#29 FIFA Weltmeisterschaft Fussball 2006 Volunteers G-Shock.

Today  is the last day of the World Championship football of 2010.  It is a pretty exciting happening for our small country. Since our team have beaten the potential World Cup winner Brazil, the country has lived up and is supporting the Orange team. Tonight the final, The Netherlands - Spain. Spain is favorite in this duel, but maybe the Netherlands can fight back from their underdog position. If Spain wins, I will congratulate Adan and all my Comando-G friends, if the Netherlands win, the celebrations in our country will be unbelievable big.

The end of the World Cup also marks the last G-Shock model in this series articles about football G-Shocks. I hope you enjoyed this series. I pretty much have looked forward in writing an article about the Toyota Cup model and this model, my recently acquired FIFA Weltmeisterschaft 2006 Volunteers model.

I think you would be lucky with Casio sponsoring the World Championship 2006 if you were a volunteer. In 2010 one of the main sponsors of the event is Hublot. I can’t imagine this Swiss Watch manufacturer made a watch for every volunteer.

The number of volunteers in 2006 was 15000. I don’t think they all got this World Cup 2006 Volunteers model, but there must have been a large number of these watches given away. You can still find them on eBay Germany quite easily, though they were given away 4 years ago.

The G-300BWC volunteers model (I don’t know the full model number) is a little different from the G-300BWC-1AV, which has a yellow dial.

 This model comes in a quite big black box. The lid of the box has the logo of the Weltmeisterschaft 2006 Germany on it. When you pull of the lid, the real box is revealed. G-Shocks quite rarely com in wooden boxes. The lid of the wooden box is plastic, but that doesn’t disturb the look.

A nice surprise shows when the wooden box is opened. On the inside of the lid there is a small message from Franz Beckenbauer. It reads translated: “Thank you for your help, yours truly, Franz Beckenbauer”, the chairman of the organizational committee of the World Cup 2006 after he successfully got the World Cup to Germany.

The box has two compartments. In the big open compartment there is the watch, strapped around a small leather covered cushion. The small closed compartment holds the watch manual. For a special edition of a “basic model”, it is a very luxurious package.

I got this model in at the beginning of the World Cup 2010. I successfully tried to obtain this watch specially as final of this series of Football G-Shocks. It actually is my first G-300 model. The looks are to me mix between a basic case with a cockpit series dial. The 2738 was also used on Cockpit models, which explains.

The white dial is very clear. With the deep black hands it’s easy to read analog time. The hands have illuminating paint on them. They light up the first minutes in the dark, but it is the usual paint used by Casio. Luckily the watch has an EL backlight, so you can almost always read the time in the dark. Also the digits on the small digital displays are very clear. Besides the normal details on the dial, a picture of the FIFA World Cup is displayed in the bottom right part of the dial.

The G-300WC has not such a distinct look as the cockpit series, which pretty much stand out, but it has still has a good look. The case is made of polyurethane, but the bezel has a big metal ring, surrounded by resin bumpers.

Like the G-300BWC-1A, this model also has a special single piece strap. It is the strap you also find on the M-Spec series. It is a one piece cloth strap (it looks like Kevlar to me). On the M-Spec series the inside of the strap was bright orange colored, but the strap on this model is black on the inside. It has a pretty tough looking buckle and the holes in the strap are made stronger by metal rings.

Because the case is attached above the band, instead of between the straps, the watch is placed a little higher than it would have been on normal straps.

On the strap, just under the case, there is a white patch with again the logo of the FIFA World Cup 2006 (this time it’s not the FIFA WM 2006). It is a nice detail, which as far as I can see is not present on the G-300BWC. A funny detail on the location of the patch. Normally Casio places these patches above the case, so the patch is seen on the outside of the wrist, viewable for other people that see the watch and not for the wearer. This patch is viewable for the wearer. The strap keeper seems to be made of leather and has the FIFA logo printed on it. This type of strap is very comfortable and also looks a bit sturdier than standard resin straps.

Of course the World Cup 2006 logo is also etched on the back of the watch, but this detail normally is kept hidden. It is not easy to remove the straps, but with a good springbar tool you can take the strap off, for instance for a battery change.

According the manual the 2738 module uses 2 SR927W silver –oxide batteries. It is not unusual that Casio uses different batteries for analog and ana-digi models. Since this model is at the moment at least 4 years running, I think the batteries hold out pretty well, though the manual says the batteries last approximately 3 years.

 

So, what functions do we get on this watch. Besides timekeeping the watch has a 30 time zone Worldtime function, a 60 minute Countdown Timer a 60 minutes Stopwatch and an Alarm function with 5 alarms (1 snooze alarm) and a hourly signal.

The analog time and digital time are not synced. You can set the time in Hand Setting mode to the correct time, or to the time in your current time zone if you are traveling. You have bad luck if you live in Venezuela. Since the time there shifted thirty minutes in December 2007, the -4.30 timezone is not taken up in the World Time Table.

 If you like this watch, it will probably not easy to get one unless you can write a little German. Of course most volunteers probably like this gift they got from the FIFA, but most of these available were on auction on eBay Germany. Even if you manage to get in contact with a seller in Germany, there is a next problem. Paypal is not widely used. Germany has quite a big populations and members of eBay Germany are used to sell nationally. Luckily bank transactions within the Euro countries are often free of costs as payments are done from and to IBAN bank accounts (International bank account numbers). Since many German sellers have no experience with international payments, I calculate German IBAN bank number myself (with pretty handy on-line calculation tools).

I have a feeling this model is becoming rare now. Until about a year ago there were always a few of these on auction in Germany. The watches changed owners for prices around €60 - €80. I was pretty lucky with this one. Well, you can leave “pretty” out actually. Though I wanted this model for this series, I actually couldn’t afford it. Some other G-Shocks I purchased in May and June have blown a big hole in my finances (what’s new). I had placed a maximum bid from I was not sure I would get it. At the last moment someone bid less than €1.- under my maximum bid. I managed to get this watch for just below €60.- (ex. Shipping).

I like to thank Joerdis from Leipzig , who made it possible for me to get this model in time. This watch is quite a beautiful piece in my G-Shock collection. Thank you for the patience and answering all my questions. Liebe Gruβen aus Middelburg.

"Are you finally finished on that table? Nice, now I can claim that spot".

#27 FIFA World Cup 1998: I will survive with this red DW-6900WF G-Shock!

 In 1998 it was the second time Casio released a bunch of G-Shocks for the FIFA World Cup. In 1994 not less than 9 different black models were released for the World Cup held in the USA. These were models from before the DW-6600, so no EL backlight, the logo and text were just printed big all over the watch. In 1998 Casio released 10 different models in a wide colorful range. There was a special set of three models in the colors of the Drapeau Tricolore. Also a series of DW-6900’s was released.

The first model of the DW-6900WF series was black. I am not sure if it is a very dark gray translucent version or a plain black. Also a gray translucent model was in this series, but the best looking models were jelly versions in bleu, blanc et rouge.

The colors of the Drapeau Tricolore stand for the motto of the Républic Française. Blue stands for Liberté, white for Egalité and red for Fraternité (Freedom, Equality and Fraternity). So, my red model featured in this article represents brotherhood. Ain’t that also a great motto for the G-Shock community.

10 years ago, when I bought my first G-Shock, I could not have known that there would be such a big G-Shock community now. When I started my G-Peopleland website in 2003, assuming I was the only collector outside Japan, now, 7 years later there are several G-Shock communities where people try to help their fellow G-Shock collectors. If that isn’t a nice example of fraternity.

Although I usually do not watch football, I remember the World Cup of 1998. In the first place, because we reached the semi-finals. The Orange team played in Marseilles against Brazil. A thrilling match ended in penalties in the favor of Brazil, who later lost from France in the Finale.

The second reason I remember the World Cup of 1998 was that I went on vacation in France that year. Well, that fact is certainly special, since we often go to France on holidays. The fun part was that an older song of a Dutch band was used in France to promote the World Cup of 1998.

While the Netherlands could dream the lyrics of “I will survive (La la la) by the Hermes House Band, indeed a cover from Gloria Gaynor, the song dated from 1994, it was rediscovered and played during the World Cup and the whole summer.Picture this. We were riding in Southern France, probably somewhere in Aix en Provence. The sun is already getting low in the evening. The windows of the car open. In the distance I see an owl sitting on a pole. The radio is on. We love to listen NRG radio, as they play a lot of popular music (a lot of French radio stations broadcast talkshows, while my French is actually pretty poor. We hear the song “I will survive”, but we do not pay real attention. We were already traveling through France for a week, so we had not heard Dutch for some time. The suddenly the singer sings “En nog een keer!” (Dutch for “Let’s do it one more time”). This was strange, hearing Dutch words on the French radio.

Later we found out the song was played in high rotation. When we did our groceries in a supermarket, I checked out the CD section. I found the CD single of the Hermes House Band, which was promoted as “Le Song des Champions du monde 1998”. I immediately bought that CD single for the Discotheque I was working. We already had that song of course, but it was funny to have the French version too. I regret it a little, because I don’t have that single anymore. I did some searches on eBay France, but couldn’t find this single, unfortunately.

 

Also for Japan the World Cup Footbal  1998 was important. It was the first time Japan qualified for the tournament. With loosing all three group matches, it wasn't successful for Japan though. In 2002 and 2010 Japan reached the best 16. Unfortunately they did both times not win the 8th finals.

I very much like translucent G-Shocks. Unlike the GW-203K Frogman, the straps and bezel are not clear but have a matte finish. You can find in all manuals that resin parts can leave white powder residue, when stored for some time. I think this is my only G-Shock that has this white powdery substance visible on the strap. Before I took the photos, I have washed the watch and dried it with a soft cloth, to make the resin red translucent again.

There are several texts on the straps. The long strap shows “Official Product of FIFA World Cup 1998”. Well, you can’t miss anymore that this is a WC ’98 model, but in order to convince you really, the France ’98 World Cup logo is also printed on the strap keeper. Near the case on the long strap there is the text: “For the Superior”, regarding to the next World Champion Football.

The logo France ’98 World Cup logo is also etched on the back of the watch. The back of the watch is unusually shiny. Normally a DW-6900 back is matte.

The silver gray face-plate looks great on these jelly models. The red jelly resin plays with the light, the silver plate makes sure you don’t overlook the most important place of the watch, the display.

When you activate the EL backlight the mascot of the World Cup 1998 is shown. His name is Footix. He is a cockerel (young rooster). While he often is shown holding a football in his hand, in the EL backlight he is performing a “throw-in”.

 All 5 variants of this DW-6900WF series have a different backlight, where Footix performs all kinds of football tricks. I think Footix is a funny mascot, which somehow remind me a bit to Woody Woodpecker. "Ha-ha-ha-HAA-ha!"

I am not sure where I bought this watch, but I think I found it in Germany. I probably haven’t paid much for it, although the watch is in almost new condition. I think I was a little amazed about that when I got the watch. It is probably a watch that is not easily found, but don’t expect to pay extravagant prices on these ones. I think a new one in box and papers might cost you around €60 - €80.-, which is lower than it’s suggested retail price in Japan, ¥16000. Mine didn’t come with box and papers. I think I paid around €40.- for it.

 "Tot ziens, Tot La La La!"