A Couple of New G-Shocks

Originally, these were offered for sale only in China, and each watch came with one or more of these bears.

Casio refers to these watches as the Shanghai Night series. They are limited editions. The upper one in the picture with the more rectangular, digital-only display, is the GM5600SN-1, and the lower one in the picture, with analog hour and minute hands in addition to digital screens, is the GM110SN-2A. 

I have not yet been able to find out what Shanghai Night refers to. For all I know it could simply refer to the city of Shanghai, at night. Or perhaps "Shanghai Night" is a Chinese or Japanese or Chinese-Japanese animated TV series starring bears who look like the metallic doll in the picture. Or maybe something else. I'm just guessing. 

I'm writing this blog post today because, somehow, I didn't realize until yesterday, that the GM5600SN-1 has that rainbow IP coating on its case, the kind which I've thus far only seen on a handful of G-shocks, and now also these little metallic bears, and which really triggers me in a very positive way, and not just me, apparently. Yesterday I noticed that Casio had put the GM5600SN-1 on sale in the US. The watch only, sold in the US without a bear. Suggested retail price $260. Still available from authorized dealers at retail, it seems. I saw a commercial for it on YouTube. A young man was wearing one in a nighttime urban landscape which, I assume, was Shanghai. Wait -- it's a woman, not a man. Wait... I don't know whether it's a woman or a man. It's a very androgynous young person wearing a very handsome watch coated with rainbow IP.

The GM110SN-2A, the rounder one with the hour and minute hands, although it has an extremely colorful dial, does not, as far as I can see, have any rainbow IP. The case is has a bright blue IP, but it's not rainbow, with one color bleeding into the next. And it's still only offered in China. Which is to say, it's only offered by authorized dealers in China. I've seen one on sale on ebay for around $1000. In terms of functionality, it's the same GM110 that Producer Michael bought last autumn, the one which made him and me, and many others who saw his video, interested in G-Shocks.

I don't understand anything about the technical challenges involved in applying the rainbow IP to a metal surface. It could be that it's extremely difficult to do, and maybe that's why I've only seen it on limited edition G-Shocks, apart from a very small amount of rainbow IP applied to one part of the dial of the GM110-B, which, although not officially a limited edition, seems to have been sold out for a while now. I would love to see Casio put rainbow IP on mass-produced G-Shocks, millions of them, but, whether for technical reasons or marketing reasons or some other reasons, it doesn't appear that that will happen soon.

To those already familiar with the G-Shock brand, the interest of both of these new models is a matter of styling. In terms of function, they are both ordinary mid-level G-Shocks.

To those unfamiliar with the G-Shock brand, it may be surprising to learn that ordinary mid-level G-shocks, in addition to being extremely accurate, dependable and tough, also include world time, stopwatch, countdown timer, alarm, chiming and backlight functions, all with a very great deal of customization available to those willing to study the thick G-Shock owner's manuals.

gshock highfashion on YouTube

There are many channels devoted to wristwatches on YouTube. A popular form of video on these channels is the unboxing video. That's where the host of the channel, with a POV camera on his head or pointed over his shoulder, takes a package which has arrived in the mail, and removes a watch from it. 

Sounds dull? Oh man, you have no idea. I'm fascinated by watches, obsessed with them, and even I started to find this sort of thing unbearably dull after 2 or 3 times. I know what a USPS or UPS or Amazon package looks like. I know what the box that holds the watch inside the mailing package looks like. I actually tuned in to get a look at the watch, maybe even hear a description of it. But in an unboxing video, it might take the guy 5 minutes or so to get to the watch.How could it possibly take 5 minutes? you're wondering. The answer is: some people aren't just very dull, they're also very slow. 

But the host of gshock highfashion is so interesting, he can even make an unboxing interesting. Partly because he intercuts the unboxing with video of  watches and other things. Partly because his excitement is audible and contagious -- this guy is really, really into G-Shocks -- but also because he's very knowledgeable. Now, obviously, a lot of guys -- mostly guys -- are fascinated by the boxes that watches come in, or these unboxing videos wouldn't be a thing. But not everyone is good at communicating the excitement they feel. As far as knowledge goes: in one video he points to the logo on the G-Shock box, names the man who designed the logo and has interesting things to say about that man's life.  On this channel, believe it or not, I watched a dozen unboxing videos before I started to find them dull. And luckily, this channel is not ALL unboxing videos.

So what's the name of this interesting, knowledgeable YouTube host? I don't know, he doesn't say. I don't know what his face looks like either, he never shows it. His forearms are thin and wiry. There's always a G-Shock on his left wrist. Sometimes he wears G-Shocks on both wrists. That's about as well as I can visually ID him.

One of the few things he says about himself is that he repairs and services watches for a living. That's very easy to believe, because in many of his videos he's taking G-Shocks apart and putting them back together, looking and talking like a guy who knows what he's doing. I also get the impression that he is originally from Japan and now lives outside of Japan.

Now, as far as why the channel is called gshock highfashion, I'm not sure. The G-Shock part is easy enough: almost every video is entirely about G-Shocks. The few exceptions have to do with other Casio products: other watches by Casio, and a Casio alarm clock and a Casio Wall clock. But for the most part, this guy is all about the G-Shocks. 

 

Now, about the high fashion part. Maybe high fashion has different connotations in Japan than in other parts of the world. To me, high fashion, haute couture, suggests very exclusive products, very expensive, often with only one of each type ever made. G-Shocks are made in huge quantities, and they're very affordable. The most expensive G-Shock costs less than the least expensive Rolex, and the average G-Shock costs about 1/100th as much as the average Rolex. A G-Shock will run you somewhere between $40 and $3,000. As far as availability is concerned, even the "exclusive" limited edition G-Shock models are made in quantities of hundreds or thousands each. And the host of gshock highfashion will complain if he thinks that Casio has priced an item too high. Even if we're talking about an MSRP of $100 which he thinks should have been more like $80 or so. 

The fashion part of the channel's name makes sense. In addition to being able to fix G-Shocks, this guy knows a lot about their appearance, and the technical aspects of how the appearance is achieved, and he talks very intelligently about aesthetics and fashion and design, as for example in the discussion of a logo on a box described above.

Maybe the name of the channel is meant ironically, because the host likes G-Shocks, among other reasons, because they are NOT exclusive or expensive.

The channel has gotten better over time. In particular, the host's delivery, in videos released in 2020 and 2021, is much more relaxed, and therefore much more relaxing. Did he consult a vocal coach? Whatever caused the change, it came suddenly and made a huge difference.

And as if all of this wasn't already wonderful enough, the host also has a cute little kitty who sometimes wanders into the frame and does cute kitty stuff. The biggest disagreement I have with the host is that he prefers an all-black color scheme on watches more than than I do. I like the colorful, sparkly G-Shocks more than he seems to. But that's just a matter of a couple of numbers or letters in a watch's model designation.

So. Watch this channel, even if you don't care about watches, because this guy appears to be a good guy and a genius who should be famous and powerful so that he can have a greater positive influence on the world. You'll probably find it interesting, even if you don't care about watches.

G-Shock

I was annoyed yesterday when I noticed that my G-Shock was running almost a minute fast -- until I remembered that it hadn't been set since early May 2020. 1 minute fast over 10 1/2 months comes out to less than 6 seconds fast per month. Not too shabby. The official specification is within plus to minus 15 seconds a month.

My G-Shock DW9052-1ccg looks like this:

I think the -1ccg suffix refers to it being all-butch black. But I'm not completely sure about that. There are a huge number of G-Shock models, and I'm still new at this. In any case, a DW9052 is a G-Shock which has that same basic configuration, and DW9052's come in a lot of different colors, as well as black with many different colors of accents, besides all-butch black. 

Casio, as far as I know, does not refer to this color scheme as "all-butch black." I made that phrase up to make fun of myself and a lot of other people. 

Besides keeping track of hours, minutes and seconds (in your choice of 12-hour AM/PM or the all-butch 24-hour format which I naturally prefer), day of the week, month and day and year (on a separate screen because there's only so much room and you probably know what year it is), my DW9052 features

-- an alarm, and a chime which sounds every hour on the hour, which I finally figured out how to to turn off yesterday. There are watch aficionados who prize alarms and hourly, or even minutely chimes very highly, and pay huge amounts for mechanical watches which sound them. The charm is so far lost on me. But, mind open must be amen.

-- Countdown timer; input range: 1 minute to 24 hours; measuring unit: 1 second; auto-repeat function,
1/100 second stopwatch; measuring capacity: 23:59'59.99"; measuring unit: 1/100 second (for the first 60 minutes). No, I do not understand what all of that is. I do know that it's a pretty fancy timer and stopwatch.

-- Everything on the dial lights up into nice bright lume when you push the big button marked "G."

Casio has sold over 100 million G-Shocks since 1983. They say that its designer, when a small boy, was given a watch by his father, which he cherished until one day he dropped it, it shattered into many pieces, and he vowed to devote his life to designing a watch which was indestructible. This story strikes me as being very -- Japanese. Perhaps it is also perfectly true, how would I know. 

I still don't know for sure what sort of battery my G-Shock will eventually need. I could screw off the back and look and see, but I'm not going to do that. Not today.

The thing which makes G-Shocks G-Shocks is toughness. They have been hit with hockey sticks like hockey pucks, thrown off of the tops of tall building onto concrete sidewalks, intentionally run over by huge trucks, and come out undamaged. There may be tougher watches than G-Shocks, but I sort of doubt it. In any case, their toughness is legendary.

From the basic all-butch black plastic-and-rubber battery-powered models with their digital readouts, G-Shocks have expanded into a variety of colors and functions, many with analog displays instead of or in addition to digital, some powered by light or radio waves instead of or in addition to batteries. Some are now smartwatches. Some are covered by metal instead of plastic and rubber -- sacrificing some durability, I would imagine. They run from around $40 to four figures, maybe higher in some rare cases.

I  honestly never wanted any of them besides my all-butch black DW9052-1ccg until the day before yesterday. I was set. I was perfectly content in the G-Shock department. 

And then I saw the GM-110RB-2A (Also known as The Rainbow) in a video:

-- O sweet Richard Mille! 

But apparently 500 people felt similarly before I did and it was a limited edition of 500 and it sold out very quickly, months before I knew it existed. I'm trying to make myself want it less by telling myself the truth: that those gold-colored parts on the sides are metal, not shock-resisting rubber, as I had assumed when first seeing it in the video. That's helping a little bit. Transluscent gold rubber would've been even better. And more durable, as one braved the deepest techno raves of California. Tell me I'm wrong. 

Look how beautiful. MSRP $280. All gone. And now I'll be searching the newest G-Shock releases and reading the G-Shock news. Waiting for them to do it again.

The Hodinkee John Mayer G-Shock

Hodinkee, the nearest thing I've found to a horological periodical I can take seriously, narrowly beating out Time + Tide, put a post on Facebook with a huge headline about an upcoming release of a collaboration between John Mayer, G-Shock and Hodinkee. It's not even a link to a story about the new John Mayer G-Shock. Just a huge banner headline saying that it's coming soon.

My G-Shock cost under $50 on Amazon back in May. I'm pleased with it, although most days I wear a mechanical, or 2 mechanicals, one on each wrist. An expensive G-Shock (by which I mean, priced between $200 and many thousands) seems to me to be a contradiction of what a G-Shock is: superior basic function and no frills. It seems silly, like a solid gold Seiko 5 or a $200,000 deluxe Volkswagen Bug. 

John Mayer? A disappointment to me, but it's not his fault that such big expectations were set upon him. A disappointment MUSICALLY. As any kind of horological expert, he's not a disappointment, he's a joke. Or maybe not even a joke, but just a punchline. 

Hodinkee? Easier for me to take seriously when they're not involved in this sort of thing. 

But I have to remember that it's a mistake to take anything to do with watches too seriously. For about 40 years, quartz watches -- such as the G-Shock -- have been more accurate than mechanical watches. But we watch fanciers fancy mechanical watches almost all of the time. The biggest exception being the G-Shock, a very popular option among military special forces. 

 

But most of us who buy G-Shocks are just pretending to be commandos. (Do even commandos still actually need any sort of watches, or is that need now covered by phones and other computers, as it is with the rest of us? I have no idea.) The way that most people who buy diver's watches, which are mostly mechanical and can be extremely expensive, never go diving, and the way that most people who wear pilot's watches are not pilots -- and so forth. It's a big game which is all in our heads, the same way that most people who own Porsches which can go 200mph never drive them as fast as 100mph. The same way that very, very many things are just games in our heads.

It's all very, very silly, this business with watches. Whenever I forget that, I become even sillier.

"Is Quartz Finally Cool?"

That's a headline at Time & Tide, an Australian website devoted to watches. They're asking whether quartz watches are cool now. The answer is no. Time & Tide, for some reason, have jumped onto the quartz bandwagon with both feet, and all it's done is make Time & Tide less cool.

For decades, there have been only two kinds of cool watches with quartz in them: Casio G-Shocks, indestructible, mostly very cheap quartz watches, mostly with digital readouts, with various additional functions, timers, alarms, lights etc, on various models, popular with military commandos and action-adventure movie tough guys; and Grand Seiko Spring Drives, which, although each one has a piece of quartz in it, aren't really "quartz watches" in the usual sense. As the name implies, a Spring Drive is driven by a spring. The quartz is there to help it run more accurately. I don't understand how, but I still think it's really cool -- and definitely NOT a quartz watch. They cost four figures and up. The G-Shock, like most devices referred to as "quartz watches," is powered by a battery which needs to be replaced every now and then. No battery in the Spring Drive.

There are also no batteries in some electronic watches, such as those powered by light, which strikes me as being much cooler than the battery-driven option. Do they also each have a piece of quartz crystal inside, like the Grand Seiko Spring Drive, to make them more accurate? I'm not sure, which should give you some idea of the overall quality of this blog post. I think they do. In any case, in most devices referred to as "quartz watches," there are batteries which need to be replaced every couple of years or so, more often if unusual stress is put on the battery by constantly turning on a light in the dial or by heavy use of some other extra functions. Some G-Shocks are described as "solar." Does this mean they use light instead of batteries, or in addition to batteries? I don't know. Some G-Shocks can be had for as little as $30 or so, most for under $100, and a very few extra-fancy ones cost more than $1000.

Some people say that this is all very simple: quartz watches are better, they say, because the purpose of a watch is to tell time, and quartz watches are more accurate. These people are completely missing the point of watch ownership. We have accurate electronic timepieces in our laptops and phones, on the dashboards of our cars, in our TV's and radios and microwave ovens and so forth. We wear watches because we like them, not because we need them. It's been quite a while since anybody has actually needed a watch. Rather than actually using our watches to tell time, we use all of the above-mentioned electronic timepieces to measure how accurate our spring-driven watches are.

The brilliant watch manufacturer Urwerk recently underscored this point when they introduced a watch sold together with a suitcase-sized portable atomic clock which very, very accurately sets the time on the watch.

Combined price: over two and a half million dollars, mostly for the atomic clock, although it's a very, very nice spring-driven watch, as are all Urwerk watches. I wonder how many people get the joke.

A Newbie In The World Of Watches

If you comment on the ads on Facebook which are called "suggested posts," Facebook will show you similar stuff. If you click on the links, Facebook will show you a lot of similar stuff.

It's too bad that 2 of the links to watch sellers or watchmakers which looked more interesting led to websites where you have to register before you can browse. PITA, later, bye, Touch of Modern, which sells various high-end brands, and Minus-8, a somewhat affordable brand.

Minus-8 says they're from San Francisco. Can it be that some interesting-looking mechanical watches are actually Amurrkin?! I surfed around some watch forums and watch-review sites, and by God, yes! Minus-8 makes automatic watches! With Seiko NH35A automatic movements. And the watches are actually assembled in China. (Seiko is a Japanese company, but some of their movements are actually made in places like Malaysia.)

And speaking of sites which review watches: other than the legendary Watch Snob®, I'm not sure whether I've seen anyone yet who is more interested in uncompromising critical evaluation of timepieces than in having a place on the Web where a lot of watchmakers will advertise. I may have come across a couple such. I'm just not sure yet. I did a Google search for best watch reviewers, and literally all that got me was some remarks on several different sites about how they were the best watch reviewers. So, I'll keep looking. This is all still very new to me.

Like Seiko, Casio was a brand name I'd heard forever without realizing that they make some stuff which some people get really enthusiastic about. I've got a couple of pocket calculators on the table here next to my computer, and one of them ... *checking* ... hey lookit that, actually both of them are made by Casio. I bought them both back in the early 1990's, I rarely use either of them or give them much thought, I bought the SL-100B, which folds in half and has large keys, much more for the physical design --

-- than for any other reason, although the physical design is very important, I think. Using the SL-100B is a pleasant experience for me -- and the other one has many more functions, not all of which I know what they are. They both run on indoor lighting, never had to get a battery for either of them or recharge them or do any other sort of maintenance on them. They both still work just fine, is that remarkable for pocket calculators made in the early 1990's? I don't know.

The reason I mentioned Casio is because they make a watch called the G-Shock, which is renowned for its unbreakability. I went through a number of sites dedicated to the G-Shock looking for info about the movement, about whether there were any G Shocks with mechanical movements. I found only references to quartz movements in G-Shocks. On one G-Shock fan page a G-Shock fan patiently tried to explain how all watch movements should be quartz, basically because they're much, much more unbreakable. Whaddygonnado, quartz is quartz and mechanical is mechanical and never the twain shall meet. There are those Casio G-Shock fans over there, and there are us Seiko 5 fans over here, and perhaps most of the people in one group will never understand what the other group is so excited about.

This is my Seiko 5, by the way:

There are many others like it, but this one is mine.