G-Shock #25: An old friend falling apart.

Today I start with a series of Mudman articles, which I will try to continue during the month June. It will probably not be easy again to make a series of articles around one model, but since Casio released recently the 3rd generation Mudman, I think I can bring up at least 4 articles. I hope you find them interesting.

This article is not a happy one, I’m afraid.  I thought it would be a happy one before I started it, but it turned out a bit sad when I gathered all my stuff together for this article. It is about my Men In Navy & Khaki (actually misspelled by Casio as Kahki, see above) Mudman, released December 1999.

I had mine stored in one of the boxes where I keep my watches that are worn and which I can choose from to wear . When I picked this one out of the box, I noticed the battery was dead. I took this Mudman to school, so I could replace the battery in a spare moment.

When I took the Mudman out of the back, I noticed that there was a crack in the bezel near the light button. It became even worse… When I had replaced the battery, the EL backlight did not work. Another AC reset and a close look at the back lid did not change a thing. It was dead and it stayed dead. Meanwhile, also the the light button part of the bezel began to crack further. Frankly I didn’t dare to look inside the case again, as the bezel might crumble completely then. During the photo shoot also a piece of resin fell off he light button. Not good.

It seems that the first Mud Resistant models were relative early victims of the so called Resin Rot. Resin Rot occurs as the weakeners (additives to plastics, to make plastic flexible and not brittle) vaporize out of the plastic. As the parts that cover the buttons are less stiff than the other parts of the bezel, these parts probably contain higher concentrations of weakeners.Therefore, the risk of the vaporizing of the weakener out of the plastic, making the button parts weaker, is seemly higher than for the normal used resin. A pity, as I very much love the early Mud Resistant models. The first Mud Resistant model was the DW-5500C from 1985. When I heard about this model for the first time (probably end 2003), most existing 5500’s already had broken of button covers. It was a pity that the revival of the 5500 with the G(W)-5500 the new bezels did not fit on the old DW-5500C.

The bezels for the 90’s Mudman, Gaussman, Codename and Raysman were probably produced with a better material. One of the (newer) triple 10 criteria is that the watch can be used for at least 10 years. Since my Mudman is now about 12 years out, it seems that the bezels last longer than the DW-5500C. By the way, even with a cracked bezel, the Mudman an other Mud Resist models, are still functional. It might have lost it’s Mud Resistance, but the watch is still 20 bar Water Resistant.

Casio is known for their bold futuristic innovations and designs in their watches. I have no experience with the DW-5500C, but the feel of the buttons on the DW-8400 Mudman is different from the new(er) Mudman of 2006. I think that Casio has developed a new resin type, which will probably last longer. Unfortunately the G-9000 model is not really old enough to really know if the durability is better. We simply have to wait probably at least 5 á 6 years to see if the bezel is really stronger. Now we are even already a new generation further as Casio has released the GW-9300 and G-9300 Mudman about a year ago (June 2011).

I got this Mudman in December 2002, 12 days before I bought my also precious Real Black Mudman. At that time I had no recourses for G-Shocks. I actually think I bought the Real Black Mudman earlier (actually won, since it was an eBay auction), before I won the auction of this Mudman, but as I got this on from the UK, it arrived pretty fast, compared with the Real Black Mudman, that came from East Asia.

I remember I saw the auction on eBay for this watch. I won the auction for a pretty low price. I do not know exactly what the final bid was, but I think it was around £30.-. I even remember the seller lived in Cornwall. He was very friendly and according his name he was East Asian. He wrote me that he had bought this watch in Hong Kong, while he lived there.

The watch had been used a lot when I got it, but I very much liked it’s color. I only recently discovered  that the original G-SHOCK lettering on this model was orange. It had been gone long before I got it. The auction photo’s were not that clear. Digital photography was not that mainstream in 2002 and it would hardly imaginable that 10 years later we have mobile phones that take much better photo’s than a good compact camera then. I bid on the auction, because I saw the silver faceplate, which made this model stand out of my other Mudman. Also I liked the MUDMAN text, as my normal Mudman says “ILLUMINATOR”. I was happily surprised that the resin of this Mudman was dark khaki. As there were practically no on-line reference about all G-Shock releases at all in 2002, it took a while to find out this was a Men In Navy Kahki Mudman.

You probably might think what does this double color in this Men In Colors series mean. In this series Casio had 3 Master of G models in Khaki and 3 Master of G models in Navy. The three khaki models were the Gaussman, Mudman and Wademan. Two Frogman models (a DW-8200NK and a DW-9900NK) and a Gulfman were the navy models of this series.

You can consider the classic Mudman as a pumped up DW-6900 model. Unfortunately the outside of the case and the buttons are different, so it is not possible to swap bezels. The DW-8400 does also use the 1289 module, the classic “Triple Eyed Devil” module, commonly known of most DW-6900 models (not all DW-6900 have three eyes!).

So how do I feel about this Mudman falling apart. Well, as I still remember that I won this model and I really loved the looks. No, I feel indeed really sad, but these things happen. Casio’s “Team Tough” has stated that a G-Shock can fall survive a fall of 10 meters on concrete, can at least withstand 10 bar water pressure (100m water resist) and the battery should run for at least 10 years. With the introduction of the EL backlight, this was pretty impossible, but the last criterium was replaced with “A G-Shock has a lifespan of at least 10 years”. The older Mud Resistant bezel survived 12 years, but in my experience bezels can survive longer. With a lot of abuse, the resin can survive for about 15 years, but if a watch is hardly worn and kept in boxes, I think they will survive 25 years or longer. Still I have no clue why the EL backlight suddenly died. Luckily I have a relative recent photo of this backlight, so I can show it here.

Looking for a Men In Navy Khaki Mudman is a pretty hard job. I looked at Yahoo Auctions and I could find several “limited editions” Mudman models, including a good looking Real Black Mudman for ¥30,000, but no MINK Mudman. It’s pretty hard to put a price on this Mudman. Frankly, I would scratch behind my ears twice for paying ¥30000 for a mint loking Real Black Mudman. Simply because this model is getting older and older. The chance to become victim to resin rot increases pretty fast. If someone offers me a good looking MINK Mudman for around $100, I would probably buy it, if I have the money, but frankly I won’t ay much more for such a model. Simply because I don’t want to sped too much money on a watch where there is a pretty high risk of a cracking bezel.

G-Shock #9: Mudman

Sorry for the little mix-up last week. The article of the Helly Hansen Nippon Cup Gulfman was written by Martback, not by me. Normally I do a little intro, but due to circumstances I didn’t have time to write one. I think it is a great article, quite in the spirit of 50 Gs. The fact that people thought the article was mine is probably both a compliment to Martback and me. Martback promised me to do some more articles this year, so that I have a little more time to do other things, like updating my G-Peopleland website and spend a little more weekends with my family.

Wednesday I was looking though my G-Shock collection. I had been wearing my red GWF-1000RD Frogman for several days and I wanted to wear something completely else. The first watch I fished out of one of my shoe boxes was this DW-8400 Mudman. I checked the light, which was very bright and I strapped it around my wrist.

Whie I was sitting on the dinner table, I wanted to make a wrist shot. Since the Frogman has been almost constantly on my wrist, I thought it was a good idea to take a photo of this watch and post it on my facebook profile. I hadn’t posted something new there for a while, so a shot of my Mudman would be something nice.

When looking closer to my watch, I noticed something strange. I thought I only had the overseas version. The overseas version does not show the name MUDMAN on the face, but only ILLUMINATOR. That was a cool surprise. I completely didn’t knew I had this model. A small check of my G-Shock administration was needed. It seems I have bought a basic Mudman in 2008 and one in 2009. This must be one of them (I bought my first Mudman somewhere in 2002).

I was a bit surprised I got quite some comments about this watch from people who love this watch on facebook. I actually didn’t expect not much attention, as it might look as a DW-6900 in the small thumbnail for many people.

The Mudman is the second Master of G model that Casio released, after the Frogman. Actually the Master of G line was first mentioned with the DW-5500C (a.k.a. G-Shock II). Casio called the DW-5500C with its mud resistant bezel construction Mudman. The name was not written on the watch and it is not usual to refer the DW-5500C as Mudman. so you might rather consider the DW-5500C more as the predecessor of the Mudman and Master of G series.

The DW-8400 Mudman was released in Japan in November 1995. It was only 8 months after the iconic DW-6900, which is after more than 15 years still very popular. The Mudman also has the typical three eyed 1289 module. This 1289 module is actually also used on some DW-002. By the way, not all DW-6900 models have three eyes.

The Mudman and the DW-6900 do not differ much under the hood. The case is almost exactly the same. A little notch around the buttons on the Mudman and a different light button make it impossible to interchange the DW-8400 and DW-6900 bezel.

Although the case and the module of the Mudman are almost the same, the DW-8400 looks much bigger. It’s like a DW-6900 on steroids. The bezel is mold in one piece with two different kinds of resin. The bezel covers the complete case on top and on the side, including the buttons. Most parts are made of the hard kind of resin (poly urethane) that is used on other G-Shocks, but the buttons are covered with a soft rubber kind of resin. This makes it possible to operate the buttons through the bezel.

 

Actually a similar construction was used on the DW-5500C, though not many of those were sold. It is probably the rarest basic classic G-Shock around. Luckily the DW-8400 is much easier to find. It has been a worldwide release and it has been sold for several years (it is still present in a German catalog of 1999).

The DW-8400 has the double closure buckle as also is used on the Frogman DW-8200 at that time. It gives the watch a very tough look. The straps feel quite solid when put on the wrist, which adds pretty much to it’s tough look.

Using the buttons on the Mudman is a little harder than a G-Shock with normal buttons. This is off course caused by the bezel. First you need to get used to the feel, but after a while you won’t know any better.

Although the DW-6900 and the Mudman share the same triple eyed module, there is one major difference on the display on the Mudman. The big eye is hexagonal. On most basic Mudmans the eye is silver, but there was also a gold version released, which is much harder to find. The shiny bolt nut like look of the big eye gives the Mudman an unique look.

In 2006 the Mudman line was revived with the G-9000 line-up. Actually this model revived the complete Master of G line. The new Mudman is totally different from the original DW-8400. The new Mudman is smaller, but the mud resistant construction is improved, as now also a part of the back is protected from dirt and mud.

To be complete on the Mudman blood line, I have to mention that in 1997 Casio released also an analog Mudman. This analog Mudman model was almost a year later sold under the name Gaussman.

A basic Mudman might not to hard too find, though a NIB (New In Box) version will be harder to find. New bezels or straps of this model are rare or impossible to find, which is a pity, because the button covers tend to crack after long and intensive use (this goes for all Mud Resistant models). With a crack in the bezel the watch only looses the Mud Resistance, but it will still function under the “triple 10 criteria” (at least 10 Bar water resist, survive a fall on concrete from at least 10 meter (30 ft) and have a lifespan of at least 10 years).

 While taking photo's of this Mudman I noticed the START-STOP button is cracked. Probably this button has been used a lot of times. It is often the MODE button which cracks first.

Prices on these older models are hard to say, but a good shape used would cost you maybe $75.-, a very good shape $100.-. Special versions are pretty rare and therefore more expensive, roughly about double the price of a basic one. Only the Real Black Mudman is pretty much sought after so it has a matching price. This watch was made in large numbers for several years, so there might be many floating around somewhere.