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
1 comment
Very good watches but the alarm ring is very weak with the 5610u and 5000u.