Intermezzo #47: G-Shock shopping in Barcelona, part 2, visiting 24 Kilates

Last Thursday (February 23) we went shopping in the old city. I had already figured out how to get at 24 Kilates. First we went strolling and shopping through the old city.

After visiting several small shops and boutiques Bram started complaining that we were only visiting shops that were only interesting for Eva or me.

We hardly heard his complaint, because we saw these great Japanese lantern hanging outside a shop. While Eva and I were looking through the shop window, Bram walked inside. It was a Japanese shop selling lucky cats and other Japanese utensils. While Eva and I had seen the shop, Bram stayed in much longer, finally coming out of the shop with a pair of beautiful decorated chop sticks.

After a short break at the Starbucks, we went in the direction of a market, which was close to Carrer del Commerç 29.

Near the Starbucks I saw this shop selling G-Shocks.

It was the first time I saw a new G-9300 Mudman live (€199,95). But I couldn't stayin the shop. Eva and Bram headed before a large group of teenage students, while I was enclosed in that group. I tried to call them, but my voice did by far not compete to the squeaking voices of 13 - 14 year olds.  Anyway, this shop was not on my "To do" list.

Finally, there it was. The name of the shop was written in relative small letters on their facade. It was like stepping into another reality. The shop owners (Rickard and Pol) were greeting me when we came in. I immediately saw the great Patta shirts, while dozens of sneakers were showed on racks and displays. In the back of the store you could find a quite cool collection of skateboard literature, which I think was cool. While peeking through a rack of T-Shirts, I found a great Stüssy shirt.  To my surprise, also in my size (XL). They also have a large collection of Rockwell shirts (by Parra). It surprised me that they had a lot of shirts in XL, as this is not a usual size in Spain.

Of course I went for G-Shocks. 24 Kilates has a small, but nice collection of G-Shocks.

 When I showed my interest in one of the G-Shocks, I already got a €30.- discount as it was their last one in stock. We got talking a bit about G-Shocks. I was told 24 Kilates had sold totally 50 of the seconds Dee & Ricky G-Shock. It took just over a week to sell the first 30, and in about one month they had sold two other batches of 10 watches. One of the sellers was in Japan, buying 15 at one time. This story quite let me think the 2nd Dee & Ricky was not rare at all (about 10000 pieces worldwide), but made rare by speculators trying to sell them for about 3x the retail price. I hope the next Dee & Ricky release will be more relaxed than this one.

There was this cool display of Rockwell items. I still like those long legged cherries. I knew there was a Tee with that print, but I never got one. Unfortunately Parra makes almost only white Tees. Not quite practical at my work.

And what would a sneaker store be without the inevitable Adidas Supersars, complete with matching Run DMC glasses and headphone. The shop owners made me a good price on my G-Shock and Stüssy shirt. Well, I will keep it a little secret which G-Shock I bought for now, but it will probably show up here on 50 Gs soon.

With a big smile on my face I left the shop with my 24 Kilates bag. Although early spring, the temperatures were rising quickly. A good occasion to spend some time in the harbor of Barcelona.