Today's watch is one of the "Masters of G" series, the Casio G-Shock DW-9100B-2AV Riseman. Off the top of my head, I think the Riseman is the strangest looking watch model I own. Not just because it's large (over 2 inches wide!) and has a big sensor intake on the left side, but the strange shapes on the bezel, the multicolor leather and nylon on the band and funky textured buttons all add up to a very alien looking watch. Rather than have me run through all the features, allow me to quote a 1999 G-Shock catalog: "RISEMAN features Altimeter, Barometer, Thermometer, Auto Switch Backlight, Shock Resistant Housing, 200M Water Resistance, Auto Calendar, Daily Alarm, Hourly Time Signals, 12/24 Hour Formats, 1/100 Sec. Stopwatch, Low Temperature Resistance" as well as "A built in sensor measures barometer pressure, which is converted to relative altitude, from 0 to 19,680 feet in 20 feet intervals. Auto/manual memory measurements (up to 50 sets of data), reference altitude setting, altitude alarm and tendency graph." Whew! That's a lot of stuff. Remind me not to quote Casio promotional materials in the future. It's definitely an interesting watch, even if I'll only ever use the altimeter/barometer trend graph to see if I should expect better or worse weather. While Casio does have pictures of skydivers next to it in their catalog, I don't see myself wearing it to go skydiving. Nor do I see myself going skydiving. But it seems like it would be plenty tough for the job...
...although "Toughest Watch In The World" might be a bit of an overstatement. I'm pretty sure I have some stainless steel or titanium cased watches that would stand up to any number of sharp things a lot better than the plastic over plastic (ok, urethane over "strengthened composite fibre/plastic") construction of the Riseman. But hey, I didn't buy it to drop into a wood chipper, I bought it because it's big, funky and original.
I have the exact same model and it's ... melting?!
ReplyDeleteI had left it in storage for over a year, maybe 2, and when I recently got it back out the top shell has gotten very, very soft - I can dent it with my fingernail. The text (in blue) bleeds out into the casing when I swipe over it. And there are 2 large cracks. It's like the watch is made out of playdough!
I guess it must be some sort of plastic-eating bacteria. It's really quite strange.
My condolences. Sunscreen can have that effect on the type of plastic used in G-Shocks, and I'm sure there are other substances that would do the same. Even vapors from something like lacquer thinner might cause your problem.
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