Pro Trek – Affordable New Hi-Tech

The Pro Trek PRG-300 Series
PRG-300-1A2, positive display, black with blue accents

Red Bull Round-Up 2015

Daniil Kvyat and Daniel Ricardo weathered to perfection their Formula One race in Hungary; finished second and third place. It brought the first podium of the 2015 season for the new Red Bull driving team.

Lately, Casio has been introducing some very nice wrist gear with plenty of models from which to choose – at reasonable, affordable prices. And, each time Casio developes new tech feature-sets in their other watch lines, they figure a way to incorporate useful conservative elements of them in the new Edifice products.

G-SHOCK 6900 Series Round-Up 2015

All but one of the watches below is GD-X6900 which is slightly more expensive than the standard DW6900. The GD-Xs are wider, thicker, and feature 10 year battery life, full auto calendar (to 2099), flash and buzzer alerts,and the handy auto “Super Illuminator.” Otherwise they are G-Shock through and through with the durability, dependability, all resin band and case, accuracy, alarms, and timer as you would expect from them.

G-Shock 5600 Series Round-Up 2015

Since 1985, Casio has continuously produced the 5600 series products, over the years making minor improvements and expanding the features and colorway selections.

G-Shock GA110 Round-Up 2015

G-Shock has an ongoing bread-winner with the GA110 series watches. It’s popularity comes from a number of factors, the most salient being low price, rich digital features, a big bold size, hybrid analog-digital timekeeping, a distinctive non-symmetrical face layout, and dozens of attractive color and pattern selections.
For the first half of 2015, Casio released the GA110 watches described below. Affordably priced between $120 and $150, they are a solid value.

Fall ’14 – Camo Fashion Sports G-Shock

G-Lide GLS-8900CM Camouflage G-Shock – Winter 2014
Now comes another wave of camouflage patterned digital watches from G-Shock. These new colorways add to the wide selection of GLS-8900 products that are designed to appeal to sports fashion oriented buyers that can benefit from the dual stopwatch feature, tide data, and –20ºC low temperature resistance that these watches provide.
Other features, such as auto “super illuminator,” world time, full auto calendar, and two year battery life expectancy continue to keep the watch a strong value in todays market.
Now, it might occur to you that the features are a little discordant – in what situation would one need low temperature resistance and surfing (tide) information at the same time? But for that one time that such a combination would occur (I, for the life of me, have not yet come up with one), you would have to smile and think, “what amazing insight these guys have!”

GA-400 – Rotary Switch G-Shock

New colorways are soon to be added to the recently introduced GA-400 category: analog-digital, mostly edgy street fashion designed to appeal to those looking for a skateboard/sneakerhead ’90s style of big and extra-bold watch statement.

Camouflage Series GA110CM, Autumn 2014

The distinctive design of the GA110 model is a long-running winner. It spins off abundant new colorways with extraordinary frequency while voracious G-Shock buyers keep scooping them up in all their glorious variety.

Rescue Orange Series

In a fashion-wise and fitting move, Casio is releasing an all orange (band and case around black dials with white indicia) mixed set of slightly vintage style watches called the Rescue Orange Series.

Swiss Quality & Affordable

These are fashion watches from designers that draw the bigger bucks for significant established brand renown (plus, a couple cheapy beaters, just for the heck of it).

EDIFICE – Coming Fall 2014

Casio has been implementing the Bluetooth Smart protocol which is a subset of Bluetooth SIG specification version 4.0 in all their smartphone compatible watches: and again, now, in their newest Edifice watches: EWB-500D-1AJF and the EWB-500DC-1AJF. What’s important about this Bluetooth implementation is Casio’s complete commitment to a specific local wireless spec that mandates by definition, compatibility with iOS, Android, Blackberry and even Windows 8. To this blogger, it is welcome news that a continuing affirmation of specific direction is re-declared and that continuity in the open standard is embraced. Instead of the former tangle of issues, both hardware and software-wise, app writers simply have to write the app! For now, an app called “CASIO WATCH+ Version 2.0.1” which was just released this week (September 3, 2014) will set up your iPhone to use all the watch’s features.

Tissot — Swiss Tradition

Always a class act, Swiss watchmaker Tissot has a few sapphire faced sporty new models that demand to be seen – beautiful and luxurious, without the usual high Swiss prices.

swatch 2014 – Beautiful and Affordable

As part of their quality statement, Swatch says, “SWISS MADE – All Swatch watches come with the label Swiss Made which embodies a concept of quality that has been forged over the years. It includes the technical quality of watches (accuracy, reliability, water-resistance and shock-resistance), as well as their aesthetic quality (elegance and originality of design).

Men in Rescue Red — Red Rescue G-Shock Watches

The three new watches using this specific colorway are the Gulfman GW9110RD-4 (MSRP ¥ 27,000), the Mudman GW9300RD-4 (MSRP ¥ 23,000)and the Rangeman GW9400RD-4 (MSRP ¥ 48,000) and all are atomic and solar. The Gulfman specializes in tide information, the Mudman has a digital compass, and the Rangeman has the new “triple sensor” technology.

Stussy X X G-Shock DW5600

Once again Stussy has teamed up with G-Shock to produce a collaboration DW5600 watch product – this time with a checkerboard theme and branding on the dial and upscale round tin package with the Stussy logo in the backlight. Why they are using Van’s signature checkerboard is beyond me – seems a little pushy, but I don’t know what is on their minds these days. MSRP for the wristwatch is $350. and is still available from their stores.
Another special edition, a DW56w00 in mostly white with black indicia and readout was issued to commemorate the 2014 FIFA World Cup Championship. MSRP for the watch is $250.  A June release, exclusively in their own stores, and at this writing is still available.