G-Shock #5: Heavenly High

This G-Shock was in 2001 my 12th G-Shock. Not that I know the number of every G-Shock, but I got this watch shortly before I got my infamous #13 in April 2001.

 

Before I got this watch, I had been looking out for this watch for long time. In 2000 I had no internet at home and also the new science wing, at the school I worked back then, was not hooked on internet too.

In September 2000 I went in a “lost hour” under the school’s foundation. Armed with a torch I crawled underground to figure out how to make a connection to the school’s server. With some electronic students I made a line to the server, which was quite a distance. I think you understand this was way back before Wi-Fi became common.

I had an old computer in my office, with an old 800x600 color monitor. I would not be surprised as it was one of the first Pentium models, running Windows ’95, but after some thrilling moments, I was connected with the world outside!

 

 Since I got my first DW-004 and the DW-003 Tough Label (see my article of last week) and also loved the maroon DW-003 G-Lide, that I saw when I bought my first DW-004, I was quite interested in the phenomenon G-Shock. The first thing I did was looking around for more G-Shock models. Not with Google. Google was not widely used back then. I think I had a Dutch search engine, that combined several other search engines.

The number of Dutch websites was not as big as it is now, so I stumbled every time upon a Dutch jeweler in Breda. If I remember correctly, they showed three G-Shock models on their website. These were typical 90’s models. I believe one of them was a basic red DW-003 with a big G in the backlight, another one was this DW-9005V-2V. I do not remember what the third G-Shock was, but this DW-9005V was drawing my attention.

Many times I visited this website. The price of the watch was probably f250.- (€114.-), which was at that time the normal price for a basic G-Shock . I had just started working at the school, so I needed to save money for this watch. It was not easy to save money for this watch. I saw a Gaussman in a sale for f200 (still a good price), I finally bought that DW-003 G-Lide that I wanted to have so bad and a jeweler was selling all his G-Shocks for discount prices. Finally, I think it was February 2001, I had saved enough money for this watch. Breda is about 100 kilometers from where I live (an hour by car), so I picked up the phone and dialed the telephone number of the jeweler.

It was probably the biggest deception in G-Shock history. The watches on the website of this jeweler were there only for display use. It could have been that they had the watch in store, but, if so, it would have been sold years ago. Bummer bummer bummer…

I stared searching for this G-Shock outside The Netherlands and finally found this watch in Germany. There is a shop called Megatime, which had a lot of G-Shock models. One of them was this model, that I wanted so bad. It had a name on that website, it was called “Heavenly High”.

As I had no experience with international transaction, I had to figure out how I could purchase this watch. A nice thing was that this watch was slightly cheaper than in The Netherlands. I believe the price was around DM180,-, which would be €90.- now. Unfortunately the shipping costs were quite high, though for around DM200.- I could buy this watch. I do not know how I paid exactly anymore. I think I had made an international bank transfer. I had no internet banking in that time and I had also never heard of Paypal yet. Not that you could pay with Paypal in Germany, German web shops were mainly focused on the national market.

I still remember I got this package from Germany. At that time I thought that it came from far. It was a relative small package, very good sealed. When I finally got it open I found the characteristic hexagonal G-Shock box, which was standard package around 1998 – 2000.

I was quite amazed when I finally opened the box. I did not expect it to be blue. That old 800 x 600 computer screen was quite old and didn’t show nuances between dark blue and black well. The negative display was looking very attractive and I actually didn’t really mind it was blue. It was a very nice looking watch and actually I rather had a colored G-Shock than a black model.

 Later I discovered there was a black model too, called “Cosmoxer”. Thought that was a funny name and I started searching for this model. I found one cheaper on another German website. I do not know the name of that shop. When that package arrive, it appeared they sent me the wrong model. I got the smoke white version, called “Smokey Sunset”. After some e-mail conversation, I decided to keep the watch. It looked good too. It took until 2005 until I finally had the Cosmoxer.

These three models were sold over a long time in Europe. I have 2 catalogs, one from 1998 and one from 2002 that both show this model. This series of G-Shocks were only available in Europe. They were part of the basic collection, so, unfortunately, the series do not have a name.

The three models can be easy recognized. They all three have a typical DW-9000 style case, a negative display and a double Velcro strap. The under-part of this strap is woven nylon with Velcro applied on it, the upper strap is a pretty thick woven nylon part that has the same color as the case with a gray and a white stripe over the length. A patch is sewn on the strap with the G-logo and G-SHOCK PROTECTION written on it.

The bezel of the DW-9005 has 4 metal pins on it. They are more or less only for decoration function. If you ever find an abused DW-9000 type model, it is quite possible that one or more of these pins are lost. Don’t worry, it would not affect the functionality.

I like the way the display is divided in three parts. The date above, the time below and in the middle the seconds are animated. The Eye for every 10 seconds, the rectangular part for the seconds. The module number is 2039, but it looks pretty much like the 1659, which is found in the basic DW-004.

The DW-9005V has only the basic functions of a G-Shock. It has an Alarm function, with hourly chime, of course. You can enable the Flash function. You can toggle it on and off by holding the START-STOP button for about 2 seconds. There is a small, star like, symbol above the seconds when this function is turned on.

 

 Furthermore, you will find a 24 hour Stopwatch and a 24 hour Countdown Timer on this watch. It sounds maybe pretty basic, but I think this is all you need in a basic watch for normal all day activities.

Although I prefer my G-Shocks in other color than blue, I pretty much like this model. The color is very deep blue, only the light button shows a lighter shade of blue. A used Heavenly High should not be hard to find on eBay Germany. There are a lot of these sold for a long period, mainly in Germany. A used version can will be pretty cheap. With a bit of luck between €20.- and €30.-. A new one will be harder to track down, but I would not be surprised if there are still quite a few hidden somewhere in stocks of some jewelers.

# 40 Smokey Sunset

Today's article is a bit different. First I didn't take the pictures,except for the EL-backlight, the fruit basket and wrist shots. Second, because I got this watch actually by mistake. One of my pupils recently bought the successor of my camera, the Canon D450. She has the past 6 years shown much interest in my watch- and T-Shirt collection. Escha has asked me for photography tips several times, so I asked her to do the photo's for this article with my camera. It took two sessions to make photo's I could use. Most photo's of the first session were not sharp at the right places. A bit my fault too, because I use many personal settings. I think she did a good job for a beginner. The Smokey Sunset, as this DW-9005V-8AV is called in Germany is a European only model. As it is both present in my 1999 "Tough Stuff" and my 2002 catalog, it was sold for a pretty long period. Although it is a basic model, you might consider it a part of a series of three. There were also a navy (-2V, Heavenly High) and a black (-8BV, Cosmoxer) model.
When I bought my first G-Shock, I did not had internet. Also the new science wing of the school I worked did not have a network connection. Between lessons I descended into the building foundation and made network connections for the whole wing.
Of course I went looking for G-Shocks. I found an on-line jeweler that was located in Breda. The opening page showed several G-Shocks. The most eye catching was a dark model, with a negative display. "That's the one I want" I thought. I saved up money for this watch for about two, three months.
When I finally had the money together, I called the store (it must have been December 2000). A friendly man answered the phone. Yes, they did sell G-Shocks, but the one with the negative display? That one was sold ages ago. It was only a promotional stock photo, to show what they were selling.
Bummer. Luckily I found this watch at Megatime in Germany. I never learned proper German, but with a dictionary and my instinct, I managed to buy this watch. If I'm correct it was DM180,- for the watch and DM25.- shipping. A total of €102,50 does unfortunately nowadays not sound very expensive, but it was a lot of money those days.
Finally it arrived about a week later. It looked nice, but the watch was navy blue... Not quite my favorite color. I always thought the watch I saw was black.
Soon I found out there was a black variant. It was called "Cosmoxer". I discovered eBay Germany, and soon I found this dream watch. I also was amazed about the prices. There were hardly G-Shocks over DM 100,- (€50,-). I think I payed around DM 75,- for a brand new "Cosmoxer". Since an international bank transfer took about 4 days, it was a long, long wait. Finally, about two weeks later, my grail package arrived.
I was very excited. My dream watch. Finally. The box was sealed pretty well, but after some careful cutting I got at the black G-Shock box. Inside this box was the well known hexagonal G-Shock nut-box. So I opened the box and what did I find.
Something completely different from what I expected actually. In stead of a black G, this was creamy white. It did not look bad at all and frankly I wasn't disappointed at all. Actually it took years before I bought my first Cosmoxer.
The "Smokey Sunset" is a kind of special DW-9000 model. All DW-90XX models (for XX read 05, 50 or 52) share the same case. The DW-9000 case is characterized by the protected buttons and the four metal decoration pins around the display.
The functions on the DW-9005V are the basic alarm functions, a stopwatch and a countdown timer. The display is divided in three parts and an eye. The middle part animates the seconds, while the eye shows the 10 seconds. These animations are comparable in function as the seconds hand on an analog watch.
The negative display looks very cool. Actually it is not difficult to realize this kind of display. Therefore you need to know a bit how an LCD display works.
Liquid Crystal (often a kind of cholesterol derivate) has the ability to turn polarize light. When an electric potential is applied, the crystal will turn polarized light by 90 degrees (with certain thickness and potential). Now the polarized light cannot pass through the polarizing film again, which we see as a black. If a pattern is made of liquid crystals with very thin electrodes, you get digits. Under these digits there is a reflective layer (often a kind of green or grey) to make these digits clearly visible.
If the polarized filter is turned 90 degrees, light will not pass the filter in ground state. If now a potential is applied, light passes the digit. We now can see the back reflector, which is more or less white, hence the white digits on a negative display.
Negative displays look very cool, but are a bit harder to read under an angle. While normal digits stick out above the reflective layer, a negative display is more or less a black layer with small holes (digits) in it. Only light that passes these digits reach the back reflector, while on a normal display all light fall on the reflector except where the digits are.
This model has a double Velcro watchband. The under band is pretty thin and not elastic. Still this watch wears very comfortable. Because of the cream color and the black display, this is quite a nice looker on a sunny day.