#12 Spring is in the air...

The great dancefloor filler of Thomas Bangalter and DJ Falcon come to my head. "I got so much love to give"... Although we had 12 centimeters snow on Easter Sunday, the equinox has passed.

I work on a secondary school. A lot of kids from 13 to 15 have it difficult these days to keep their hormones under control. They talk louder, try to get attention from the other sexes and often make a fool of themselves. Isn't it a great time to put a light on this G-Shock Lovers Collection.

Since 1996 Casio releases around Christmas sets of a G-Shock and a Baby-G (there were sets with a Club-G instead of a Baby-G).

Most of these sets, called the Lover Collection are in white colour. Sometimes there are other colour varieties. This beautiful set from 1998 is in black. Personally this is the nicest set I know.

I obtained this set from a guy in Germany. He broke up with his girlfriend and didn't like to be reminded to her, so he sold the set.

This set was sold in a nice box. The G-Shock is a Codename model. It has the module of the Codename Cipher, but the case of a DW-004. The set was sold as LOV98-3. The model numbers of the watches are DW-0098 and BGM-098.

A list of emergency codes is given with the watch. I don't think that these codes help in a relational crisis. The Baby-G is a G-Mix model and plays the love songs "Take my Breath away" by Berlin and "My Heart Will Go On" by Celine Dion.

These watches are worn, so there is some wabi on it. I think its a great way of showing tear and wear of love... It's like a new relation. First ,everything shines and is great. After a few months the novelty has gone and not everything is perfect anymore. Wabi always adds character on a watch, specially on a Lovers Collection model.

The past years Casio had released only white Lovers Collections. Recently Mastermind released a very nice black Valentine set. It was presented in a black heart shaped box. I was a bit shocked by the price, €360.-, but it was sold out fast.

My big wish would be if Casio would ever release a nice set (preferred with a nice DW-6900, or with a forthcoming GLX-5600) in the colour of love... Red.

# 11 Bloo Bloo Bloo

Somehow, I don’t like the color blue. As a teenager I was best described as a new wave punk and I liked to be dressed in black. Only my hair. Orange, fluorescent yellow, red, green. But never blue. I have actually no idea why. I never liked blue jeans. I rather had black or brown cargo pants. In 1997 we moved from the city centre of Middelburg (I could roll into my house from the cafés before that) to the edge of the town. Eva, my girlfriend since 1990, decided to paint our toilet blue. She found an article in our VPRO TV guide about a program about blue.

The article says: “blue is a color we feel comfortable with. Who wants to see a glass of red fluid in a TV commercial poured over a sanitary towel, or a glass of yellow fluid over a diaper."

"Blue only associates with safe and secure situations. That’s why police uniforms are often blue. Nowadays everyone wants to paint parts of their house in a certain color. Wouldn’t it be a great market if jeans could be found in all colors. In real this doesn’t work. People are very conservative. Every year fashion writers predict the color of the new season. The truth is black will be always favorite, blue is always OK and the other colors must be happy if they are present in the accessories… “Enough about my toilet and the silly article. Indeed, blue G-Shock’s are not much present in my collection. It’sblack, yellow and red that have the overhand. Still there are a few. Some of them were part of a batch that I bought, some I do like. Well, today’s watch is actuallyof the first category. I bought a small collection in Germany and this one was part of it. If I remember correct the batch also contained a purple DW-6630B and a DW-6700 Skyforce, so it was not a bad deal at allActually I have not much information about this watch. It’s obvious a surf model, but I only know the DW-003S and the DW-9000S in this jelly form. This one is a DW-6900. The model number therefore is probably a DW-6900S-2T, released November 1995. It’s pretty different from the basic triple eyed DW-6900 and the basic DW-6900E (with the same module as the DW-9052). The strap is very comfortable. The watch itself is connected to the band with two adapters. Therefore the watch has the freedom to move along the strap over the wrist. Although it sounds strange, it actually is the reason why this watch is so comfortable.The construction with two adaptors is also a very secure one. G-Shock spring bars built very strong, but in case one might slip loose while surfing, your watch will always hang on the other adaptor. A very clever design.
Also this design allows the watch to dry quick when it’s out of the water. Air can get everywhere through the strap and under the watch. This prevents the watch to become irritating and smelly.
It’s Easter, so I thought it would be nice to make some pictures with a chocolate Easter bunny and with chocolate eggs. I’m a chocoholic, so I don’t mind I have over 2.5 pounds of chocolate eggs here. A happy Easter weekend everyone!!!

#10 Stormtroopers in the Dutch Mountains

The G-Shock of this week is one of my favourites. The new Mudman was quite a big fuzz June 2006. Everyone wanted to see the birth of the new Master of G.
The new G-9000 Mudman has a s the name says a Mud Resist bezel. The 2 compound bezel has a softer kind on resin covering the buttons, which allows the owner to press the buttons through the bezel. The buttons are pretty hard to press, but that’s the price to pay for this structure. Actually the bezel loosen up a bit after frequent use, but the process can be fastened by boiling the bezel in water for a few minutes.
The Mudman came in 4 versions. One version received the Atomic Clock signals in Europe, Japan and the US. This is the GW-9000. The version I present today is the G-9000 in light grey/beige. The colour is actually hard to describe. It’s nit white, but it’s also not hard grey. I think there is a slight hint of yellow in it, making it appear warmer than plain white or grey.
It is said that this model is pretty popular under soldiers serving in Iraq. The beige/grey colour does fit right with the dessert camouflage uniforms and vehicles. Therefore this model is nicknamed “Stormtrooper”.
As a Star Wars fan I have other a associations with Stormtroopers as you can see in the pictures.
For me the military use of watches is not a high priority to love a watch. The reason why I like this watch is the way it appears. The colour of the resin parts seem to adopt the ambient lighting. Therefore it looks like the watch changes colour in different ambiences. The most striking detail is the beautiful amber display.
In the early era of home computers you had monochrome amber monitors. I loved those displays. Green displays always seemed a bit hard for my eyes. This Mudman also has an amber display. It’s very clear with very sharp digits.A nice plus on this watch are the two independent 1000 hour stopwatches. Casio had for this model a functional watch in their minds for long distance more days rally’s.


As you can see the Mud Resist cover now also covers partly the back plate, to prevent mud and sand to come near vulnerable places like the edge of the back plate. An image of a racing mole (reference to the rally contests) is engraved in the back. Six “shock absorbers” are sticking out the back protector, preventing the watch to move on the wrist and also allow ventilation under hot circumstances (like a Lisbon - Dakar Rally).And I did not even mention the Dual Illuminator. For the first time Casio used this feature on this model.
It means that if you push the light button not only the display lights up, but also the plastic ring around the LCD display. Therefore you can read the functions of the buttons also at night. A very clever feature I think. It also looks very nice, specially on this model.
Well, these were the pictures I took for 50 Gs, but I also made a series of the stroll on the beach. You can find it here (English text at the bottom of the article). So you might been thinking about the title. The Dutch Mountains? The Netherlands are as lat as a pancake? Well, indeed, except for a very thin line an the coast. The dunes and dikes hold the sea from the land that is actually below sea level. Although the highest dunes reach around 75m above sea level, they are sometimes called “The Dutch Mountains” after a song by The NITS.

#9 The Burgundy Soul

It's already the 9th post on 50 Gs. It reminds me to the Beatles song Revolution #9. I think the G-Shock I wear today is also a bit revolutionary. It is the G-011D.

I got it from a good friend of me in Chicago. From time to time he offers me pretty nice G-Shock's for a good price. This was one of them. In Europe only the black version is sold in the shops. This one is Burgundy. The 20 Bar water resistance (in stead of 200m) suggests this was actually a Japanese market model.
The European black version is called "Black Soul". Why not call this one analog "Burgundy Soul". It sounds also warmer too.
There is a spoke like pattern on the dial, which makes the light play creating lighter and darker parts on the dial. The hands are luminous and there are 2 round digital sub dials.

When I saw the first official studio pictures of this watch I thought this was not a big model. The rectangular shape of this was also a bit strange and unique.

When I was the first pictures of someone owning this watch, I saw how huge it actually was. The case rises sturdy high on the wrist.
There are 4 screws on the case and 4 screws even sticking out of the sides. This even increase the tough look on this one. It came with a pretty long bracelet. I needed to remove 3 links to make it fit my wrist. It actually feels very comfortable on my 7" wrist.
The watch comes with the following functions: Analogue and digital time (duh), worldtime, a 60 minute countdown timer and a 60 minute stopwatch. It also has 5 alarms and a hourly signal. The analogue time could be set in a different time than the digital time. It has a DST function. With this function you can change the digital time with a simple push on a button into summertime/DST.
The G-011D does not have a Electroluminescent Backlight, but a LED diode that tights up the dial at night. This comes with a very nice amber LED. I am not sure this is the same with all G-001D's.

I must say that at first I was sceptic about this model, but now I have it, it looks great. I still have to get used to this look. Somehow it does remind me more to the fashion watches you see in the streets (like those of Diesel, etc).

The extra screws on the case and the hight case with the protecting edge around the crystal makes this one even look better than those fashion watches.

March DW-5600E

The third G-Shock of the year is the venerable DW-5600E.



This one should be in any G-Shock collection. The 5600 is a direct decendant of the original G-Shock, the DW-5000C.



Casio's G-Shock brand really took of 25 years ago after the famous "slap shot" commercial. You can see it along with some corporate G-Shock history on this page: http://www.casio-intl.com/wat/g_shock/his.html

#8 G-Shock in the G-Peopleland Banner

Like the G-Shock in top of the WatchUSeek G-Shock (G-Shock G300-3AV), I also sometimes get questions about the watch that I use in my G-Peopleland banner. It isn't actually my watch. I took the photo in the ß-lab 3 years ago. From full format I can read I took the photo on December 22nd, 14:23. The student is Anne, now a 3rd year student Forensic Psychiatry of the University of Amsterdam.
She was hooked on G-Shocks, so I helped her purchasing this watch. Actually it now is a very hard to find model. The full model number is DW-003X-4T, first released in 1996. The alarm wasn't working, but I made a little alarm spring myself. With a fresh battery the watch worked flawless. The DW-003X models came in 4 color variants, yellow, blue green and maroon. After 12 years, it now is getting hard to find one in good condition. I think it is a pity, because the face protector and the double Velcro watchband makes this a very tough looking watch. The DW-003 case does not have the common used 1598 module, but the 1659 module. Although the functions are the same, the display is divided in 3 parts and an eye. I specially love the middle part that animates the progression of the seconds. The X in the model number possibly indicates this is an pre-X-Treme model. The X-Treme series were released outside Japan as G-Lide series. These series were designed for sports that need tough watches, like skateboarding, snowboarding, surfing, etc. This model would be a great skateboarding model. The face protector protects the crystal when hitting hard objects. Of course you don't need to ride a skateboard to wear this watch. It is just a very nice looking G-Shock.