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 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 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.

Citizen BL9000-59F Minute Repeater

Once again, my old pictures look better than my new ones, so I'm using those. I am wearing my Citizen BL9000-59F today, although it took a few hours on the windowsill to bring it back to life this morning, as well as tracking down the manual online and figuring out how to set the time and date. My watch storage cabinet doesn't get any direct sunlight, and this being an Eco-Drive (Citizen's fancy name for their solar-charged battery-powered quartz watches) it needs at least a little sun to keep running. This is possibly the only watch I own that has such a complicated setting routine, involving setting the hands to their default positions, then setting the main dial time, subdial time (making sure the AM/PM indicator is closest to the bottom,) then the year (represented as number of years since the last leap year, in this case, 3,) month and day. That all being said, it would be a non-issue if I wore the watch daily, or even monthly, but I probably haven't worn it in close to a year. I have a friend who rotates one of these along with a few other watches and he seems to never have an issue with needing to charge his watch and reset everything. Really, it's a great watch. The Citizen Calibre 9000 is an amazing piece of technology. First off, it's probably the only way a non-millionaire can possess a minute repeater. A quick glance at Google Shopping shows prices of non-Citizen minute repeaters range from $20,000 to $750,000. Even some more expensive Citizen minute repeaters run into the thousands of dollars. For those unfamiliar (as I was before I had this watch) a minute repeater tells the time through a series of tones. In the case of the Calibre 9000, it works as follows: "Press and hold the button at the 2 o'clock position until it starts to chime. First you will hear one long tone for each hour, then each quarter hour have a quick double chime, then each minute will have single short tones. For example, if the time is 2:48, you will hear two long chimes for the hour, then 3 quick double chimes to indicate 45 minutes (three 15 minute periods), bringing the time to 2:45, then 3 quick chimes for 3 minutes past the last quarter hour, indicating 48 minutes after 2." It also has a perpetual calendar that should keep the proper date through the year 2100, two daily alarms (one for the main time and one for the inset or "local" time) and an AM/PM indicator. Build quality is excellent, as is expected from Citizen. The front of the case and bracelet is highly polished with the exception of the bracelet center links which are brushed. The mineral glass crystal is slightly domed which does a good job of cutting down on reflections even without an anti-reflective coating. I find the dial quite attractive, although I could understand if some find it to busy. I think the color scheme of black, white and chrome with the orange accents works well, although I've seen other Calibre 9000 watches with more subdued dials that are also very nice. The case is 42mm in diameter ad 14mm thick and feels quite substantial but not overly large. The bracelet also feels very well built and is comfortable. Like many of my watches, I regret not giving this one more wrist time. It would make a great travel watch since it has the two time zones, alarm and would easily coordinate with dress clothes or casual clothes and everything in between.

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.

Casio G-Shock G-5500R-1DR Rastafarian

Remember last year (Wednesday) when I said "I have two other 5500s"? Yeah, that was sort of a lie. Well, not a lie so much as an error of omission. I guess for the purposes of blog continuity I only had two other 5500s at that point, but I actually already had today's 5500 as well. I got it for Christmas like the last two, but this one I bought myself. When my wife told me she wanted to get me the other two (yes, she told me in advance to make sure I liked them and hadn't already ordered them myself) I decided to order a couple other G-Shocks I had been wanting from the same overseas merchant. 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. Happy New Year!