#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".

#28 Titanium MR-G for the Toyota Cup.

In 1960 the UEFA and CONMEBOL (the European and South American tootball organizations) organized the Intercontinatel Cup for the first time in Spain. The winners of the UEFA Champions League and the CONMEBOL Copa Libertadores met eachother in the end of November or begin of December.

 Tokyo National Stadium

The matches were hosted in rotation in Europe and South America. Since 1980 the match was held on neutral ground in Japan. From 1980 to 2001 in Tokyo National Stadium, in the last three years in the International Stadium in Yokohama. The Intercontinental Cup became then better known for it's head sponsor, the Toyota Cup.

In 1990 the Toyota Cup was held for the 20th time. For this occasion a special MR-G model was made. I think someone made a small calculation mistake, because it was called the 20th Anniversary model for the Toyota Cup, but it was in 1999 actually the 19th Anniversary (you start counting from the first match, so the second match is at the first anniversary...). They meant the 20th Toyota Cup match.

I found this beautiful watch on eBay, not long after I had bought two other very special MR-G models. The title of the auction mentioned it was an MR-G and a Toyota Cupo model. Still I won this auction for a very good price. I think I paid around €100 for this model.

This special edition is based on the MRG-200T-8. If it was ever for sale, it should have cost between 57000 and 60000 yen. This model can't be found in the G-Shock Perfect Search. If you search for this model, you can probably only find my model. The text above the logo on the box "Many Thanks!" also suggest this watch was made as a gift. Since the MRG-200T was a high end G-Shock model, I guess this watch was given to staff members of the Toyota Cup.

I was very happy when I got this model. The seller was also happy the watch went to a real G-Shock enthusiast. He included a program of the 20th Toyota Cup. All matches can be found on the cover. The 20th match was between Manchester United (England) and Palmeiras (Brazil). The Toyota Cup 1999 was won by Manchester United with 1-0.

The classic metal MR-G models of the late 90's came in a beautiful leather covered box. On this box the logo of the 20th Anniversary Toyota Cup is printed on the cover. The MR-G logo is etched in a small metal plate at the bottom of the box.

As the model number already suggests, the watch is made of Titanium. The bracelet seems to been made of solid links. It seems that the links are chained by screws, instead of springbars or split pins.If you have pretty big wrists, you still might fit this model. The bracelet can be adjusted pretty good, because you can adjust at 1/3 of a link. Most G-Shock can only be adjusted at 1/2 link. .

The titanium used on this watch is dark gray. Not very dark, but much darker than stainless steel. It seems not pure gray, I spot a little brown hue in it, very beautiful. The watch itself is quite light for a MR-G. It's maybe not very light, but a stainless steel MR-G is pretty heavy.

 

The MRG-200T dates from 1997. The serial number tells us the watch was assebled in October 1997. The normal titanium version cost back in 1997 55000 yen. The Toyota Cup model does only have a special box and a engraved clasp. I think Casio picked these MRG-200T models from their warehouse and engraved the clasp. That might explain the relative long time between assembly and release (October 1997 - Noveber 1999).

MR-G is the top line of G-Shock (it was in the 90's and it still is with the recent models). The late 90's models were completely made of metal and divide themselves with that from the other G-Shock models. Also the look is somewhat different, thought the raised rim around the display and the screws on the front give these models a tough and sturdy appearance.

The module (1673) has some different functions, than what you normally find on a G-Shock.

First mode is Contact Mode. Here you can store up to 20 data sets, like telephone numbers. It shares the memory Identification Mode. In Identification Mode you also can store up to 20 data sets. You can input here data like  passport numbers, credit card numbers and licence numbrs. I somehow can't recommend you to store credit card numbers here. A funny detail, the 1673 module can input both alphanumeric characters as katakana characters (98 characters in total).

 

Next mode is Vital Statistics mode. In Vital Statistics you can input your name, blood type and birth date. It is always good to input this data. Unfortunately I do not think that medical people will check your watch in case of emergency. It won't be a bad thing if this mode would be a common function on many watches.

Further the watch has the casual Alarm function and a stopwatch on board. MR-G models do not have a loud alarm. This is probably caused by the thick metal case.

 The watch has a beautiful EL backlight. The color is a kind of soft green. I always liked the clear look of the EL of the MR-G models.

If you really are looking for this specific model, I'm afraid it will be a hard search. A MRG-200T can probably easier be found, though it is not a model you see often. I found an old sales post for one sold at $100.-, which is a steal. I think a good price for this oldie would be around $150 - $200 for the basic 200T model. It is hard to give value this model, just because you don't see it often.