G-Shock #16: Rescue Orange square, long overdue

Today's article on 50 Gs is a guest article by my co-author Christofono Brown from sunny Hawaii. As he already wrote this article months ago, I bought a nice prop to introduce this artice, as I happen to stumble upon this cool (Hawaiian?) "Surf Dudes having a BBQ set by Lego". I promised Christofono I would take some extra macro photo's and some EL shots. You probably recognize them between the sunny hawaiian pics. Enjoy reading. 

Sjors

Rescue Orange. There is a lot of fondness for that color within the G-Shock community. Originally released in 2008 the Men in Rescue Orange series surprised and shocked a lot of people. After the Men in Yellow series there had been variations of Men in Black for more of a tacticool look. This color way was definitely different and well received and still sought after to this day. One of the bigger and frustrating things about this release was the fact that the Japanese and rest of world releases were so different. For outside of Japan the international series was the G-Rescue series sharing the same colorway but with non-atomic (and non-solar on all but Riseman) versions of the same watch! Another important point here is that in Japan orange G’s are referred to/compared to BEAMS collaborations because they use the same orange in their logo. Beams has had three series of G-Shock releases, but that is beyond the point of this square. Let’s just agree and point out that this orange is sought after.

The Men In Rescue Orange series (a.k.a. M.I.R.O. series) from 2008.

What was maybe more shocking was that there was no square. Technically squares are not “Master of G” but Casio usually does release a square and a couple other randoms in a similar color way. Not that year.

In October 2014 Casio brought the color way back. Just called the “Rescue Orange Series” containing not one, but TWO squares (the DW-D5500 is also considered a square). On top of that this re-release contains TWO AWG-M’s (the smaller analogs) along with a member of the XL family the Infamous GA-110. While the two AWG-M’s were mainly released for Japan only, the others were worldwide with no changes.

For purposes of this article we will concentrate on the squares as they are the significant additions.  Focusing on the GW-M5610MR-4 here.  Main differentiations between this re-release and the originals is the switch to a negative display from an orange hued positive display and the lack of the fireman’s axe in the backlight in the re-release.  As you can see, the resin is very similar.

Paying homage to Emergency Responders the world over the colorway matches up perfectly.  An odd thing to mention here is the presence of four stars in the lower right of the display on this piece which shows up from time to time on these atomic squares.

The functions of this model have been covered before but I think it is pertinent for this review to stand alone. Besides being solar, this G is MultiBand 6 which means it can synchronize with atomic towers in the US, UK, Germany, Japan (x2), and China. 200M Water Resistant, EL Backlight, World Time with 29 time zones (48 cities + UTC), city code display and daylight saving on/off. 4 daily alarms and 1 snooze, hourly time signal, 1/100 second stopwatch with a 24hour capacity, Countdown Timer, Full calendar until the year 2099, 12/24 hour formats, button operation tone on/off, and an accuracy of +/- 15 seconds per month should you be outside the towers’ reach. Power saving function in conjunction with a solar rechargeable battery (part of the Tough Solar) that has an approximate battery life of 10 months on a full charge without further exposure to light. Should get you through most winters!  Module 3159 is the one.  And maybe one of my favorite aspects of this G: the dimensions. Size of case / total weight  GWM5610 46.7 x 43.2 x 12.7mm / 51.7g 

For fans of this model the attraction really lies in the color. The first Rescue Orange square, it is definitely fun to wear around and to look at.

My two cents on squares? I love them. Nostalgia within the brand and “origin” design is all well and good, but the intelligence behind it is solid as well.  Only in today’s wristwatch world are these considered “small”. The fact is by being smaller it is also harder to hit or take an impact so it can get away with less “armor”. Look at that last line again of total weight: 51.7g. After wearing other G-Shocks it is completely normal to forget you are wearing a resin cased square. Add in that it is one of the few G-Shocks that fit well under cuffs of shirts and jackets (particularly useful in winter) and the versatility from the slim design becomes apparent.

I really enjoy orange G-Shocks and squares, and this re-release came completely out of nowhere for everyone.  A total surprise! As soon as I found out it was coming out I had to have both of these squares. With a Suggested Retail Price of 20,000 Japanese Yen for the Solar Atomic GW-M5610MR-4 it quickly found a home.