Sunday, March 27, 2011

G-Shock #12: G-Lide in black.

 Let’s do a short article today. Due to a very busy experiment scheme at work, I haven’t got time to think about anything for 50 Gs. It looks like it’s going to be a wonderful sunny spring day today. I would like to take a ride on my bike. I haven’t done that since October, since the winter came fast and abrupt last year.
As I expected a guest article this week, I did not worry to much, but I haven’t seen it yet. I had also no idea what to present you today. I dove into my collection and dug out some “simple” models and showed Eva, who was coincidentally walking by to the bathroom. She choose this watch. It’s the GLS-5600V-1DR (overseas version of the GLS-5600V-1JF).
The GLS-5600V is part of the G-Lide series. Outside Japan the name G-Lide for this series was already used since 1996, though Japan first released these models under the X-Treme series. Since 1998 also the Japanese domestic models are released under the G-Lide flag.
The G-Lide series are models dedicated to “board sports”, roughly divided in three categories, surfing, snowboarding and skate boarding. This model was released in November 2008 as part of the winter collection ’08. In the official description Casio gave with this model it mentions the shock absorbing structure (duh… it’s a G-Shock) and LCD that still functions at extreme cold temperatures down to -20 °C.
In the past LCD displays were not cold resist, but as far as I know Casio uses cold resist LCD displays for at least 15 years now in the G-Shock line. I guess it is mentioned here specific to stress that this watch is dedicated to Snowboarding.
 The GLS-5600V features a very nice double Velcro strap. The upper part is made of very thick nylon cloth, while the under part looks and feels like a kind of felt. This strap feels very comfortable on the wrist and the Velcro and buckle closure make that the watch is securely strapped around the wrist.
Like most Double Velcro G-Shock straps, there is a patch on the strap. The patch on this model has a G-Lide logo. It is not the usual surfboard shaped G-Lide Logo, but a logo that is made of bold letters.
 The GLS-5600V models from the Winter Collection ’08 came in three color schemes, a white version with black accents, a lime green model with black accents and a purple negative display and this black model with fuchsia accents. The finish of the resin parts is glossy. Maybe not for everyone’s liking, but it is a nice matching contrast with the strap.
The black part around the display has an etched structure, which makes incoming light laying around the display, like if they are light rays sent from the center of the display. You sometimes see this on dials of analog watches (of various brands), but the use of this around a digital display is quite uncommon.
The case has the classic DW-5600 case, but the 3178 module is pretty new. In the past G-Lide models were equipped with 60 minute Countdown Timers and even 60 minute stopwatches. The 3178 module features 2 Stopwatch functions with a 1000 hour capacity. Stopwatch 1 also has the Auto Start function, which has a 5 second countdown, before the Stopwatch function starts.
 The 24 hour Countdown Timer function is also very complete with a repeat function and a progress beeper, which both can be turned on and off.
The Alarm function with 5 alarms (one is a Snooze) and a hourly chime and a the World Time function features 48 cities in 29 time zones make this G-Lide a very complete watch.
 I normally have a preference of bigger G-Shocks on my wrist, but the GLS-5600V is not only comfortable, the strap make it appear bigger on your wrist. Somehow I do not wear this as a winter watch. II actually like to wear mine in spring time. I have the black and lime green model. I love to wear them when it’s warm enough to wear short sleeves outside.
Although this model is more than 2 years old, it is still not too hard to find this model. A quick search on eBay learned something pretty unusual. The best places to buy this model seem to be in Europe (€50.- and €10.- shipping). Not a bad price for a nice looking watch.

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