G-Shock #5 & #6: Carbon, the next generation

OK, maybe “generation” is the wrong term.  After the RM series release in 2010 Casio started putting carbon straps on GW-9300 Mudmen (Japan market release) but never with the clear exterior to show it off.  The G-Shock cognoscenti had to wait until August 2013 and the 4^th wave of the 30^th Anniversary!  Isn’t that odd?  Normally when Casio does a colorway (let’s call the carbon fiber straps a colorway of their own since they were called the RM series) they run it through a few different G’s over a couple of months (say a summer or a winter or whatever).  We only had those TWO Carbon G-Shocks for a little over 3 years!  Crazy!  The Frog?  Ignore that for now, let’s keep focused on actual carbon fiber straps with clear exterior urethane for the identifiers here.

Let me introduce the DW-6930D.  The first ever carbon fiber 6900!  Even crazier?  Still the only non-square carbon fiber G-Shock.  Pretty unique piece from a few different viewpoints right there.  As part of the 4^th wave of the 30^th anniversary it features 30 stars on the end of the strap. Even wilder is how shouty the face is. Gold mirror screen?  Check.   Gold reflective face?  Check.  Mirror gold light button?  Check.  This is the loudest carbon fiber G I’ve seen.

Let’s talk about the features of the DW-6930D before we get into more visual details.   It is 200m water resistant, EL backlight with afterglow.  Multi-function alarm, hourly time signal, can flash with the buzzer for these alerts as well.  1/100^th second stopwatch that will go to 24 hours.  Can do elapsed time, split time, etc.  The countdown timer works on full second intervals and can go to 24 hours as well as an auto-repeat feature.  Full auto calendar out to 2099, and 12/24hr time formats.  The battery?  CR2016 and it has the 3230 module.

Originally released with a suggested price of 24,000 yen this and its brother have some very nice eye candy.  First let’s start with the straps themselves.  On the long strap at the end is the 30 stars.  Wait, look at them again, those little stars have a height and are physical pieces UNDER the urethane resin layer!  You can watch the light reflect of the sides of them.  Further up the strap is the verbage “30^th Anniversary”, again, actual gold lettering under the urethane.  The cosmetics of these carbon fiber G’s are very durable because of all this.

These carbon fibers G’s cosmetics are surprisingly durable.  I have yet to see any yellowing/discoloring of the clear urethane (unlike the clear jelly Glorious Gold wave of the 25^th Anniversary) on any photo of one anywhere.  Since all the graphics and pieces are underneath, there is no stripes to crack or rub off, and they are safe to wear with cuffs as there is no wear marks unlike bright orange or yellow G’s which commonly get black marks from rubbing/contact with clothing.  You can wear these without great worry about them, the best of all worlds and exactly as Casio intended.

Back to the straps.  Over on the short strap near the bezel is the classic “Since 1983” while on the band keeper (which is also carbon) it simply says “G-SHOCK”.  All of the lettering and stars being in gold to go with the theme of this wave.  The gold continues over to the buckle, buttons, screws, and caseback.

The caseback.  Being a 30^th Anniversary G-Shock the caseback is engraved with the infamous Eric Haze 30^th logo.  It is very nice and adds an extra touch that this G is special.  I also like how the caseback matches the screws perfectly.

The brother.  Or the modern version of the RM series, the GW-M5630D.  If you remember, the RM series were kind of a bridge between the GW-M5600 and the GW-M5610.  This one is a 5610 though with the “30” for 30^th anniversary.  We’ll get into features shortly, for now just look at it.

I like how the Green mirror screen offsets the gold accents.  The purple solar panels also somehow match well.  Like the 6930 it shares the straps and coloring of the gold buttons, screws, buckle and caseback.

And have a look at that caseback will you?  Like the RM series this one is serialized as well.  Very unusual indeed as not many G-Shocks get this treatment.  Mind you, this numbering refers to a batch date, not and individual serial number.  You will also notice how much more pronounced the engraving is on the back vs the 6930. 

Original suggested retail was 33,000 yen.  This one has the 3159 module which of course is solar and atomic as well as 200m water resistance.  Full auto EL backlight with Afterglow, World Time of 29 times zones (48 cities + UTC) with city code display and daylight savings on/off.  4 daily alarms and 1 snooze.  Hourly chime, 1/100 second stopwatch up to 24 hours.  1 second count down timer again to 24 hours.  Calendar is good until 2099 and the watch has 12/24 hour time formats.  Button operation tone is also on/off switchable.  Finally, and really pretty cool: approximate battery life of 10 months on full charge with no further exposure to light.  Oughtta get you through a long winter pretty easily. Due to the lack of titanium this one is specified at 51.7g or almost 5g (10%) heavier than the RM’s.  On one side, 5 grams is nothing, but on the other side you can actually tell.

G-Shock #4: All Carbon, all day

Prologue :

Today's article is written by Christofono Brown, a fellow G-Shock Collector and a nice friend of me from Hawaii. I asked him if he could join me in writing some articles for 50 Gs. After some nice conversations via all kinds of media and reviewing a first raw article, he sent me this article of a first series of three. I simply had to say I was completely amazed. I really enjoyed reading this article, so I hope you will enjoy it as much as I did. A sincere big "THANK YOU" to you Christofono. Have a great read!

Sjors

Carbon Fiber and G-Shocks. Those two items really goes together and you see it on the premium G-Shocks. It elicits an immediate “oh cool” factor on the models that combine the two in the bands of the GPS G-Shocks (the GPW-1000), the Gulfmasters (GWN1000), the Japanese versions of the 9300 series Mudman and the Rangeman (GW9400), and on the high level ProTreks. But where did it start? How? How long ago? Why?

GW-S5600B in box, photo taken from internet

Well, the “why” is a little more obvious. given a few years the resin can break from a few factors. Collectors are familiar with “resin rot” where it gets greasy then brittle even without wear. But collectors are a small part of G-Shock purchasers. Casio was worried about hard working people with the specific idea of construction workers. Turns out daily wear of the watch (normal for most people) outdoor hard work with salt and water contained in sweat the resin would degrade over time. Casio was worried the G-Shock would get a reputation of the straps coming apart before the watch was done. For a lot of the population when a strap break the watch becomes unwearable and is tossed to the side.

This urethane resin degrades over long term use, and is normal in most of its applications. Casio trying to bring out a G-Shock that was up for these rigors of construction work or sports enthusiasts became the goal. Because carbon fiber starts off as a cloth type of material the thought was even if the urethane resin cracked, the carbon fiber would still hold together. On top of that, carbon fiber at that time (and still is at this time in some circles) evoked an image of sportiness, luxury and function.

That was the idea, but not nearly as simple as it sounds. After Casio figured out it didn’t know they partnered with Mizuno to help with this. As a matter of fact, Mizuno still makes all the carbon fiber bands!! Why Mizuno? They already had racquets, golf clubs, etc. Sports items that needed a controlled amount of flex. And why did Mizuno take on the project? In the belief that if it is possible to take advantage of a completely different field, so spread the depth of the company’s knowledge. Or, nobody had done this yet, and if they figured it out it could be useful knowledge in other products.

Turns out there were a few challenges. Just start with the desire for the carbon fiber weave to be visible. As you can/will see, they decided on clear urethane resin around the carbon fiber. The immediate problem was the urethane of course has stretch or give while the carbon fiber does not, creating shearing issues between the two layers. The biggest issue they claim was getting the band to take on a flexible/comfortable characteristic which is completely opposite the characteristics of the carbon fiber itself. Just think of various carbon fiber pieces you may have seen/touched/felt in the automotive world, cycling, tennis, golf, etc. None of those piece you would think of wearing in that form. Another you may have never thought of: when injecting the resin the carbon fiber fabric can wrinkle some, which is immediately visible and obvious under the urethane. The odd request from Casio (as if the others weren’t) was to loop the carbon fiber around the hole for the spring bar. Because there is such a small amount of resin there, it is a common breakage point. This one surprised the team at Mizuno and took a lot of thought. Fortunately Mizuno overcame all of these and others.

If you have noticed, while carbon fiber is in the straps, you have not seen it in the bezel. While it was considered originally for image purposes, it didn’t prove beneficial. Casio felt that it couldn’t just use a material just for the sake of it. G-Shocks are about function, and a material change in the bezel didn’t add up. Mizuno did consider it and prototyped a few to learn. They asked Casio to run them through their normal G-Shock tests, and cracks on the surface were apparent. After a few run versions, Mizuno finally came up with bezels that survived the torture tests. While Mizuno says they learned a lot about fine carbon processing through this experiment, at this time Casio does not use carbon there.
Source: http://news.mynavi.jp/articles/2010/04/27/g-shock-future2/

Ok, so that’s all well and good. When did the carbon fiber G-Shock show up? 2010. June and July of 2010 actually. “But how can that be??” OK, OK, let me continue. In June of 2010 Casio released the RM series. RM for Resist Material as in the carbon fiber in the straps. The RM Series consists of two G-Shocks. The GW-S5600 and the GW-S5600b. The “S” I believe is for Special strap. While the little “b” at the end is for the negative display or black display. That little b is more common in the older G’s for signifying this feature though not consistent. The positive display came out June 2010 followed by the negative display in July. Originally these were limited to 1500 pieces each. Although I don’t think they held to that, it seems like the positive display reached GW-5000 style of regular production meaning that Casio makes them as needed while the negative display is definitely not as common.

GW-5000. We gotta talk out on a tangent real quick. Have you ever heard about the GW-5000 sharing the module with the GW-M5610? Close enough for government work, let’s mark that “yes”. The GW-M5610 was an evolution from the GW-M5600. What was the evolution? The 5600 had Multiband 5 while the 5610 (and thus GW-5000) have Multiband 6. While the GW-5000 brought this out a year earlier, this GW-S5600 was the first G-Shock under 40,000 yen to have it. With the positive display having a suggested retail of 30,000 yen and the negative version commanding 32,000 yen. Making it a little unique in the world of G-Shocks.

And believe me it is a large part of the graphics!!! Proudly displaying “Multiband 6” on the short strap while the long strap brags about the obvious carbon fiber. This G was meant to be a technological Tour de Force. Carbon Fiber straps, titanium buckle, backplate, buttons and screws. Those titanium bits are actually a prelude to the GW-T5030c which was in an earlier 50gs article. All combined making this still the lightest G-Shock produced at 47g. Why isn’t the GW-T lighter? Because the Titanium case is a little heavier than the resin one.

Back to the graphics and appearance. When this G first came out a lot of the collectors actually didn’t care for the graphics and tried various things to erase them. Turns out you can’t as they are under the urethane. I find the graphics very cool, the script used and the color coding to match the bezel and the lettering on the face. You can tell Casio meant this to be more of a flagship as far as getting pictures in all kinds of magazines around the world. And it did. There are a lot of blurbs in magazines of all sorts such as fitness, fashion, tech, etc. Casio definitely succeeded if that was a goal, and from that marketing perspective I find the graphics perfect.

On the positive display the graphics are primarily gray scale with the only color being the Tough Solar on the face on top and a red chevron underneath the shock resist on the face as well. That is it. Everything else is white or grey. All the metal pieces are a suitable silver in color.

Another cool aspect of this G-Shock is that it has a serial number on the back. Very uncommon outside of Frogs and GW-5000’s on modern G’s. Not sure why on either case as many ProTreks are, but an unusual feature. Speaking of features let’s go over them. Using module 3159 it has the previously mentioned Tough Solar and Multiband 6 (can sync to atomic radio towers in the northern hemisphere). On top of that the world time uses 48 cities for the various time zones, a 1/100^th of a second stopwatch up to 24 hours and a countdown timer up to 24 hours as well. 5 independent daily alarms, Power Saving mode, Auto calendar and 12/24 hour time format. Also as previously mentioned it only weighs an astonishing 47g while passing all relevant G-Shock tests of durability.

The negative display GW-S5600b. Love it. Been wanting one for a few years and finally got one through patience and perseverance. I have always found this one attractive and really enjoy wearing it. Let me just point this out now: on my watches, the more I like them the more I wear them. Because of this you will see various marks in these pictures, but let it represent more my fondness for any particular G rather than “work watch” status or callous use. You will see more marks on this one than the positive display version if you are curious about personal preferences.

And it looks great. On this one you will notice the stark high contrast bright white lettering in a couple of key areas that almost seem out of place with the rest of the graphics. While the main graphics consist primarily of black there is also a deep red color and a dull gold color doing the accenting. The bright white just keeps everything from fading away and pulls everything “up”.

The buckle, buttons, screws, and caseback are still titanium, only now they are coated blackr. This may very well be the only G-Shock with a black titanium caseback. Most other Titanium backed G-Shocks are screwbacks to help limit the field in this category. In any case the buttons and everything look great! That serial number I mentioned on the positive display? It is here as well only in white for highlighting effect. Makes the caseback look great and unique!

These are special watches and deserving of a place in the history of G-Shocks. When you wear either one of them they feel special. When you look at it and you see the titanium bits or the shouts of multiband 6 or the visible carbon fiber it just reinforces “cool”. At a basic level, carbon fiber and G-Shock just seem to go together. But when you don’t look at it the watch completely disappears. This is the anti-heft G-Shock. When you move your arm you do not notice it. When you twist your wrist or move your hand you do not notice it unless you wear it loose. It fits under cuffs, and just goes away except when you need it. Then you see it and the “whoa” starts all over again. Simply great G-Shocks.

(EL taken from GW-M5600BC)