#18 Enchanted by Ocean gray

Normally I write once a week a 50 gs article. Today I got a great watch from Azraelz in Singapore. This watch was a long wanted grail, that was several times put aside, because other great G-Shock's came on my path. Finally I have an Ocean gray model. Maybe I will obtain a DW-5025D in the (far) future. These are great jelly models. I'm so happy, I just want to share it with you here on 50 Gs. Thank you Azraelz to make a dream come true!
This model had caught my eye since it was released in March 2008. tough decisions had to be made. After the acquisition of the Dawn Black series (including the non-atomic models) and the Rising White series (DW-5025B and DW-5725B double), I was glad the next 25th anniversary series was the master blue.
Most models with blue are not of my liking, so I could skip this series. My wallet was very happy with that decision, I had almost no funds left. Also a lot other nice models came out in the winter of 2007/2008. I got some nice offers. I got a box of 4 great G-Shock's and 7 Baby-G's, a Seiko Monster. Then Casio announced the Ocean Gray series. The fourth 25th Anniversary series of G-Shock. I had no money left and frankly I wasn't sure about this one.
The looks of this series looked like the Men In Smoke series. Casio adopted the color scheme of the ICERC Frogman of 1996. This Frogman was nick named "The Ocean", hence the name "Ocean Gray".
I let this series go and went on collecting other G's. In the summer of 2008 I visited Jurphaas, a G-Shock friend, who lives 2 hour from where I live. When we visited his home he showed me his Ocean Gray DW-5025D. Awesome! Since then the Ocean Gray (more specific the DW-5025D and the GW-9125D) were on my "wanted list".
Somehow I forgot a bit about this series, until recently 2 members on the G-Shock forum showed their Ocean Gray Gulfman. I had seen an "Ocean Gray"Gulfman on the Sales corner, that was just above my budget, but at a great price. When the seller dropped the price a bit it was ttime to snag. I have been on water and bread for a few weeks, but now I have it in the house. Finally, one year after it's release.
I think I have told on 50 Gs my love for the Gulfman (though I pity the absence of a Tidegraph on the Atomic version). It's light (Titanium is used), comfortable and the case design refers back to the classic Gulfman, something that can't be said about the new Mudman.
Apart from the gray jelly bezel and strap, the most striking detail is the mirror display. The only other mirror displays I know are on the "Silver Collection" series (with the DJ Spooky, Eric Haze and Dogtown model).The mirror has one little drawback. Well, it is for me. Though it is actually very sharp to e almost every time for my eyes, my camera thinks different. With the dimmer light in my back garden, my camera rather focus on the outside wall of my studio...
It seems that my eyes are probably more adapted to a mirror display than my camera. It was rather hard to get good photo's with clear digits, but my eyes had no problem. Maybe there was some glare picked up by my lenses (Canon 17 - 85mm 1:4-5.6 IS USM and Sigma 50mm 1:2.8 DG Macro) as I was using the last sunrays available.
I didn't got the box and manual with this watch, but it originally came in the flight case box (which is for the biggest part actually made of cardboard) where the other 25th Anniversary models came in too.
Luckily the seller had put it in a standard G-Shock box, so I could have my Oooh factor. It looked great (what else would you expect). The low sun was already playing with the jelly resin. I had a pretty dull day at work. After the exams I had to empty about 150 bottles, remove the labels, wash them and dry them. Pretty much boring and time consuming work. There was not much needed to make me look happy, this watch made my day!
The watch was set to Honk Kong time, but I changed it to the Paris timezone. You can set the watch to many timezones, but unfortunately AMS (Amsterdam) is not present. You can't win them all. It picked up the Atomic signal from Mainflingen pretty fast.
Well, I should have wait until Sunday, but I couldn't resist. I made a fast dinner for Bram and me and after we were finished, I took the watch outside for a 50 Gs photoshoot.
Outside the watch came out even better than indoors. translucent G-Shocks are playful with light and the sun gives plenty.
Outdoors the golden accents stick out. It does not disturb the look, but it's rather strange too, because the bezel and mirror are silver. The gold tone on some photo's are from the setting sun. Maybe the watch has looked better if silver screws were used, but Casio prefers gold to commemorate the birth of G-Shock 25 years before this release. Also the DW-8200K-8 had gold screws and a titanium bezel.
The metal part under the bezel is titanium and has a good looking pattern. Titanium is used to minimize the forming of rust.
Like all 25th Anniversary models the special logo designed by Eric Haze is etched on the back plate. Doesn't it look good! Often it's hard to get a good angle for a photo of the back plate, but this back plate is very clear. It might have helped I took the photo outside.
The GW-9125D fits very comfortable around the arm. For more fun I have activated the Full Auto Illuminator. This watch has a special type of illumination.
While the display is a normal type, the EL illumination is negative. I do not know much about the details, but it seems that the back reflector (the layer under the LCD that with most LCD's is greenish gray) is black. When the EL light panel lights up, it shines through the black reflector, but the light can't pass the mirror.
I am pretty curious how the metallic liquid crystals are made. Maybe it's partly on oil based. If you spill oil products in water you also see metallic mirroring. However it works, it's a great feature on a watch. Besides the Silver Collection models, also with a mirror display, the GL-110 has a negative EL backlight, but it has a normal display. If I'm correct, the Real Black Frogman has this kind of EL backlight too.