G-Shock #23: Bob Marley

I'm quit under time pressure. I have had a busy week and had no time to write an article, or even think forward. Tomorrow I will be on the way the Kaliber 2010 off-line meeting.Well, let's do a short one.

Recently I have been listening to some dub reggae and reggae inspired music. Last week, while enjoying a beer with Eva and my sister in law at a bar, I got curious to the dub reggae music played. Luckily Shazam found the answer. It was a band called High Tone with their double album "Out Back".

Yesterday I was looking at the "Guess the Watch" puzzle at Kaliber 2010. The question was, as most of the times, far to difficult to me, but it reminded me to a nice song by Flip Kowlier. Flip Kowlier is a singer songwriter from a little town called Izegem in Belgium. He sings in his local dialect, which makes him pretty difficult to understand if you are from The Netherlands. About a year ago he released an album, which has a reggae undertone, called Ottoradio (Car Radio). The dial of the watch in the "Guess the Watch" question had stars on it, which made me think of a part of the song text about the stars, the moon and Jupiter (the song in the above video is actually about a garden with a swimming pool).

With hearing such exotic music, I must write about a watch with a similar appearance. Casio has released quite a lot of Reggae and Rastafarian inspired watches. In 1995 they released the "Bob Marley" model.

The DW-002BM "Bob Marley" models were released worldwide and probably in large numbers. I have two of them and I have paid for both of them a very low price. Think somewhere about $30 - $40, about 10 years ago you could find them in large quantities on eBay Germany. On the other hand, they had been worn both and frankly, since I got them, I have been wearing them a lot too. The one I picked out of my collection is the most abused one. You can be sad about a little scratch and stain here and there, or admire it. A little "wabi sabi" gives this watch character.G-Shocks are made for use and abuse.

As you can see on the model number, the DW-002 was the second "Tough Capsule" or "Nexax" model. The case looks pretty huge. The buttons are pretty unique, as, like the bezel, the upper part is recessed a bit (I hope that's the right word, but pics probably say 1000 words in this case).

What would a Bob Marley model be, without the Rastafarian color. The ring around the dial is divided in three circles, from green (gold) to yellow to red. These colors symbolize the green vegetation and beauty of Jamaica,  the wealth of Africa (gold) and the blood of the martyrs.  These colors also come back in the loops around the strap.

According G-Shock Perfect Search (GPS) there are three versions of his watch. I believe there was also a 4th version released, probably only overseas. This one is probably the most common version, the DW-002BM-8. There is also a model with a brown leather strap and a model with a similar strap as this one in yellow. The version I mentioned, that was released overseas had also a similar strap, but in red.

When the backlight is used, you will see a big cannabis leaf . It might look controversial. Japan has very strict drug laws and the penalties for possession of drugs is pretty high. For the Rastafarian believe however, Ganja, or Sensimilla, as Cannabis is called, is used to clean the body and the mind, heals the soul, gives pleasure and bring the believer closer to Jah.

It took a long while before I bought my first "Bob Marley". As you probably know, the use and possession of  small amounts of cannabis is allowed in our country. You sometimes see kids with cannabis patches and tourists like to but T-Shirts, caps and strings with cannabis leafs on it. Somehow, therefore I always found this backlight image quite childish.

In 2007 I finally bought one. Actually, I pretty much liked this model, as I actually like all DW-002 models. You can't really say the DW-002 is a beautiful watch. It's pretty bulky and it hasn't a smooth surface. I think this model is actually beautiful and great, because it's ugly. I wish I had more DW-002 models in my collection

The DW-002BM has a simple 1298 module. It has an Alarm function, a 24h Stopwatch and a 60 minutes Countdown Timer. Pretty basic, but this watch was released in 1995, quite some time ago for a digital watch.

I haven't been searching for this model, but I guess, if you keep your eyes open, you can find one from time to time. Prices will vary from the condition from $40 for a used to maybe $120 or more for a new one. Along my Rolling Stones and my Adrastos, this is a model I have been wearing quite often in the past years. It's a nice beater and summer watch, but as it gets older, I try to be more precious with it. A kind of respect for the elderly I'll guess.