A New G-Shock Experience
March 28th, 2009 -- Posted in g-shock | 3 Comments »A lil’ sidetrack from posts about Nita 
A parcel arrived from Japan today. It’s the G-Shock GW-M5600BC (or officially known as “Multi-Band 5 Tough Solar G-Shock GW-M5600BC-1JF” by Casio) I ordered online a couple of days ago.
If you’re a fan of G-Shock, you’d notice the ‘5600’ as part of the model name means it’s a variation and/or has the dimension of the legendary DW-5600 (or DW-5000). If you’re in your mid 30’s like me and had served the National Service in the army, you’d remember that plain squarish yet tough G-Shock that survived those rugged jungle trainings.
This one was made from the same design DNA as the classic DW-5600 but is packed with some of the latest technology you can squeeze into such a small lil thing. It’s solar powered and rechargeable. The solar panels are on the face under the crystal… barely visible in certain angles with the purplish tint like all solar panels. It has 5 bands atomic time signal reception capability for automatic time calibration, which is (honestly) useless when used in Singapore. The only places in the world where Casio broadcast the atomic time frequencies are in Japan, China, Europe and USA. The closest place I can probably receive a signal is in Hong Kong. The time function I’d probably enjoy is the multi-regional function where I can easily switch to any of the 29 different time zones when I travel anywhere around the world 
Cosmetically, the GW-M5600 looks better than the classic DW version IMO. Black on black has always been my kind of color tones, so minus the usual G-Shock markings in white and grey, the whole watch is black… even the black back-lid EL digital display. Instead of the regular resin band with steel buckle, this particular version has a black resin bracelet with black ionized steel mid-links. You may think the steel mid-links will make the watch a whole lot heavier but it’s not. It’s still lighter than the DW-6900 I have. Very comfortable!
Another feature that I really find useful about this version is the automatic EL illumination function, which allows me to illuminate the display by a simple 40 degrees tilt back and forth of my wrist. Now I don’t have to press the button for the 1-second illumination like I used to with the older DW-series. Wish I had this function during my NS. :/
Overall, I LOVE this watch! It’s a comfortable size, being slightly larger than the Sea-Dweller I’m used to wearing but a lot lighter. With my recent craze over the BR-02, I find my wrist suddenly relieved of a lot of weight with the GW-M5600. It’s definitely going to be my daily wear for a while, especially when my intention of going back to G-Shock was to prevent scratching delicate Nita when handling her, which will definitely happen with my other watches.
