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 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 Pathfinder PAW-1300T-7V

Today I'm wearing my newest Pathfinder, a PAW-1300T-7V. PAW for Pathfinder (in the world outside the U.S.A. these are called "Protrek" and the model numbers start with PR,) 1300 for the series (newer than my 1100,) T for Titanium, 7 for silver accents, and V for international (non-Japanese) version. This has all the functions of my PAW-1100T but weighs less and is much slimmer (only 11.5mm thick, while the 1100 is over 14mm thick.) This was the ultimate Pathfinder, all the functions available in a Pathfinder in a package that made it very wearable under most conditions. Of course, Casio couldn't rest on their laurels, so the PAW-1500 series is the newest King of the Hill, which adds tide graph, moon phase and 200m water resistance to the long list of features. I'm not sure if I'll get a 1500 or just wait for whatever comes next. It's almost certain that Casio will keep improving their technology and packing more features into smaller, more durable packages.

Non-Stop G-Shocks: GW-5525A-1 Dawn Black

Continuing my run of 25th Anniversary models from the Dawn Black series, today's watch is my GW-5525A-1. While somewhat similar to the original 5500 and the tough solar modern version, this one adds radio-controlled atomic timekeeping. In fact, it's my first watch to feature the "5 Band" receiver, which will pick up the time signals from Minflingen, Germany; Rugby, England; Fort Collins, Colorado; Fukushima, Japan; and Fukuoka/Saga, Japan. All this technology is wrapped up in a very purposeful, attractive package featuring the gold LCD and black and gold color scheme of the Dawn Black series. Definitely a great watch.

Casio G-Shock MTG-910DA

My watch du jour is my Casio G-Shock MTG-910DA. This is the same watch model that was worn by Tom Cruise in Mission: Impossible III. There was actually an "M:i:III" special edition of this watch released called the MTG-910D-2VER. It had some blue writing on the front and engraving on the back as well as special packaging. But it wasn't the watch worn in the movie, and I actually like the all-black look of this one better. It's another G-Shock that has all the really useful features (like solar power and atomic timekeeping) packed into a sleek but rugged package. The "black ion plating" makes this one fairly unique and seems to hold up very well. It's certainly not flashy, but looks modern and functional without being overly large. Like many of my other watches, this is the kind of watch that a person with only one watch could be very happy with. Not that I understand much else about people like that.

Casio Pathfinder PAW-1100T-7V

It's late so I'll make this short. #1. This watch does everything short of make you coffee in the morning (not that I drink coffee.) Check out the features. #2. It's huge. Almost 53mm across and 17mm thick. #3. It's light. With its titanium case and bracelet it weighs 110 grams - 4 grams less than the smaller Pseudo-Ruhla I wore yesterday, even though that one was on a leather strap. I like it a lot. I only recently got into the Pathfinders, and had a chance to grab this one used and cheap so I jumped on it. The newer similar model has all the features in a much slimmer package, but I really wanted this older model for its impressive size.