Casio G-Shock GW-9200RJ-4JF Men in Rescue Orange

Yesterday I wore and took pictures of (but didn't have time to post about) a Casio G-Shock I bought just over two years ago. It's a GW-9200RJ-4JF Riseman (not to be confused with the original Riseman) and is part of the Men in Rescue Orange series. Not to bore you with minutiae, but the watches pictured in that link are actually the "export" versions. The U.S. got the export version, but I bought this from a person who imported it from Japan. In the case of the Riseman, the main differences are the lack of radio controlled atomic timekeeping (Multiband 6) on the U.S. version, and a different caseback. The caseback on the U.S. version has an engraving of a dragon while the Japanese version has a flying squirrel. Both versions have the orange-tinted display and very cool backlight graphic, described by Casio as "a special multi-purpose rescue tool". The watch is great for a number of reasons: It's bright orange, and I love bright orange, so I love wearing it (especially if I'm wearing some coordinating orange clothes or shoes.) It's big and chunky, similar to a Frogman, but somehow looks more futuristic. It has great functionality, including a thermometer, barometer, altimeter, world time, 5 alarms, etc. Second only to my Pathfinder PAW-1300 in functionality, which adds a compass but gives up some water resistance. This is one of my watches that gets worn very regularly, especially in the summer, and I don't believe I'll tire of it anytime soon.

Casio G-Shock DW-6900CS-1DR

Do you like 6900s? Of course you do! It's one of the most iconic G-Shock designs, often imitated but never duplicated. Even when Casio wanted to update the classic with Tough Solar and Multi Band 6 technologies, they didn't mess with the design. This 6900 I'm wearing today is from the "Crazy Colors" series. I believe it part of the first series, but Casio have done many more since then. It seems they were pretty popular. As you can see in the photos, this watch doesn't deviate from the classic three-eye 6900 design. The bright green face, markings and even LCD panel and backlight are all pretty unique. Adding to the flashiness is the case and band which are finished in high-gloss black instead of the more traditional matte finish. The whole package really pops and gets plenty of attention year-round.

Japanese-style Multicolor LED Binary Watch

The watch I'm wearing today I just got this week, direct from China, from Meritline. It's truly amazing how much cheap stuff I've bought from them, although DealExtreme is still my favorite for flashlights. Even more amazing is both merchants can ship their items from China to the U.S.A. for free. This watch is inspired by the modern, quirky watches from places like Tokyoflash and ThinkGeek. One thing that makes this watch unique, even among the wild watches at the preceding links, is that it is a true "binary" watch. The lights on the left and bottom correspond to binary digits, with four bits on the left and six bits on the bottom. They can respectively display a maximum of 15 and 63 in decimal numbers, but they only ever need to go as high as 12 and 59 in this application. It's difficult to read the time at a glance (without doing some math in your head) but I'm sure if I wore the watch regularly for a month is would become easier. The bright LEDs display the time when the upper button is pressed, and the watch can be set to automatically light ever quarter-hour. The date is displayed the same way (month on the left, day on the bottom) when the upper button is pressed a second time. It's a neat watch, admittedly very cheap, but for a novelty watch it certainly serves its purpose. I actually think it looks more expensive than it is, possibly because the design is so simple.

Casio G-Shock GX56-4CR

Today, a little bit of pseudo déjà vu again. It's my third and final (for now) GX56, the orange GX56-4CR. Like my other two GX56s this is big, chunky and awesome. I didn't notice until today that all three of mine have reverse displays. Not great from a legibility standpoint, but they do look cool. And I did take the photos today, but didn't realize I had the date set incorrectly until I was editing them.

Casio G-Shock GLS-5600V-1

Today I'm wearing my GLS-5600V-1, which is part of the G-Shock G-LIDE line. This one is relatively subdued, but does have the bright pink dial and text which makes it a nice accessory if you're already wearing some bright pink (and a totally pink watch would just be too much.) You can see it is very similar to a regular 5600, but it has a totally different module. This one also has the glossy black case, and unique to the G-LIDE line, a wide fabric strap with a combination of velcro and a plastic latch to keep it on your wrist. The G-LIDE line is said to be surf-inspired, but it seems like it would be suitable for any sort of action sports. Sjors has a good article about this watch on his site. I really like this watch and wearing it today makes me want to pick up the green version.

Casio G-Shock GX56-1A

Today I'm wearing one of the watches I mentioned in my post about the DGK GX56. It's the GX56-1A and aside from having a more subdued appearance, it's exactly the same watch. The GX56 is defintely one of my favorite newer G-Shock designs.

Casio G-Shock GW6900B-1

DW6900 + solar + atomic = pretty awesome. This one is shiny black with orange accents and a mirror/orange LCD that lights up amber. Also comes in other colors. Superb.

Casio G-Shock X DGK GX56DGK-1

Today I have my first purple watch. I considered getting a purple G-Shock for a while, but when I saw this 6900 in person I thought it was a little girly. Then I saw this 6900 BAPE collaboration online and thought it might be better, but I was not willing to pay BAPE prices (retail or secondary market) just to have a purple watch. When I first heard about the DGK collaboration I wasn't really excited as I wasn't happy with the previous purple model I saw in person, and with it being limited I envisioned another Dee & Ricky situation, where the $130 watch quickly became a $400 watch. I missed that model at retail and have been kind of kicking my myself about it, so when I saw the GX56DGK-1 in person and actually really liked the purple and rest of the design, I had to buy it (well, 3, actually.) One of them I put on eBay, one I'll keep and one I ended up trading for another limited edition (which I will post after I receive it.) This is actually my third GX56, although I haven't gotten around to posting about the other ones. I think the GX56 is an inspired design. It has a shape that seems to be inspired by the original G-Shock, but increased to giant size (as is the current style.) It's like a classic G-Shock on steroids. It even has a similar display to the 5000/5600, but now instead of being surrounded by printing on the crystal, you can see through to a new shock absorbing structure which looks as tough as I'm sure it is. It supposedly has the same shock-resistance as other G-Shocks (no wild claims have been made, as far as I know) but now that shock absorber is part of the design and on display for the world to see. I wasn't really familiar with DGK and Stevie Williams before, but they seem like a pretty cool company and I do like a number of their designs. The color scheme and DGK branding on the GX56 works well and I think compliments the sort of industrial, gritty design of the watch. Now I see there are a number of new purple-accented G-Shocks being released, including a Frogman, so I have to think DGK was slightly ahead of their time with their color scheme. I think DGK did a great job and I would like to see another collaboration with them in the future.