#37 Crazy Color in Metallic blue for Bram

Blue is Love, who never understands,

Green is Revenge, it has all time in the world,

Yellow is the Farewell, which is in all things,

The Agony is lonely, thus Agony is white.

Gray is despair, that has though it all out.

Red is the lie, who kisses you goodnight.

 At this moment, I write this article in Mesland, in the valley of the Loire, between Amboise and Blois in France. It is a beautiful area, where in the rich France history about every important family and royalty had their own castle. My father has done a lot genealogic research in the past. When you go back far in my father’s family tree, you end in this area in France.

 

A few hundred years back our family name was Dublois (from Blois). Since the family was a noble family and also protestant. The family fled, like a lot of Huguenots, in the 16th century to The Netherlands. They changed the family name into a common local Dutch name.

 

According an uncle of me, a Dublois family castle must be located here in the area. Looking for a castle here is something like looking for a tent on a big camping in the middle of summer. Maybe in the future I should return here and try to find that castle.

 I do not have internet here, but, while enjoying the sunshine, French bread and Port Salute, I try to write a small 50 Gs article. Not a lengthy one. I can´t do much research, but for this watch I think I can do without research. I noticed the song above playing on my iPhone, when I was thinking about the color blue and this watch. The poem is a translation of this song. The translations does unfortunately not sound as good as in Dutch. Some photo´s were made before I left to France. Most, the ones looking as holiday snapshots, are taken during my holiday.

Somewhere at the half of August a proud father (Adrian Lee from Kuala Lumpur) posted a topic on the G-Shock forum. He had bought a present for his 7 year old son, because he had passed an exam with very good results. When asking his son what he wanted for reward, the son answered that he liked to have a G-Shock. The blue metallic DW-6900CB-2DR of the 2009 Crazy Colors series. I was pretty amazed a 7 year old boy would ask for such a big watch.

Somehow Bram was walking near the computer while I read it, so I showed him the photo’s. “Wow, that’s a nice looking watch!” he said in an enthusiastic tone. Then I said it was the watch of a 7 year old boy. I saw him frowning. He just celebrated his 10th birthday in July.

Bram wore a DW-004 with a Double Velcro strap for years. In better times the watch was white and blue, but somehow the paint chipped of over the years and the watch looks more or less pinkish in some spots. Replacing that watch would not be before it’s time.

I had a DW-6900 (pink 2008 Crazy Colors version) at hand, so I gave it to Bram to fit. While I thought it was still somewhat too big, he seemed pretty satisfied with the fit. “I even have two holes extra”, he said, “It fits pretty well”. He took off the watch and went to his play corner on the other side of the living room.

 

 

 We do have a kind of tradition that we bring presents for Bram during the trip. Eva, my girlfriend, started this the first time we went for a long travel on holiday in France to make the long travel more easy. Actually Bram never had problems with long travels. While some children get pretty annoyed in the first hours of a travel, you won’t hear Bram complain during a 12 hour ride to Southern France.

So, when Bram went to bed, I started looking for this blue DW-6900 model. It is pretty easy to find one, but the prices vary a lot. The cheapest place to buy is in the US, but a heavy customs fee is nearly unavoidable. This model is also available in Europe, but most prices are between €89 and €99, without the €15 to €20 shipping costs. I ended up at a seller called Watches59 in Singapore, who had the watch for just over €60 including shipping. Since I had already bought an extra camera and some other necessities for on holiday, I had to check my finances. I managed to find the €60 somewhere and ordered the watch. I had 14 days before we left. Packages from Singapore take 7 to 14 days to reach me.

It was pretty exciting waiting for the package. I gave the seller some instructions how to sent it, to avoid customs and postal delay. The Dutch postal service have the annoying tendency to hand over all packages that may contain something with any value. Even a $20.- watch will be taxed, and the postal service may add a fee of €17.- for handing over the package and holding it foe about a week. That was something I could not need now (the Dutch postal service have no clue what Express post supposes to mean, in practice it means “Add an extra delay of 3 to 5 working days”).

 

Luckily the package arrived in 8 days (6 working days) without delay. The seller had disassembled the box, so it all fitted in a padded envelope. A pretty smart way of shipping. While Bram and Eva were doing some shopping, I made a bunch of photo’s of the watch for G-Peopleland and 50 Gs. I assembled the box together. Actually it’s a joyful work, these black G-Shock boxes are put together in a smart way. That evening I gave the watch to Eva, to put it in a nice gift paper.

Finally the big day. We went on vacation in the last weeks of my summer holidays. Just over the French border, near Lille, Eva gave the package to Bram. It had already been two weeks, when I showed Bram the photo’s, so I was curious about his reaction. After some sound of tearing paper the shout “Cool!” was heard, “That is the watch I always wanted!”. Pretty funny, the perception of a 10 year old child, when 14 days can be defined as always and forever.

The DW-6900CB-2DR was from the Crazy Colors series of 2009. This series feature bright complex colors and a metal mirror around the display. The black model has a golden mirror, the silver metallic and blue metallic model have a silver mirror. I don’t have the red version, but I think it has a silver mirror too. From these series the black/gold model seems to be the most popular. . I can imagine that, because it is both a good looking color combo as a real looker.

Posing for a statue of one of his biggest heroes, Leonardo Da Vinci. It is in the garden,  near his grave, at the castle of Amboise.

Recently Casio announced a new series of Crazy Colors for 2010, which are probably just available or will be soon.

Bram is wearing the watch now a few days and this blue model is pretty noticeable. Probably also because it is worn by a small boy, but mostly because of the bright color. The metallic finish reflect light in a way that you can’t look around the watch. The sunlight plays with the mirror and with the purple inverted LCD it is a pretty daring color combination.

A surprise was the deep blue EL backlight. EL backlight on a G-Shock is usually cyan or greenish. I never have seen such a deep blue EL backlight color.

The functions of the DW-6900 has been told here probably more than a dozen times, so let’s keep it short. The DW-6900 model has been around or about 15 years, and it has been proven to be a very successful model. The Alarm function seems simple, but it can be set to every day, a day (number) of the month, all days of a certain month or a specific date. The Flash function lights up the display as an alarm sounds. I always thought this was a pretty cool function on a watch, though with the hourly chime it flashes 24 times a day, which might eventually shorten the battery life. The Stopwatch and Countdown Timer are both of the 24 Hour type. Maybe it sounds like not much functions, but I think these are the most basic functions on a watch. And of course the DW-6900 is a basic model.

The DW-6900CB is still available everywhere. It’s maybe wise to look around a little. I already mentioned that this model can be found for a good price in the USA, Singapore and Hong Kong. Also in Europe this model is easily available, costing about €20.- more (I think the cheapest price I could find was €89.-).

Do I like the watch? I think people who know me a bit know the answer. I wouldn’t wear it, simply because I don’t like blue colors. Funny thing is that the father of the 7 year old boy congratulate Bram for having a better taste than me, and why not. The watch is a real looker. Not because it is big. His DW-004 is HUGE. Fact is that this tint of metallic blue heavily contrast with every skin tone (except if you happen to be a smurf). No doubt, Bram is very happy with his new watch, and I think that’s for me most important.

Since I am faster than my schedule for 50 Gs, I will take a short break with writing new articles. I hope yu enjoyed this article with some holiday shots and video.