Seiko 5 Sports SNZ391

Hi everyone!

This is my first and only 5 Sports series. What I love about this watch is it's simplicity and elegance, that is a lot to say for a watch that is rather affordable. It's a good day to day beater if you don't want to get extra scratches to your other watches from your collection that are way more expensive.

It has the 7S36 movement, an automatic movement with 23 jewels that is +/- 15 seconds per day of loss of accuracy. Not bad for an affordable watch.

The bezel is an element of this watch that I like pretty much, it only lacks of the lume in the start of the countdown marks. The numbers and the lines are machined on the bezel and painted with black. I prefer this than the entirely painted bezel as it can be worn off if you use it in outdoors activities.

The lume is as always in Seiko excelent. It can last all night after being exposed to a bright light or day light. It's legibility is perfect in yhe dark, I have to try it snorkeling to see how it can be read under water.The bracelet is the same design as I've seen in a Rolex model. It's not a flsahy design, but it's elegant and it feels comfortable.
The watch is very light despite it's made of stainless steel. This is because the watch is a medium size. I find it rather small for my wrist, but that's ok if you want a shy watch.
Lately this watch is having a lot of wrist time just because it's looks are elegant and as it is a cheap watch (and also as a Seiko, very reliable) it can take a beating without watching out too much.
The Seiko's 5 Sports are watches with an incredible relation between quality and price. So if you want to have an entry automatic watch, the Seiko 5 Sports are the ones to choose.

G-9100TC Gulfman Triple Crown of Surfing

A few days ago Sjors from "G-Peopleland" and "50 Gs" posted in his blog a review of the G-9100 Gulfman. It's a great review were he describes and explains the features of the watch perfectly. I'm telling you this because I would like to show some pictures of my G-9100TC Gulfman, as Sjors has already done the review and the features are exactly the same, the only differences are aesthetical, I will add the link of his great review.

The Gulfman Triple Crown of Surfing is a limited edition watch conmemorating the surf competition with it's name. The main differences are the colour of the band and case which as you can see is this metallical light blue the back case, which the logo of the Triple Crown competition is engraved and some details of the display.

The colour chosen for this edition is... somehow special. For my taste is kind of mixed feelings, depending on how is my mood I like it or not. I'm keen on black with a touch of colour, but that blue suposes sometimes too much colour for me. Judge yourselves.

There are things that I would like to crticise. Firstly the strap is not the same colour of the band, it's a matte blue as the inner part of the band. A detail that Casio should have cared about. Secondly and also lastly, the manual should explain much better how to calculate the lunitidal interval, I'm already used to calculate this things as I've sailed for many years, but for a newbie it can be a pain in the ass to make it out.





I have to say that as always, G-Shocks look way better in real life that in pictures. Photographs are not able to show perfectly the delightness of it's shapes and angles. If you ever like a G-Shock in a picture, for sure that when you take a look in first person you will like it a lot more!

GW-225A Frogman Dawn Black

Ohayogozaimasu!


Recently I've been in Lanzarote to visit a friend of mine and also to do some windsurf, a sport that I'm getting little by little more addicted. You can see some pics at the right column.

I wanted to take with me two G-Shocks, the Frogman and the Gulfman Triple Crown of Surfing G-9100TC. But I finally decided to just carry with me the Frogman, I didn't want to warry about the other watch when I wasn't carrying it with me.

It was a great decision, as I gave as a gift to my friend the Gulfman G-9100-1. He is a windsurf freak, so this watch suits perfectly to him, the tide levels are very important in this sport.

The cool features of the Frogman are the Dive log, but I didn't use it as I wasn't scuba diving, the ID card, blood type and all the info that you can save in it's memory in case you suffer an accident and you aren't concious or something worse.

The Frogman worked flawlessly through the five days that we were windsurfing. Every day we sailed 3 hours as a minimum, and I can tell you that I have no complain about this watch. I could read the time perfectly meanwhile I was on board.

There was a matter that I was a little bit worried about. The clasp that closes the resin strap has a goldish finish as you can appreciate at the pictures. Normally they apply this gold by a bath of a material that looks like gold or by anodizing the material. Either of them are just superficial covers and if you do a scratch on it, the original material will appear, which makes it look much older than it is.

But surprisingly not a scratch, or at least, the gold bath stood any scratches that I made. I can assure you that I gave the watch quite a beating, but is new as the first day.

With all, I can say that the Frogman is a really tough G-Shock that can stand any rough treatment that you can give, plus the looks of the watch and even more the dawn black edition with the black and gold colour combination gives you a stylish look.

It's not the cheapest G-Shock, it's more, it's quite expensive comparing with it's brothers, but you will have an instant classic G that will make some heads turn around.

Hope that you enjoyed my review! See you!

Casio Protrek PRG-40

Hi!

Today I'm going to talk about the Casio Protrek PRG-40. It's a relatively old model of the Protrek's series, but I think that the design stands pretty well the pass of time.

If they asked me to choose a Protrek model above all, one of my candidates would be the PRG-40, but maybe it wouldn't be the winner, as it hasn't got the features that the newer Protrek's have, I'm talking about the tough solar and the atomic timekeeping.

The design I think that kicks ass, at first glance it looks like a G-Shock, but it isn't, but it can take some beatening up. The display has super big numbers and it shows the complete day and date and year, not many Casio's show them.

The design of the case is like it was thought by a character of Mad Max, with the green cover that runs from the light button through the compass, barometer and altimeter buttons.

I also like the colour combination, with the khaki green, grey, black and yellowish of the light button. It's kind of camouflage colours, except for the yellow, but it gives the colour touch. If it wasn't there, maybe the watch would look knd of dull.

One more feature that I like is the reverse backlight, where the numbers lightened instead of the backround. I find it cool and different.

As you can imagine by what you have read, I like a lot this watch, just a pitty about the tough solar, the atomic time keeping is a feature that I can live without, but to have a rechargeble battery makes me feel that the watch is more reliable.

Hope that you enjoyed this review and the pictures. See you soon!

Casio G-Shock GL-160-3

The GL-160-3 was my third G-Shock. After 6 years with my unbeatable DW-6900 I thought it was time to make a change and let have a well earned rest to the DW-6900.
I made my way to a mall to see what new products had Casio released. And when I took a look at the G-Shock’s display I saw the GL-160. I felled in love immediately and I knew it had to be mine. What caught my eye was the polished stainless steel bezel which enhances the watch. The case and bracelet are like 2 in 1 made of blue jellyfish resin. The back case is protected by more resin, but in this part the material is more solid and is purple which matches very well with the blue jellyfish.

The bracelet has a nice detail with a lip and the end of the band so it won’t slip out of the ring easily. It has a feature that I love and not all G-Shock’s have, but personally, I find it’s a must. I’m talking about the illuminator button placed at 6 o’clock of the bezel. I think that they look more authentic with this button.

Ok, enough describing the watch itself, anyways, you can check it out yourselves with the pictures. Let’s talk about the different modes that has. Firstly we have the time mode, after pressing the mode button once you have the moon age and tide time interval, when you press it for the second time you have the time the sun rise’s and set’s, pressing again you have the count down timer, pressing once more the stopwatch appears and lastly 2 alarms, snooze and hourly signal.

At time mode, if you press the forward button, you can change the display view from the classical mode, which shows the time at the center with big numbers, at the top the date and at the bottom the day of the week, to the tide graph display, where at the center of the display appears the tide graph and on top there is the time with smaller numbers. You can see all that at the pictures.

I prefer this way to show the tide graph than the new Gulfman. It’s easier to read and you still have the time and date. The new Gulfman has the tide graph too small in my opinion, and it’s a very important feature if you are surfing, windsurfing or any other sport where the tide level is very important.

I’ve been using this watch while I was windsurfing with a friend. I always had the tide graph display switched on so we could know when they were going to be good waves.

With the reverse button in Time mode you can change the site. Pretty useful if you travel a lot.

The last thing I have to say about the display is the two tone colour display, which I find very cool. It helps you distinguish between the time and date. A feature that I now realize that I missed is the circular window that’s in the display. This window shows the lunar age.

Well, I think that’s all I can say about this incredible watch. I’ve been using it for 5 years more or less and I have changed once of battery, never had a problem with it and when I still take a look I like it as the first day I saw it.

Hope you enjoyed the review! See you soon.

Casio G-Shock DW-5900C-1

As I promised at the previous review, here I go with the DW-5900C-1. I got this watch as a present from my grandmother for my birthday, so you can figure out that I have a sentimental attachment to the watch. I got it at 1993 (more or less) and been using it for two years. I was a pretty active kid by then so it took a rough treatment, and it stood it pretty well. As you can appreciate at the pictures, it is pretty worn out.
I find that the design of the interface of the watch is one of the best that Casio has ever designed. The only thing that I would change is the display of the time, that maybe I would make it a bit bigger.
At the bottom part you can find a window with the time and just above it there is the month-day date.

There are three circular windows on top of the window time. The left shows you the time as an analog watch. The centre one shows you the mode which are you in and if the alarm or signal is activated. The right window shows you a second’s display.

It would be great that Casio updated this watch with the tough solar and the atomic timekeeping, without changing the design. Maybe one day I recreate a possible GW-5900 with Photoshop or in 3D.

In conclusion, a great classic that has a few drawbacks but that in my opinion kick some ass to newer G-Shock designs. It lacks of illuminator, one thing that you can really miss, but we have to remember that we are talking of one of the oldest G-Shock designs and technology.

As always, I hope that you enjoyed this review!

Goodbye.

Casio G-Shock DW-6900BD-1T

I’m a big fan of Casio G-Shocks, they’ve been my companions of adventures for many years. I can actually remember when I had my first G-Shock, a DW-5900C-1, in 1993 more or less, I’m not really sure. But, around 1995, when I saw in a shop the DW-6900BD-1T I felled automatically in love. By then I was 14-15 years old, it was a very active stage of my life. By then I started mountain bike downhill, which is a rough sport, and also many other adventure sports.

This G-Shock took quite a beating as you can appreciate at the pictures. I’ve been wearing it around 6 years, and I didn’t alternate with any other watch. One feature that by now is a sine qua non for G-Shock’s is the back light, but when I first saw it I was totally amused.

Furthermore, to activate the illuminator, you had to press the front button with a G on it, which I found a perfect place to locate it, as it is very intuitive to activate the light. In addition, the nylon strap gave a beefy look to the already sturdy G-Shock. This strap is totally comfortable, with just a drawback: the Velcro that adjusts the strap sometimes went loose when swimming or if you accidentally drag it somewhere.

The watch came with two additional straps which are mid nylon mid resin, in colour black and the other in red. A nice detail from Casio in case you didn’t feel comfortable with the Velcro band.

The features of the watch are the most common for a G-Shock: Time, stopwatch, timer, 5 alarms and hour signal.

There is not much more to say about the watch, it worked flawlessly through all the years that I've been wearing it, and it only took two changes of battery through 6 years of intensive use.

If I had to give a grade to this watch I would give him a 9 out of 10. I would give him a 10 if it had the tough solar and the atomic timekeeping as modern G-Shocks now have.

I hope that you enjoyed my review and next week I will post a review of the DW-5900C-1.

Goodbye!