The GW-5600 is a remake of the very first Casio G-Shock: the 1983 DW-5000C. I fell in love with the GW-5600 series the first time I saw it both for its boxy, retro styling, and for its plain but essential feature set. In fact, the GW-5600 has the exact set of features that I believe makes up a complete and functional modern digital watch:
- Atomic time keeping. Calibrates in both Japan and in the US.
- Solar powered. With the power-saving function enabled, the watch will remain powered for up to 25 months with no light.
- Countdown timer with a maximum time of 60 minutes, and a resolution of 1/10th of a second.
- 4 standard daily alarms, 1 daily snooze alarm, and an hourly time signal.
- Stopwatch with a resolution of 1/100th of a second, and split time.
- World time for 30 different cities (29 time zones).
- Automatic calendar.
- Water resistant to 20 bar, 200 meters, or 660 feet.
- Battery power indicator.
- Signal reception indicator.
- Electroluminescent backlight.
The GW-5600 is available in a few different models. I chose the one with the inverted LCD (the GW-5600BJ) simply to have something a little different, however the contrast isn’t as high in real life as Casio’s depictions would have you believe, which means it’s a little difficult to read (I would probably recommend going with the standard LCD of the GW-5600J). Other than that, the GW-5600 is a simple but functional digital watch which manages to be both retro and modern.
By Christian Cantrell
Robin
Very good watches but the alarm ring is very weak with the 5610u and 5000u.