The World Championship Football 2006 was held in Germany. Casio was one of the major sponsors of the event. For this event Casio released several watches.
GW-1201WC-9AV (not in my collection)
GW-1400WCE-9AVER (not in my collection)
Some models were released worldwide. In Europe also two special G-Shock models were released, the GW-1201WC-9AV and the G-Shock GW-1400WCE-9AVER. Both models have a blue dial with gold accents and the World Cup shown on it.
One special series was dedicated to the national teams of Germany, Brazil and France and therefore called the "World Cup 2006 Soccer team uniform colors series". I think these teams were chosen, because Brazil ended up as World Champion 2002, Germany 2nd place and in 1998 France was World Champion.
This series was released World Wide in August 2005. It consisted of a Brazilian DW-6900WCJ-9, a German DW-5600WC-1 and a G-300WC-2 model. The complete model number in Europe ends with ER, in Japan with JR, so my in German bought Germany model is model number DW-5600WC-1ER.
I think the 5600 and 6900 model were made in big numbers. You don’t see the G-300WC model often for sale, while in the other models were for sale in large numbers after the World Cup. In the end of 2008 there were a lot of bulk batches of these watches for sale on eBay Germany. I do not know the exact prices anymore, but you could get one of these for about €30.- each if you bought a batch of 4 or more watches.
This was a good opportunity for a lot of G-Shock collectors on WUS. Some members bought big batches and divided the watches non-profit to other members who else could not buy these watches from eBay Germany.
I bought my 2 DW-5600WC straight from Germany. I also got the DW-6900WCJ in that batch. I already owned a DW-6900WCJ before these batches appeared on eBay, which I bought in 2006 in Japan (for a quite higher price).
The G-Shocks of this series were sold in a special package. The outer box is white with two green lines. The Logos of the Word Cup 2010 and the FIFA are printed on it and it says it’s an “Official Licensed Timepiece of the 2006 FIFA World Cup”. Also a hologram sticker on the side of the box refers that this is a real licensed product. The FIFA World Cup is not only a big sports event, there is also a pretty commercial circus around it to get such a big tournament financed.
The FIFA and its sponsors try their best to protect their commercial rights. You could have seen this last week, when Dutch women were arrested for wearing orange dresses. Well, all Dutch supporters wear orange, but these dresses were given away by a crate beer of a certain beer brand. Since Budweiser is one of the Mayor sponsors of this event and Dutch women in these Bavaria Dresses (the women were known in the Netherlands as “Bavaria Babes”) got a lot of media attention, FIFA decided to take action.
Inside the box there is a white tin, with the same green striping, logos and text printed on it. It is not a white version of the common G-Shock tin. In the same package were not only the G-Shock models for the World Cup sold. In 2006 I noticed that also a Referee Watch (RFT-100) was sold in this package in a timepiece store in Domburg.
Inside the tin you find the watch, a label and it’s manual. The DW-5600WC-1 is the only model that has a different tone bezel than the straps. It represents the German home colors, a white shirt and black shorts.
The display plate (the part under the crystal around the LCD display) is gray. Normally it would have been black, but around the display there are the colors of the German flag.
German flag (black - red - gold) vs Belgium flag (black - yellow - red)
There is made quite a mistake in the sequence of colors though. Black-yellow-red are the colors of the Belgian flag (in vertical lanes), the correct colors of the German flag are Black-red-yellow. Also the FIFA World Cup is shown on the plate.
Actually the World Cup 2006 was an important event for Germany and it’s flag. Since World War II German people were pretty modest in showing the national colors and emblems in a reaction of the use excessive use of nationalistic flags and symbols of the Nazis. During the World Championship German supporters showed the German flag and the flag colors on clothing and body paints to support their team. Since the World Cup 2006 the use of the German flag has increased a lot.
While there is no print on the straps, the strap keeper has a FIFA emblem printed on it. The logo of the World Championship is etched in the back of the watch.
A funny detail is the backlight. It shows a lion playing football. These were the mascots for this event. The Lion is called Goleo IV, the lovable lion. His sidekick is Pile the talking football. These mascots were designed by the Jim Henson Company, known for the Muppet Show.
You can still find these DW-5600WC models in Germany, even 4 years after the event for friendly prices. I still am not sure what to think of the strange combination of black straps and a white bezel, but it doesn’t look that strange. The German team placed themselves with the best 16 countries by winning from Ghana with 0 – 1. Tonight “Die Mannschaft” will play for a place among the best 8 countries against England. Of course I support “Oranje” (“Orange”) , but I have a feeling that Die Mannschaft will get far in the tournament.
Very interesting, thanks.
ReplyDeleteI think the white bezel-black strap is a nice combination, and the gray display plate is cool, too.
The fact that there are still some of those for sale maybe shows that Casio or FIFA over estimated the quantity for production, ending up with a lot of un-purchased pieces.
Cheers, Galpo.