Sunday, June 21, 2009

#28: Silver G-Lide, repainting delight.

About two weeks ago I saw this auction on eBay Germany. The bids were low and I thought I would give my luck a try.

I could not see which model this was exactly, but it sure was a G-Lide model from Summer 2002 (20th Anniversary model). I managed to win the auction. Final bid only €5,72. It must have been my lucky day.The watch somehow reminded me to a watch I spotted on Queensday 2009 (a day that later ended tragically, but that's a different story). The scouting group of a nearby village were entertaining kids with baking bread above a fire. I noticed that one guy was wearing a G-Shock. I noticed the watch had three eyes, so I was quite curious. There were many children waiting in the que, so I didn't want to bother him with trivial questions what G it was and where he got it.
I had sent out a message (in my best German) that I had won the auction, that I was a Dutch collector and that I would pay for the extra shipping costs from Germany to the Netherlands. A day later I got the message that it all was OK (98% of the German sellers don't mind sending to the Netherlands if you ask politely in German). The seller only had to check the shipping costs. After that it remaind pretty silent, so a few days later I wrote another message, if he knew the shipping price already. After excusing for the dalay, he wrote he got the shipping price. €8.45 is a very good price for shipping. Amazingly he had a Paypal acount (which was not common in Germany a few years ago). only excused himself for posting it later, because he would be in Germany again later. At the bottom of his e-mail I noticed a signature. This guy had his own website: www.shane.de.
I'm pretty curious, so I followed the link. While I thought I was buying from a German seller that didn't know much about sending and selling outside Germany, the seller apeared to be a pretty known DJ on tour through Canada and the USA!
Actually the watch arrived pretty quick. Three working days later it was delivered at my doorstep. As was stated in the auction, the watch was used, though I had expected an even worse scenario. Some scratches on the metal parts and a lost "H" in G-SHOCK. An excellent candidate for a repaint job.
So what do I need: good paint (I use scale model paint, better known as Enamel), a brush to apply on the letters, a piece of paper tissue and white spirit (in Dutch called wasbenzine) to wipe of excess of paint.
First I paint over the lettering. It's actually not as thick as it looks on the photo, but the paint covers all the letters well.
The trick is to remove the excess of paint carefully. You need the tissue paper with a little bit of white spirit (or an other mild paint remover) and carefully wipe over the bezel. Repeat this two or three times with a clean part of the tissue and fresh white spirit. After that the bezel looks like new painted. Sometimes there is a little white/gray hue over the resin, because of the white spirit residue, but that goes away pretty fast. Of course I was a bit unhandy, so unattended I painted my fingers a little too...
I noticed the black part with the G-logo under the light button was not as bright as the lettering on the bezel. Although normally I would not have repainted it, I did it to make it look more matching with the bezel.
So what kind of watch do we have here. It appears to be a silver version of the GL-150. The GL-150 is the overseas summer 2002 G-Lide model. In Japan same and different color variations were released under number GL-151.
I actually have the clear red version, which I bought new from "Peter Porschen Zeit und Juwelen", a friendly jeweller in Augsburg, Germany. He contacted me after the release of the European models that he could get limited supply of the pink and yellow version. While the basic model was pretty expensive, these limited model were far above my financial limit. Also I thought these models (with the pale pink and yellow color) were more feminine models.
The summer 2002 G-Lide models G-Shock feature the multil layer display, which were also used earlier in Twincept and Protrek models. With two or three layers of LCD displays, it is possible, with different color liquid crystal, to create different color displays on one watch.Although the GL-150 has black, blue and red liquid crystal displays, you can actually only choose between two different screens in time keeping mode. Both choices can be seen in the photo above and below.You might think "Sjors, you didn't like blue, don't you?" Well, that might be, but I think I like the blue DAY display with the red digits more than the plain gray/black display. It also look more symetric with the blue date digits too.
The best thing for me is that the GL-150 comes with a tide graph. For people living and/or sporting near or on the sea, this is a handy gadget. I always check the tidegraph when we go to the beach.
In the tidegraph the actual tide flashes on and off in the display. As you can see above in the photo above, it is high tide at west side of Walcheren.
The tide is caused by the forces of the sun and the moon. The hight of the tide depends on the moon age. If it's full moon, the moon is opposite of the sun and the pulling of these celestial bodies cause the highest tide possible, while with the moon in a quarter, the moon has less influence resulting in neap tide.
The tidegraph of the GL-150 can shows the moon age and the Tidegraph can also show if there is a higher or lower tide difference in the graph. For an accurate working of the Tidegraph you need to program the watch well. If you program the proper latitude and longitude and the lunitidal interval, the watch can calculate the the tides on your coordinates. I have once written an article to help you find and calculate these data.
The design of the GL-150 is pretty unique for G-Shock. These big square display models with a kind of streamlined case were only released in 2002. The rim protecting the display is pretty high, so the display is well protected agains unexpected encounters with walls, doors, surfboards and other objects that can come on the way. It sometimes reminds me to the glasses of DMC.
The the 4 buttons on the side have button guards. The light button is placed in a recessed part, that also acts as a button guard.
When I got the watch I had to feed it a new battery (it was very dead). It was actually not easy to get at the battery lid. The metal upper part of the bezel must be removed after removing the back protector. A mysterious copper spring falls out of a hole of the case, which actually connects the bezel to the battery lid. I have no idea why. Sorry I did not make photo's of this procedure. I might re-open the case again later and post it in an intermezzo.
The streamlined design is also found on the straps with fish grate formed holes. A bump on the end of the strap works as a lock on the strap keeper (see above).
The back protector makes the watch pretty comfortable on the wrist. Though I still think this model looks a bid odd, I think it looks pretty good on the wrist.
These dual layer displays make you of course curious how the EL Backlight would look like.
The EL is pretty bright and sharper than in the photo's I took. Different is that the sharpness rapidly decays if the view angle is different than the normal viewing angle (from your wrist). Not something to worry about. You must wear your watch when you use the EL backlight."He knows the moon, he knows the stars. He knows the milky way"...

8 comments:

  1. Hi Sjors,

    I have one also, but is round model GL-160 (Jelly Blue), an ultimate G's with duplex LCD + Mooon Graph + Tide Graph....one more: It got also Sunset/Sunrise Mode which hard to find on newer G-Shock model, except for Protrek Series....

    Cheers,

    yschow

    ReplyDelete
  2. Hello Chow,

    The GL-160 is pretty cool too. I saw Modest posted his on his weblog about a year ago.

    http://modest-watchblog.blogspot.com/2008/07/casio-g-shock-gl-160-3.html

    I think it has nice looks.

    It is indeed a pity that the sunset and sunrise feature is not present anymore of recent Tidegraph models.

    The older Tidegraphs use both Longitude and Latitude for the calculation. The combination of the two makes it possible to calculate the sunset and Sunrise data.

    The newer models only use longitude, which only calculates your (horizontal) position to the moon and the sun. We just had the longest day yesterday.

    I was finished working for a theater choir last Saturday and we traveled back around 23:00. There was still some daylight. Pretty strange and cool too.

    Cheers,

    Sjors

    ReplyDelete
  3. Hi Sjors,

    What you say is true. I think the removal of the latitude of some of the newer G-Shock model is a loss for Casio. They should remain it to allow us to know the Highest Point of the Moon for easier for programming the tide graph. I lived near Kuala Lumpur, Malaysia. The nearest port is Port Klang. Thankfully, with your article written in watchuseek forum, I manage to find the correct lunitidal interval for Kuala Lumpur. Beside, my old GL-160 got one features which I like most: The tide graph & the moon phase. As I compared some of new models such as Gulfman G-9100, GLX-55XX & GLX-5600 G-Lide, the tide graph is only show up & down tides. Not like the GL-160 which shows the tide whether is neap, intermediate or high. While the moon phase, today newer models of G's only show 4 phases, compared with GL-160 is showing 16 phases! which was more details.

    So far as I know, the only model who still maintain this detailedness is Protrek PRG-130 which the moon phase can be switch from left or right view. This model which I will included in my hunting list once my G's hunting are over...haha.

    Cheers,

    yschow

    ReplyDelete
  4. Hi Sjors!

    I'm in Japan right now and I got a Codename A.D.M.A.
    Similar to the one that you got.
    I have one question though, the ADMA comes with a fabric strap.
    Is there anyway that I can change it to a resin strap?

    ReplyDelete
  5. Hello porcupine,

    The basic Codename Cipher came with a leater/cloth strap similar as those found on the DW-003 and DW-004. Also the strap adapters are the same on all these models. A resin strap of the DW-003 and DW-004 would fit a Codename Cipher too.

    Personally I think the A.D.M.A. model looks great and changing it's strap will loose a lot of it's original character.

    Kind regard,

    Sjors

    ReplyDelete
  6. Great story....and fantastic watch. I'm a little new to the G-Shock scene so it looks old school but I love the huge tide graph.

    ReplyDelete
  7. I have one of these for sell. (Exactly the same grey model!) The watch is brand new and I can sell it for €70.
    If you want it just let me know here:
    tudor@gmx.com
    Please include a phone # in your email message.

    ReplyDelete
  8. Hi Sjors,

    My name is Eugene and I am from Singapore. I came across this thread while doing a Google search for G-Shocks made in 2002. That's because I made a wonderful discovery last Saturday -- I spotted a Brand New in Box GL-150TC G-Shock at a watch store here (it's a popular chain of watch stores called City Chain). Needless to say I bought it for an an amazing SGD150! Casio hasn't re-issued the watch have they? It's curious that this model should still be around 10 years after it was produced. I am curious if this model is readily available where you are.

    ReplyDelete