Rainbow IP G-Shocks

I've written many posts on this blog about watches, and up until now I've always insisted that watches have not served any practical purpose for several decades now, because other devices take care of all of the things we used to need watches for. Watches have become art, according to Oscar Wilde's definition:

"All art is quite useless."

But then, back in March, I started to learn about G-Shocks, the very popular line of quartz watches made by the Japanese corporation Casio. G-Shocks can do so many things that I've started to wonder whether they can realistically be regarded as mere beautiful and useless works of art. 

Ironically, what first aroused my interest in G-shocks was seeing photos and video of a limited edition watch, the GM-110RB-2A, also known as the "Rainbow,"

which is definitely intended to be understood as a thing of exceptional beauty, among other things. 

But besides being beautiful, it is also a GM-110 G-Shock, which means that it has a wide range of functions including world time, several alarms, several timers, several stopwatches and a push-button background light. 

"Rainbow" refers to the way that the IP, the ion plating, on the cover and bezel of the watch blends from one color into another. There are two other limited edition G-Shocks which, like the GM-110RB-1A, were released in 2020, feature rainbow IP very prominently, and which I consider to be especially beautiful: the GWF-A1000BRT-1A, also known as the "Borneo Rainbow Toad,"

and the MTG-B1000VL-4A,

 

also known as the "Volcanic Lightning."

The GWF-A1000BRT-1A was made in recognition of the Borneo rainbow toad, a species which had been believed to have gone extinct a century ago, until it was recently found to be still alive. The colors and patterns imitate the colors and bumps found on the toad. The "Volcanic Lighning" is meant to convey some of the intensity of thinderstorms caused by volcanos. The distinctive translucent red strap imitates the appearance of molten lava. 

The "Rainbow" actually belongs to one of the simpler and lower-priced versions of the G-Shock. The "Borneo Rainbow Toad" and the "Volcanic Lightning" are high-end models, and in addition to all of the functions mentioned above which the "Rainbow" can perform, each also feature solar charging, atomic time, Bluetooth, and a long list of other functions which I won't pretend I understand yet. The "Rainbow" was released with an MSRP of $280, and the "Borneo Rainbow Toad" and the "Volcanic Lightning" each had an MSRP of $1,100, which put them among the very highest-priced G-Shocks. 

Today, those MSRP's are primarily of historical interest, as all three watches are on sale at much higher prices. The "Rainbow" doesn't seem to be available from well-known, reputable dealers at all anymore. I wonder whether this might be because the well-known dealers have waiting lists of close friends and good customers who have already agreed on a purchase price if and when the dealer acquires a "Rainbow." That would explain why we in the general public never see it on sale from those dealers. 

So: what got me interested in G-Shocks was beauty. I love the way these limited editions look, with the rainbow IP and the other bold colors. 

But once I got interested in G-Shocks, I began to learn about all of the practical things they can do: in addition to everything listed above, various models can also measure how many steps you take, your heart rate and blood pressure, the atmospheric temperature and barometric pressure and altitude, your depth underwater, the tides, and many, many other things. 

And the more I study G-Shocks, the more I appreciate that not only special limited editions like these ones are beautiful. It's clear that Casio concentrates very hard on aesthetics right alongside function. 

So my previous notions about the uselessness of watches are being challenged, at least in the case of a few very highly-functional watches like these, and their somewhat less-colorful siblings, the non-limited-edition G-Shocks. 

The $2,000 dollars which you might have to pay today for a "Borneo Rainbow Toad" or a "Volcanic Lightning" is less than the cost of ANY new watch from many of the luxury brands. $2,000 seems like a lot compared to the $50 and less you'd pay for some other G-Shocks. But it's less than the cost of any new Rolex or Omega. Something to think about. Some G-Shock fans regard a 4-figure MSRP as just shocking and wrong, let alone paying above MSRP for a limited edition. 

Another thing which is discussed is whether special edition G-Shocks like these should be worn in everyday life and exposed to being scratched and smudged and the other things which everyday life does. I feel very strongly about this: I think it is very sad when beautiful things like this are locked away and never enjoyed, for fear of scratches and dust and so forth. Others seem to feel just as strongly that it's a shame when a collector's item is scratched because its owner didn't treat it like a museum piece. 

I'm open to discussion. My mind changes sometimes. Look at me right now, writing about quartz watches. That represents a huge change in my mind. Three months ago I didn't really know about G-Shocks and didn't care.

gshock highfashion on YouTube

There are many channels devoted to wristwatches on YouTube. A popular form of video on these channels is the unboxing video. That's where the host of the channel, with a POV camera on his head or pointed over his shoulder, takes a package which has arrived in the mail, and removes a watch from it. 

Sounds dull? Oh man, you have no idea. I'm fascinated by watches, obsessed with them, and even I started to find this sort of thing unbearably dull after 2 or 3 times. I know what a USPS or UPS or Amazon package looks like. I know what the box that holds the watch inside the mailing package looks like. I actually tuned in to get a look at the watch, maybe even hear a description of it. But in an unboxing video, it might take the guy 5 minutes or so to get to the watch.How could it possibly take 5 minutes? you're wondering. The answer is: some people aren't just very dull, they're also very slow. 

But the host of gshock highfashion is so interesting, he can even make an unboxing interesting. Partly because he intercuts the unboxing with video of  watches and other things. Partly because his excitement is audible and contagious -- this guy is really, really into G-Shocks -- but also because he's very knowledgeable. Now, obviously, a lot of guys -- mostly guys -- are fascinated by the boxes that watches come in, or these unboxing videos wouldn't be a thing. But not everyone is good at communicating the excitement they feel. As far as knowledge goes: in one video he points to the logo on the G-Shock box, names the man who designed the logo and has interesting things to say about that man's life.  On this channel, believe it or not, I watched a dozen unboxing videos before I started to find them dull. And luckily, this channel is not ALL unboxing videos.

So what's the name of this interesting, knowledgeable YouTube host? I don't know, he doesn't say. I don't know what his face looks like either, he never shows it. His forearms are thin and wiry. There's always a G-Shock on his left wrist. Sometimes he wears G-Shocks on both wrists. That's about as well as I can visually ID him.

One of the few things he says about himself is that he repairs and services watches for a living. That's very easy to believe, because in many of his videos he's taking G-Shocks apart and putting them back together, looking and talking like a guy who knows what he's doing. I also get the impression that he is originally from Japan and now lives outside of Japan.

Now, as far as why the channel is called gshock highfashion, I'm not sure. The G-Shock part is easy enough: almost every video is entirely about G-Shocks. The few exceptions have to do with other Casio products: other watches by Casio, and a Casio alarm clock and a Casio Wall clock. But for the most part, this guy is all about the G-Shocks. 

 

Now, about the high fashion part. Maybe high fashion has different connotations in Japan than in other parts of the world. To me, high fashion, haute couture, suggests very exclusive products, very expensive, often with only one of each type ever made. G-Shocks are made in huge quantities, and they're very affordable. The most expensive G-Shock costs less than the least expensive Rolex, and the average G-Shock costs about 1/100th as much as the average Rolex. A G-Shock will run you somewhere between $40 and $3,000. As far as availability is concerned, even the "exclusive" limited edition G-Shock models are made in quantities of hundreds or thousands each. And the host of gshock highfashion will complain if he thinks that Casio has priced an item too high. Even if we're talking about an MSRP of $100 which he thinks should have been more like $80 or so. 

The fashion part of the channel's name makes sense. In addition to being able to fix G-Shocks, this guy knows a lot about their appearance, and the technical aspects of how the appearance is achieved, and he talks very intelligently about aesthetics and fashion and design, as for example in the discussion of a logo on a box described above.

Maybe the name of the channel is meant ironically, because the host likes G-Shocks, among other reasons, because they are NOT exclusive or expensive.

The channel has gotten better over time. In particular, the host's delivery, in videos released in 2020 and 2021, is much more relaxed, and therefore much more relaxing. Did he consult a vocal coach? Whatever caused the change, it came suddenly and made a huge difference.

And as if all of this wasn't already wonderful enough, the host also has a cute little kitty who sometimes wanders into the frame and does cute kitty stuff. The biggest disagreement I have with the host is that he prefers an all-black color scheme on watches more than than I do. I like the colorful, sparkly G-Shocks more than he seems to. But that's just a matter of a couple of numbers or letters in a watch's model designation.

So. Watch this channel, even if you don't care about watches, because this guy appears to be a good guy and a genius who should be famous and powerful so that he can have a greater positive influence on the world. You'll probably find it interesting, even if you don't care about watches.

G-Shock

I was annoyed yesterday when I noticed that my G-Shock was running almost a minute fast -- until I remembered that it hadn't been set since early May 2020. 1 minute fast over 10 1/2 months comes out to less than 6 seconds fast per month. Not too shabby. The official specification is within plus to minus 15 seconds a month.

My G-Shock DW9052-1ccg looks like this:

I think the -1ccg suffix refers to it being all-butch black. But I'm not completely sure about that. There are a huge number of G-Shock models, and I'm still new at this. In any case, a DW9052 is a G-Shock which has that same basic configuration, and DW9052's come in a lot of different colors, as well as black with many different colors of accents, besides all-butch black. 

Casio, as far as I know, does not refer to this color scheme as "all-butch black." I made that phrase up to make fun of myself and a lot of other people. 

Besides keeping track of hours, minutes and seconds (in your choice of 12-hour AM/PM or the all-butch 24-hour format which I naturally prefer), day of the week, month and day and year (on a separate screen because there's only so much room and you probably know what year it is), my DW9052 features

-- an alarm, and a chime which sounds every hour on the hour, which I finally figured out how to to turn off yesterday. There are watch aficionados who prize alarms and hourly, or even minutely chimes very highly, and pay huge amounts for mechanical watches which sound them. The charm is so far lost on me. But, mind open must be amen.

-- Countdown timer; input range: 1 minute to 24 hours; measuring unit: 1 second; auto-repeat function,
1/100 second stopwatch; measuring capacity: 23:59'59.99"; measuring unit: 1/100 second (for the first 60 minutes). No, I do not understand what all of that is. I do know that it's a pretty fancy timer and stopwatch.

-- Everything on the dial lights up into nice bright lume when you push the big button marked "G."

Casio has sold over 100 million G-Shocks since 1983. They say that its designer, when a small boy, was given a watch by his father, which he cherished until one day he dropped it, it shattered into many pieces, and he vowed to devote his life to designing a watch which was indestructible. This story strikes me as being very -- Japanese. Perhaps it is also perfectly true, how would I know. 

I still don't know for sure what sort of battery my G-Shock will eventually need. I could screw off the back and look and see, but I'm not going to do that. Not today.

The thing which makes G-Shocks G-Shocks is toughness. They have been hit with hockey sticks like hockey pucks, thrown off of the tops of tall building onto concrete sidewalks, intentionally run over by huge trucks, and come out undamaged. There may be tougher watches than G-Shocks, but I sort of doubt it. In any case, their toughness is legendary.

From the basic all-butch black plastic-and-rubber battery-powered models with their digital readouts, G-Shocks have expanded into a variety of colors and functions, many with analog displays instead of or in addition to digital, some powered by light or radio waves instead of or in addition to batteries. Some are now smartwatches. Some are covered by metal instead of plastic and rubber -- sacrificing some durability, I would imagine. They run from around $40 to four figures, maybe higher in some rare cases.

I  honestly never wanted any of them besides my all-butch black DW9052-1ccg until the day before yesterday. I was set. I was perfectly content in the G-Shock department. 

And then I saw the GM-110RB-2A (Also known as The Rainbow) in a video:

-- O sweet Richard Mille! 

But apparently 500 people felt similarly before I did and it was a limited edition of 500 and it sold out very quickly, months before I knew it existed. I'm trying to make myself want it less by telling myself the truth: that those gold-colored parts on the sides are metal, not shock-resisting rubber, as I had assumed when first seeing it in the video. That's helping a little bit. Transluscent gold rubber would've been even better. And more durable, as one braved the deepest techno raves of California. Tell me I'm wrong. 

Look how beautiful. MSRP $280. All gone. And now I'll be searching the newest G-Shock releases and reading the G-Shock news. Waiting for them to do it again.

Open Letter to the Urban Gentry

You recently gave some advice about dress watches on your You Tube channel and I'm confused: a Richard Mille is wrong because "it draws attention to itself," but the most intense 5,000,000,000-watt design by Swatch is very, very right because it "catches the eye and can be a great conversation starter"? Is it a matter of price: eye-catching and inexpensive is fine, but if it's expensive, please tone it down? I realize too that Richard Milles are sometimes also quite large, but I feel as if there's more going on here than size. Full disclosure: I haven't yet seen a Richard Mille irl, maybe if I did I'd instantly understand what upsets so many of you about them. (Ditto for Hublot.) 

   

 

 

More full disclosure: I'm 6'3" and have big wrists, situated between big arms and big hands, and maybe I'm just a tiny bit defensive about remarks about big watches. Okay -- there's no maybe about it, and it's more than just a tiny bit. For some people, clearly, in some situations 40mm is starting to risk being a bit too big, but just remember: for other people, in some situations 40mm can sometimes be a bit small.  

I myself am quite daring in my fashion choices: for example, I like to compliment a tux not only with a huge shiny Seiko diver, but also with a scuba mask, oxygen tank and flippers. If the host's or hostesses' feelings are hurt by the thought that I might leap into the ocean at any moment and swim away 10 meters below the surface, well then, maybe he or she shouldn't have invited me to begin with! Not everyone fits at every kind of party, I quite agree.

A Place of Enchantment?

 Observe the photo. The combination of masks and attire strongly suggests St Patrick's Day 2021.

See the man near the front, wearing a black T-shirt and performing a facepalm. Then the woman second to the right from him, with two necklaces or cords around her neck and a white sweater over a green shirt. Then, further to the right and further away from the camera, a woman wearing blue jeans and a black jacket. And finally, just to her left and further away, a tall thin man with his mask pulled down from his face, looking in the direction of the camera, with tattoos on his left arm, wearing a black-and-white cap. 

!!?? Huh?! Do you see it too?! 

Those four people have four of the five wrists I can see in this picture, and on each wrist is a watch!

Actually, actually -- hold the phone -- if we go back behind the tall guy with the black-and-white cap and tats, behind him and to the right, there's a couple, a woman wearing a black top and blue jeans and a man wearing a green sweatshirt or long-sleeved T-shirt and black pants. The woman is holding a white shopping bad and they're both looking down at it. Looks like the man might have a watch on his left wrist and the woman a watch on her right wrist -- a lefty, maybe.

What IS this wonderful place, a St Patrick's Day 2021 horological convention? (Horology is things related to time and timekeeping and especially to watches.)

Maybe it's just a bunch of yuppies wearing Apple Watches. I wouldn't find that interesting at all. I don't get out much.

Wearing More Than One Watch at a Time

The are records of wrist watches having been made as long ago as the late 18th century, and, more likely than not, at some point early in their existence, some people began wearing more than one wristwatch at a time, for fashion reasons or other reasons.

However, the earliest instance of this I have been able to find (keep in mind, I haven't been looking for very long yet) is General Norman Schwarzkopf wearing a watch on either wrist beginning in 1990, at the start of the first Gulf War. Schwarzkopf had one watch set to Baghdad time, the other to Washington, DC time. Since then, wearing two (or more) watches at once has been known in some circles as "doing the Schwarzkopf." Buzz Aldrin, Fidel Castro and Ted Cruz have all been seen doing the Schwarzkopf. I have not yet been able to find any records of Schwarzkopf having asked any of them to stop.

I have done a little bit of searching in online discussion groups devoted to watches where people have asked whether it's okay to wear more than one watch at a time, or whether people will think it looks stupid or what have you. The responses I've seen so far have been overwhelmingly positive, saying, yeah, you be you, wear as many as you want to. Keep in mind, however, that some of the participants in such discussion groups are watch dealers, and that some watch dealers might figure that the more watches someone wears at one time, the more watches they are likely to purchase, and so, they might sometimes encourage wearing more than one watch at a time even if they think it looks really, really stupid.

One comment in one of these discussions said that, although he personally found nothing at all wrong with it, for every one person encouraging you to wear as many watches as you want to, there might be as many as ten judgemental jerks who would question not only your fashion sense, but also your personal and professional competence, if they spotted you wearing more than one watch at a time. My reaction to that is that it seems that the person making the comment might have a bad job where he is surrounded by judgemental creeps, and might be much happier if he made a drastic change to, for instance, a situation where he could wear a whole bunch of watches at once and the people around him would think it was great. One thing I'm absolutely sure about is that the reaction you will get by wearing more than one watch at once will vary greatly according to the kind of people with whom you surround yourself.

In a similar vein: in the course of researching this post, I came across an online article discussing weather a man should wear a watch at all. The author said yes, and he said yes for reasons having to do with peer pressure (also known as fashion) -- he asserted, for example, that nothing looks more desperate than a man fumbling for his cell phone in order to check the time.

It all depends on your point of view: to me, few things seem more desperate and insecure than someone who would worry about others judging him because he used his cell phone to check the time.

I'm so glad that, back in the 1980's, I came across that interview with Cormac McCarthy in which he declared that you have cleared one of the major hurdles in life when you have ceased to worry about what other people think of you. That's solid-gold advice.

Regular readers of this blog know that my position is that the only sensible reason to wear a watch in our present age is because you want to, not because you want to impress anyone else but because you like the watch in question.

Or the watches in question. Maybe you've gotten a new watch recently and you've been wearing the new one, but you starting missing wearing the one you wore previously, so now you wear them both. I say: good for you! Wear a watch on either wrist if you want to. Wear two watches on each wrist if you want to. I am decidedly, emphatically, firmly in the You Be You camp, and I have never sold a watch, and I also have no plans to do so.

I don't follow fashion closely. It was not until I started researching this post -- I started doing that yesterday -- that I discovered that some people who write about ladies' fashion for a living have encouraged ladies to wear more than one watch on a wrist since the early 2010's.

One of the most distinguished writers about men's watches recently wrote a column which began with the assertion that smartwatches really are watches. It wouldn't have occurred to me to argue otherwise, but apparently it has occurred to some people who interact with this particular writer. In any case, it seems to me that the rest of this particular column undercut the point with which it began, because it was all about wearing a conventional watch on one wrist and a smartwatch on the other -- as if there actually were a crucial difference.

My position would be, wear a mechanical watch (or two or three) on each wrist, and carry a few pocket watches in your pockets -- mechanical pockets watches, of course! -- and do the smart watch stuff on your phone. But it's not as if huge crowds of people have been clamoring for my opinion about this sort of thing. Well, maybe after I publish this post.

Maybe you have far, far more interesting things on your mind than watches and are a far wiser person than I.

I think the Trainman in The Marix Revolutions wore about 10 watches on each wrist. But does anybody really know how many it was?