The Classic Casio G-Shock DW-001 Jason Thermometer

Around 2001 and 2002 I was looking a lot over the auctions of eBay Germany. In Germany you could found loads of G-Shock auctions at that time of a lot ofor me interesting models.
I was not an expert on G-Shock, but I was always amazed to find another strange model. Often, out of curiosity, I place my bids.
I won quite some auctions this way and in almost all cases the sellers were nice enough to sent the watch to an address in the Netherlands. I can only remember that only once a seller refused.
The Euro wasn't introduced yet and you could get a great looking G-Shock in the DM20 - DM30.- range. If you really liked a great model, set a bid on DM45.- and you was sure to win the auction (well, in 95% of the cases). Note that when the Euro was introduced the Deutsche Mark was worth about €0.50. After the introduction of the Euro, the figures stayed the same, though with an € sign for it (so the prices did rise about 200%).
Somewhere in 2001 I saw this strange watch. I had seen the DW-002, DW-003 and DW-004 range in all their colors, but this was different. The yellow and red tones were so loud, it almost looked like a toy. Still it had a thermometer function, according the auction. I only knew the DW-6100 Thermometer model. I didn't have a DW-6100 at that time, I probably still hadn't won an auction of that model (probably one of those 5% of the lost auctions).I placed a bid, probably a higher one, as I was so curious. A week later I won the auction.I don't know exactly what my winning bid was, but I believe I had to pay around DM30.- (€14.-!). It looks real cheap now, but it was a fairly normal price at that time.
The EU banks didn't work together at those days and sending money to Germany via a bank was a relative expensive. Therefore I mostly sent cash to the seller. A friend of me has a east asian and antique furniture store in Middelburg, which is very popular by German tourists. Therefore he had quite some German currencies in his house. This saved me a lot of transaction costs at the exchange offices.The seller of this watch mailed me a very strange address in Wuppertal. Before I sent him the money, I asked how to read the address. It seemed that he live in a very modern suburb. It was divided in blocks, which were divided in blocks and so on, resulting in an address with a lot of roman and normal numbers.
You might ask why I did remember I bought this watch in Wuppertal. Well, I am a bit of train fanatic. Wupperal has since 1901 a very unique and modern type of transport, the "Wuppertal Schwebebahn", a suspended monorail. As a child I was amazed by watching pictures of this phenomenon. A good friend of me was last year in Wuppertal. He took a lot of photo's for me and I think I even showed them on my Japanese weblog once.Since everything went with "snail mail"I got the package almost two weeks later. Not that there is much improvement now. If a seller has no Paypal (it is slowly getting used in Germany now) a bank transaction takes 4 working days, which is exactly as fast as good old "snail mail". It's of course safer, though I never lost money in the mail.The watch looked like candy. The thermosensor ar the bottom looked a bit weird and the red eye was pretty colorful. The seller told me he bought the watch in Japan. Looking at the state of the watch it was probably never worn. When I had started G-Peopleland and had some contact with Japanese G-shock collectors, several pointed me that I owned a "Jason". It didn't say much to me, but it was the name for this watch given by Japanese collectors. It was highly sought actually. The yellow version seemed pretty rare, but actually I have not seen the black version on the market very much too and surely not for the price I paid for it.
It took years to find out where the name "Jason" came from. It was referred to Jason Voorhees, the main character in the series horror movies "Friday 13th". Jason Voorhees wears a hockey mask, that somewhat looks like the cover of the thermo sensor of the DW-001.
Though it looks like a toy, the 1994 had some nice features on board. Not only it had a thermometer function, it also could calculate the sun rise and sun set. Like the DW-6100 the DW-001 also has only a micro light.In 2008 HTML (a clothing brand that has strong connections with Kiks TYO) launched several G-Shock T-Shirts. One of them was a tribute to the DW-001 "Jason" model. It featured a print of one of the Friday 13th movie posters.
Other tribute shirts that HTML made were the DW-6400 Gundam and the DW-002 Bob Marley model.

Rolling Stones x G-Shock DW-002RS-1

After the early DW-5X00 series, Casio developped the so called "Capsule Tough" construction. The module in this construction is captured in a protecting case. The case is now made of poly-urethane, a very durable impact proof compound, in stead of screwback, the back plate is tightened with 4 screws.

In the beginning these G-Shocks look pretty basic, like the DW-6100, DW-6600 and DW-6900, but with the DW-00X models, the G-Shocks begin to look more exotic, specially because bright colors are not avoided.

If you should ask me which G-Shock's I like, I mostly say I love the '90's models. I have a weakness for the classic "Master of G series" and the DW-00X models. And of the last group, I definitely love the DW-002. I think this was the highlight of the whole Capsule Tough concept. I don't think many G-Shock's are thicker. The form of the buttons is unique.

Of all DW-002's the Rolling Stones models were absolutely one of the best. When I got mine, I didn't know much about this model. It was owned by someone in the US, I believe near New York. The former owner had quite a story about this watch.

When the battery went dead, he sent this watch to the Casio Service Center in New Jersey. It took a long time before he got it back. When he got it back, the Pin-Up girl had disappeared! Unbelievable, they did not only change the battery, but also the module. It took him a lot of phone calls to get the original module back. He was not sure if they found the old module or they ordered a new module.

The story sounded a bit strange then, but unfortunately now I have heard more horror stories. Even people who sent in a vintage G-Shock and receive a brand new model.

Casio USA, I hope you read this. There are now a lot vintage Casio and G-Shock collectors. Please give them a helping hand if needed in the Casio Centre in New Jersey.

We get a bit off track. The Rolling Stones models have grey/black cases. The straps are leather and have a crocodile or snake print on them.

They were released July 1995. There were three of them. One has a skull in the backlight, another a guitar head, but the nicest is the one I have, the DW-002RS-8. It shows a Pin-Up girl in the backlight. The straps are in brown leather. Although this series is called Rolling Stones, I actually can't see the connection with the skull and the Pin-Up. The famous Rolling Stones mouth logo would be more logic, but the Pin-Up is very cool.

The watch has an Alarm, Countdowntimer and a Stopwatch on board. Pretty basic, but actually all I need in daily life.

G-Shock Baby-G 'Chupa Chups'

$122

Celebrating their 50th anniversary, Chupa Chups got together with G-Shock to work on the Baby-G.
Get it here

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