#40 Dutchy Orange-G at high tide.

#40... It sounds like a magic number. Several times I had no idea what to write, or which model had not been featured. Therefore I'm happy I reached this milestone. It means I have to write only 10 stories this year. Since I didn't take a break this summer I will take a short break of about 2 weeks from here.
Regular readers of 50 Gs would have probably noticed. I very much like the Men In Rescue Orange and Rescue-G models. If you ask me which one I like most, I probably would tell you this one. Or if it ain't this one, it's one of the Riseman models.
The color orange is adopted from the clothing, vehicles and tools of rescue workers. The series is a tribute to people who risk their lives to save other people lives.
The color bright orange is not chosen because it's beautiful, but because it's highly visible. It shows big contrast with the mainly green, blue or gray colors of land and sea masses.
When the MIRO were announced for the September 2008 release, I was quite excited. Not only Casio revived the legendary "Men in ..." series, they also started of in an exeptional and very nice color. The Men In Rescue Orange series are Tough Solar Atomic Masters of G. In this case a Mudman, a Gulfman an Riseman model. For people who do not need the solar and atomic feature Casio released the Rescue-G series a few months later. Were the MIRO models only available in Japan, the Rescue-G models were only sold outside Japan.
Normally I would choose the Atomic Solar version, but this Gulfman has a feature I pretty much miss on the solar version. The tidegraph.
As you could have read in my G-Travels post, I live in the province Zeeland (Sealand) that is formed by (former) islands. If you are surrounded by sea with a tide difference around 4m (12ft), a good programmed tidegraph is pretty handy. As a child you learn here not to go to far in the sea when the tide lowers. Dangerous currents can draw you into open sea fast. Luckily we have a lot of good trained lifeguards patrolling the coast.
The MIRO and Rescue-G models have matching orange displays. The accents are deep black, which result in a deep contrast with the bright orange color.
A tidegraph on your watch is pretty handy, but only if it's programmed correct. What do you need to know...
First you need to know roughly the coordinates of your location. Actually only the longitude is important. In my case the longitude of Vlissingen, 3.6°E, is close enough.
Second it's important to know your local tides. If you live near open sea, you probably know your sources. I used to check my week calendar or my local paper. Nowadays I have an application on my iPhone telling me the tides where ever I am, using my GPS location.
The third and last thing you'll need to know is when the moon passes you latitude. In the Northern hemisphere this means that the moon stands in the south. On the southern hemisphere the moon stands in the north. A good way to find out when the moon passes over is to go to the worldclock page on Date and Time. It shows not only local time of many cities, but also sun and moon data. Of course not every city can be found, but Ghend, with a longitude of 3°41' is close enough.
When gathering these data, you'll notice there is probably an interval between the moon passing over and the high tide. This time is called the lunitidal interval. In some cases the interval can be negative. If so, subtract this interval from 12 hours and 25 minutes and you got the correct interval. The interval can be everything between 0 and 12 hours and 25 minutes, but normally it will be within a few hours before or after the moon passing over.
When you have entered the longitude and interval, you have a correct working tidegraph function on your Gulfman. It's a bit pity the latitude data can't be added. In the past there were G-Shock models that could calculate sunrise and sunset times with longitude and latitude data. This would have been a nice extra function.
Besides the tidegraph, the Gulfman shows the phase of the moon. This is not just a gadget function, but you need to know how to interpret this into the tidegraph.

Copyright image: Keith Cooley

At full moon and new moon you've got spring tide, because the gravitational forces of the sun and the moon are combined. At the moon quarters the sun and the moon are working in a 90° angle on the Earth, resulting in neap tide.
The tidegraph and moonphase display are not the only adaptations on the Gulfman for life and work on or at the sea. The salt water is not quite friendly for metals. When I'm on vacation in France, I always am surprised to see so many oldtimer cars in such a good condition. Here in Zeeland they would probably have been long rusted away.
The Gulfman is prepared for this. All metal parts outside the case are made of titanium, providing the watch it's rust resistance. The titanium brushed back shows a turtle that is cleaning his shell, probably from rust. The black structures at both sides of the display feel like a hard material, but appear to be resin when the bezel is bend a little (titanium does not stretch).
Unlike most G-Lide water sports models, the G-9100 Gulfman comes with a 24 hour timer with a repeat function.
With a world time function, three alarm with a hourly chime and a stopwatch, you can say this Gulfman is a complete watch.
So, is there more to see on this model? Actually at night you'll notice another neat feature, the Dual Illuminator. It was already featured earlier on the G-9000 Mudman. While normally only the display is illuminated, with dual illumination also the ring showing the functions of the button lights up. Both cool and effective. The Rescue-G Gulfman of course shows the symbol of the MIRO and Rescue-G series in the backlight, a gigantic rescue axe as used by fire brigades.

I think this eye catching Gulfman is both a real good looker and a great functional watch too. Also the titanium back might be a solution for people who have allergic reactions to stainless steel. Titanium is known to be anti-allergic. In a few weeks I will be escorting the last runner of the Coastal Marathon. I will be working close with several lifeguard districts and (para)medics. The marathon follows the shore of three islands (connected with dikes and constructions). Guess what I will be wearing at this years marathon.

#39 Millitary Specs for every Timezone

Military inspired G-Shock themes seem always to be popular. Today's model is the M-Spec DW-5600B-1AVER, that was released in Japan as the DW-5600B-1AJF.
In Japan it was released as a limited edition model in August 2005. I remember Seiya-San had it on his web page for sale. With a suggested retail price of ¥12000, it must have been cost less than $100,-. I am actually not sure where I bought my first, it could be I bought this watch from Seiya.
What began as a limited edition ended up as a basic model. A few months later this model suddenly appeared on the US marked, followed in the Fall/Winter collection in Europe. It even got a name, "Timezoner". In the US and Europe this model was "just" a basic model of the 2005 fall/winter catalog.
If I'm correct a Dutch Watchuseek member (Bjorn) pointed me to a cheap sale of this model in my country. So I got myself a second one, one to wear.
Even now, 4 years after it's initial release, it's still available. A quick search on Google learned me you can find it for £60.- on Amazone UK and for €99,95 in an on-line shop in Germany.
Sometimes you wonder what limited edition means. Recently a very limited collaboration edition was released in the US. Riley, from "My G-Shock", proudly presented his new "Pegleg x Union NYC" watch. Only 100 were made... Until the August releases came out in Japan. Well, if it appears on the monthly releases, you can bet on it another few thousand are added. In the mean time I have seen it appear on two blogs of friends in Japan (Aga and Fumi). So far for rare.
Casio let them inspire of the street culture of that time, "like military cargo pants. Light ballistic nylon from bullet proof jackets is adopted in the fat strap of one piece" according the description on the press release.
Normally I am not fond of wearing these "small" 5600s, but this one looks beefier. The strap feels like it's made of a kind of canvas. Maybe the kind of canvas used in military jungle boots. It's pretty stiff, but when strapped on, it is actually very comfortable.
The strap is wider and is in one piece. Instead of attached on both sides of the case, the case is attached upon the strap. Therefore the case hovers about 2 mm higher above the wrist, which gives the impression of a bigger watch. I like that.
Sturdy leather lugs, band keeper and end piece adds even more zest to it's look. Small metal rings do not only strengthen the strap holes, but look sturdy too.
Originally not on this model, but I couldn't help myself... I applied a face protector ("bull bar") on it. I had one lying around and this seem to be the perfect model.
When worn, this is pretty much a stealthy watch. When you take off the watch, a pretty eye catching feature reveals. Actually I think it's cool. The inside of the strap is bright orange. This bright orange is adopted from the bomber jackets.
The case is mat black and the text is not painted. On the crystal around the display the functions are written in a dark gray tone, even the red part of the "Shock Resist" logo is low key.
On such a stealthy watch, a negative display can't be missed. Of course not just a negative display. Like the "Military Inspired" series, digits are used with a deep amber tone.
In dark circumstances this display will be pretty hard to read. For military discretion the electro luminescent backlight is relative dim and amber. So, when you are in the field at night checking time, you are not playing sitting duck with this backlight.
Overall I think this is a great watch and I think it's a model loved by many G-Shock enthusiasts. Though it's a small DW-5600 model, it appears bigger and looks distinctive present on the wrist. Though it's a 4 year old model, I think it can still be found easily. It seemed to be produced in large quantities. Although shop prices in Europe are high (suggested retail price of a basic DW-5600E is €99.-), I think a fast search around the internet will lead to quite affordable prices that will make acquiring this watch very attractive.

Intermezzo #12: Rising White dans le Val de Loire

Bonjour. Ici Sjors (Georges) écrit de Mesland, France.
What do you pack for your holiday? This year I limited myself in packing 6 G-Shocks in a small box. I also didn't forget my swimming shorts and a good book.
I am actually a bad and slow reader, as I am somewhat dyslectic. I heard about the new movie after the book "Män som hatar Kvinnor" of Stieg Larsson (in Dutch it's called translated "Men that hate women").
The synopsis sounded pretty interesting, the critics were enthusiastic, so I ordered the book for during my holidays. I was pretty shocked when I got it: 560 pages! I thought with my reading skills of max 25 pages a day, this must be food for about a month.
So on Tuesday I finally started reading. Starting on such a thick "pill" looks like standing a the foot of the Mont Blanc before climbing it. The story was pretty entertaining, so I finished about 25 pages easily.
On Wednesday I ended up at page 80. On Thursday I got taken over by the book. Finally I fell asleep around page 250. On Friday, late in the afternoon (around 18:00), I turned the last page at the side of the pool. "Hé, where did the rest of the family go".
Even the well shaped French girl in black and red Dolce and Gabbana bikini that I now and then observed above my pages (well, we are in France and by the way, she's observing back), who was funny singing in herself to her MP3 player, had packed her towel probably hours ago. I must say it's a good book, but now what...
Lets do some night photography. A year ago I very much liked the photo's of my Rising White DW-5025B. Lets see if I can add some more. It's a beautiful night, so I'll use the moonlight outside, with a little help of my red anodized AA Maglite. Though it is around 28° C in the afternoon, it is getting pretty cold at night. I spotted Jupiter between the trees.
Tomorrow we'll visit the castle of Cheverny. It's known world wide as Moulinsart in the stories of Tin Tin. Hergé created Captain Haddock's castle after that of Cheverny. Maybe I should buy a book there, for the rest of my holidays. Now, what shall I wear tomorrow?

Amitiés de France, Au Revoir, Bon Journée!