backlight is activated you can see a humpback whale jump for joy out of the water. This whale also returns on the tip of the watchband.

One of the down sides of the atomic Gulfman in general is the lack of the Tidegraph and Moonphase function. I live near sea and the tide can be important if you want to go to the beach for all kinds of activities.

Also the countdown timer function would have been better if the range was 24 hours, in stead of 60 minutes. I often use this function when doing experiments on the lab, or when I have my car parked at a parking meter. Often I need more than only one hour.
To compensate on the short countdown time, Casio implemented a 1000 hours stopwatch. Also the watch comes with 5 alarms and World times.

World time is a great function if you have contacts world wide, but there is a little side note. You have to set manually the DST. This sounds not very disturbing, if DST changes were applied at the same times world wide. The last years the US uses different dates than Europe. The biggest fun is in Australia, where the eastern time zone only use DST in the south and not in the north.

Personally I can live with Summertime, as DST is called here. Who doesn't want to enjoy an extra hour sunlight, while sitting on a terrace or in the garden with a nice glass of wine or beer.

And while you enjoy your drink, have a good talk with friends, this watch is my ideal companion. I can know that. It was me on that terrace yesterday evening.

G-Shock G-5500R-1DR Rastafarian

This 5500 is part of the latest Rastafarian series, just like my DW-6900R-7. I think the 5500 is the least unique of the three as from the front it looks virtually identical to the Dawn Black 5500 (the Dawn Black even has gold-tone screws which this one does not.) The few nice touches on this one do make it worth having, especially if you really like the other two watches in this Rastafarian series, which I do. The tri-color nylon keepers are shared by all three models, as is the Lion of Judah in the backlight (although it's not as bright as on the non-solar versions.) This one also has gold printing on the bezel and band unlike the mix of white and gold on the Dawn Black. Overall, it's a subtle but nice special edition of the increasingly popular 5500. 

2006 FIFA World Cup x G-Shock DW-6900 Brazil

In 2006 Germany hosted the FIFA World Cup. Because the size of this even, there are a lot of big international sponsors. One of them was Casio. In 2005 Casio made these big G-Shock count down clocks, which were found in every participating city.Specially for this event Casio also developed Referee Timers like the DW-56RT.Actually I don't watch football much, although I have seen several games that the Orange played. Unfortunately we were wiped in the quarter finals. Funny enough I discovered that Bram's football is also a World Cup 2006 model, in the team colors of Germany.
In 2006 special FIFA G-Shock's were released. The GW-1400WCE-9AVER and GW-1201WC-9AV were two Waveceptor models (EU reception only), G-300BWC-1AV a Cockpit model and also a white and a black DW-56RTWC's were released.
The most known series are the "World Cup 2006 Soccer team uniform colors series". This was a triplet of Gs in the team colors of the last three winning countries Brazil, France and Germany. Of the three, the French model, G-300WC-2AJR, is not easy to find. I think it was only released in Japan. The DW-5600WC-1ER and DW-6900WCJ-9ER were sold outside Japan in large quantities.
Recently a load these watches were sold as NOS in Germany for unbelievable prices. I bought my first Brazilian model from Seiya-San for a good price of around $100.- in May 2006. I bought the same model with a German model for only €30.- together about a month ago.
I will highlight today my favorite of this series. It's the Brazilian team model. I like bright colors and I even think the colors of the Brazilian team are world wide very popular. As you can see this watch is basically bright yellow with green accents. Specially the green ring around the display is very eye catching.
A illustration of the World Cup is shown on the long strap, while the strap retainer shows the logo of the FIFA.
On the back of the watch there is a special engravement. It shows the official "World Cup Germany 2006" logo. It has the 1289 module. The functions are very basic, but sufficient. The watch has an alarm function (with the possibility to program it to one or certain dates), an hourly chime, a Countdown Timer an a Stopwatch. A great plus of this module is that the time is shown in both the CDT as the STW mode.

In the EL backlight a lion figure shows up. This is the official mascot of the World Cup 2006. He's called Goleo VI, the lovable lion.
He's accompanied by his sidekick, Pille the talking football. Goleo VI was created by The Jim Henson Company, known for the puppet of the Muppet Show and Sesame Street.
And how did the FIFA World Cup 2006 end. Italy met formerer Champion Du Monde (1998) France in the final. The final is best remembered by an incident in the end of the the extra time while millions viewers worldwide saw how Zinedine Zidane rammed down Marco Materazzi with his head.
Zidane was sent out of the field and the extra time ended in a 1-1 score. The game ended with penalties, which the Italian team did much better then France. The final score Italy - France is 5 - 3, leaving Italy as the new (and present) World Champion.

2006 FIFA World Cup x G-Shock DW-5600 Germany

I guess Casio overestimated demand, because you can pick these up pretty cheaply right now if you don't mind paying shipping from Germany. This one is part of the "team uniform colors" series and represents Germany's team. The border around the LCD is the three bars of the German flag and below it is an image of theFIFA World Cup Trophy. The caseback and strap keeper also feature FIFA and World Cup logos. As you can see in the photos, the backlight has an image of a "lion man" kicking a soccer ball. That is actually "GOLEO VI the Official Mascot of the 2006 FIFA World Cup™" and his sidekick (no pun intended) Pille, a talking soccer ball. Overall I'd say it has a large amount of customization to set it apart from a standard model. The watch has a black band and white bezel to mimic the black and white uniforms of the German team, and whether you love it or hate it, it is a unique look. It could be made a bit more "conventional" by swapping the strap for a white one, but I think the two-tone look is kind of growing on me. I actually bought ten of these watches (and ten of the FIFA 6900s in the Brazilian team colors which you'll see soon) from an eBay seller in Germany. Most have been sold fairly cheaply to friends andWUS G-Shock forumers, but I kept an extra pair in storage for myself, and I still have a few pairs available. I guess it's a shame that the soccer (okay, okay - football) fans in Germany didn't find these watches desirable, but their loss was certainly our gain.

Transformers x G-Shock DW-6900 Megatron Model

Casio G-Shock DW-6900 Megatron model, module 1289

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EL:

Casio G-Shock 2008 Fall/Winter

$89

http://www.gshock.com

G-Shock Crazy Colors DW-5600CS-1

Outer box

Inner round tin

DW-5600CS-1

This model has the standard DW-5600E series 1545 module. It's just the color of the display and digits that's different.

Eric Haze x G-Shock DW-5600EH-7JR 25th Anniversary watch

It looked like the perfect DW-5600 for me. The shade of red on the black display plate is so beautiful. Full respect for the designer Eric Haze (photo above). Eric is a pretty much known graffiti artist from NYC. As far as I know, this is the 3rd G-Shock designed by Eric Haze. Also the 25th Anniversary Logo, found on the 25th anniversary models was designed by him.
Above is a tribute to Keith Haring for his 50th day of birth. In 1997 I visited an exposition about Haring, which had a great impact on me, specially the letters he wrote before his death and how much he wanted to live. The last painting, a spermatozoa on a black background with devil horns had a deep emotional impact on me and other visitors. As a graffiti artist in NYC in the 70's, it is not hard to imagine that Eric Haze and Keith Haring were friends
Finally I decided I must have this watch. I placed the order on Friday evening August 8th (GMT+2). I noticed Seiya's shop is closed in the weekends, so I expected a reply from him on Monday morning.
To my surprise I found his friendly e-mail on Saturday. I was very happy the watch was sent out the same day. Japan celebrated the Obon festival from August 13th, so I hoped my watch was out of Japan then.
The waiting begins. Finally on Friday I saw the package was released from customs. I already expected to pay duties now. It's pretty sour. Because the rice of the watch is not very high, the customs fee would be relative big.
Saturday.... No watch :-(
I already packed my wallet when I see all the papers on and around the package. €32.30 for a €78.- watch. Unbelievable. The €16.- custom fees are in my opinion huge out of proportion. With 19% the Netherlands has a very high VAT rate. We are used to that, but in my case it's over 40%. I would like to see that the customs fees were a small percentage of the total value, but that's probably talking to a big wall... Enough of my rant. I was waiting for this watch and it took me more time to write down my rant, that that I thinking about it. I wanted to open that package.
The EMS envelope was not opened. The Paypal invoice that was provided in a plastic sleeve was probably enough for the customs this time. When I opened the envelope I found a great box and some Casio catalogs.
I felt blood run through my vains. How would this watch look in real. Pretty nervous I opened the box and the tin.
For the first time I saw the face of the watch through a plastic protection bag. It's really here! It really looks as good as the Casio promotional photo's. I wanted to take pictures immediately, but unfortunately my parents internet browser crashed. Before I could start I drove with an USB stick with Firefox 3 to Vlissingen. Eva was at work, so when we came home I also had to put Bram to bed. Finally I could start making my photo set-up.
It's 1:35 (am), so time to go to bed. But not before I thank Eric Haze for this beautiful watch and Seiya-San for the great transaction. Enjoy the photo's. They are taken against an Eric Haze x Stussy collaboration T-Shirt. And if you like this watch, don't take the text "Limited Edition" too seriously. This watch is released in Japan, the US and Europe. It is probably as limited as the TLC Mudman...

Casio G-Shock Crazy Colors Series

The Crazy Colors series was just released about a month ago and it seems to be a big hit so far. These five new G-Shocks all feature brightly colored accents and brand new LCDs with mirrored digits. It's really hard to capture the look of them on camera (like the mirrored crystals). All of these models retail for $89 USD. Most are available on eBay, but so far there's been no great bargains. But the retail price is really quite reasonable for a limited edition. There's no word on how many have been produced, so it's hard to predict how the market price will evolve. If you see one you like, you should probably pick it up now while they're available. You won't be disappointed.

Here's Casio's stock photos for the five models in the Crazy Colors series:

DW-6900CS-7

DW-5600CS-9

DW-6900CS-4

DW-6900CS-1

DW-5600CS-1