G-Shock #6: Dawn Black Gulfman in Key West

 I have spend the last week in the City Theater of Middelburg and did not have much time to come up with a full story. Well, I probably could have written one, but I rather have a little more time to write and take photo's. Coincidentally my friend Riley had some spare time and also he had seen enough snow in Philadelphia. He took his car and drove south, ending up in Key West. I would have loved to follow him, because it has been pretty cold, wet and gray here in Middelburg too this winter. We had some e-mail contact about the local food and beers and I saw 50 Gs story in this. Well I asked Riley if he could do an article of his beautiful Gulfman and so here it is. I guess a lot of readers can use a little sunligh, so I hope you enjoy reading this Guest article.

Sjors

It's a quiet Monday morning in Key West. Last night was the Super Bowl, and plenty of people here are still hungover and sleeping in. I lounge around in the big hotel bed for a while. And I think about what G-Shock would fit this lazy day at the beach. It's then decided that today is a good day for the Dawn Black Gulfman.
This watch is mostly black, but the dawn gold accents and brilliant LCD really make it shine. You'll never have a hard time reading the digits on this high-contrast display. And the tough rust resistant design really offers solid protection from the harshness of salt water and sand.
A giant Carnival cruise ship comes in to dock, blocking my view, so it's time to venture out into Key West.
I end up walking down the length of Duval St. to South Beach. It's a small strip of sand that looks out onto an endless ocean view south of the island. It's a beautiful sunny day, with the temperature range happily dwelling in the mid-70s°F (~23°C). You couldn't ask for a more perfect day.
There's small waves of water regularly coming in against the shore with the tide, and there's a bunch of seaweed that seems to have been drawn toward the west side of the beach. The Gulfman feels right at home here.
This little stretch of public beach is surrounded by dozens of private resorts. It's crowded now with people eager to soak in the warm sunlight and relax with the pleasant sounds of the surf.
The sun shines down brightly on the Dawn Black Gulfman, and you can clearly see all the nuances of the watch's interesting design. The big yellow G painted in the center of the stealthy black bezel leaps out.
This G-Shock has a very sturdy construction and chunky lines. It's solid, and yet comfortable and well-balanced. There's two sets of interlocking brass screws that hold the band securely to the module.
The gold-background LCD glows dazzlingly in the direct sunlight. You can see the tide graph and moon phase indicator in the middle of the display. This G-Shock is meant for the coast.
There's no need to worry about the Gulfman here.
All the Gulfman models have a titanium case back. This particular model is a limited 25th Anniversary edition from 2007, so it has a specially engraved case back. The rough and dark finish of the titanium gives the case back a negative look, with the letters shining brightly in the light. Inside is a fitting 3088 module that has all the features need for this location.
There's a matching gold clasp on the band that's stamped "Casio Japan" on its underside. It's a nice touch that balances out the plain matte resin band.
All four buttons have a cross-shaped pattern on them. They are a dark gray color that adds a little character to the overall look. These hard plastic buttons are separate from the bezel, and remain on the module when the bezel is removed.
It's time to head back from the beach and explore inland, back down Duval St. This is the main concourse of shops and activity in Key West. It's overflowing with tourists and attractions. The streets are filled with rented scooters and bicycles. And nearly everyone has a drink in their hand.
I walk out away from the tourist area to an out-of-the-way Irish pub named Finnegan's Wake. It was recommended to me by a former professional basketball player from the Czech Republic. Apparently, it's the only bar in the Key West that has Pilsner Urquell on tap. It's a quiet oasis on this busy island, and it's frequented mainly by locals.
A cold beer on a hot sunny day really hits the spot. It's time to relax in the cool shade of this beer haven for a while.
This place has an extensive beer list, with over 30 beers on tap, and plenty more in bottles.
My fitting Irish meal consists of bangers, bacon, potatoes, porkloin, baked beans, eggs and pumpernickel toast with honey butter. It took a few beers to make it through this journey of a meal.
After all that food and beer, it's time to walk around outside for a while. It's starting to cool down and the sunset is coming soon, so I slowly make my way back to my hotel to catch the event from my well-positioned balcony.

The sun sets down over the ocean as the Gulfman and I look on in awe. It's a beautiful and relaxing sight to behold. It's been a fine day with a great G-Shock.

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.