My niece wanted a watch to go with her motorcycle, a recently bought, solid chunk of raw power. She could have tried something a little less aggressive but well, she kind of ate, drank and slept my Royal Enfield since day 1 I brought it home twelve years back. Needless saying I was burdened to find out an old one in more-or-less a good condition and restore it back to its former glory. So when it came out all done and gleaming and rumbling happily, we went to buy the watch.
The paint job is a combo in blue and black and given nothing else to stand the quivers and shakes on the rough roads, I came up with this one: the G-1200BD-1A. You might ask why not the GW 3000; there’s atomic timekeeping with it so it’s a privilege; true, but there’s also a few hundred dollars difference. She didn’t have that kind of a budget and no, by no means I was ready to pull in; already spent some amount on the repair job. And though not a ‘Tough’ movement, it’s tough enough to handle years of rattle and roll.
So I had to sit and explain things upon reaching home but truth be told, a generation so comfortable with mobile phones turn exclusively dumb with wrist-worn gadgets! I noticed it many other times also, with different kids, it’s all the same. A standard G-Shock functionality in analog format is somewhat intuitive in the beginning but what’s fun to me can be another’s agony; a truth I seemed to realise again.
Once the ticks and turns get clear, it becomes quite straightforward. She doesn’t need to be exact on the 1/100th splits; in that case, I’d suggest the GW-5000-1JF. But well, she needs to schedule time with the offshore (she is into freelancing apart from her studies), so it becomes a good fit. This watch shows UTC and also displays dual-time simultaneously. You fix the second time reading on the sub-dial at 3. This, I suggested, she can use to keep a real-time check on her approaching deadlines. Tracking someone halfway around the globe is no more a fuss when you got this one on! But she was absolutely marvelled with the easy swapping of the time zones with maximum ease! presses making it great for travel and keeping track of time at origin and destination. She found it real fun the way the hands reorient themselves when you swap the time. It sets only clockwise, so there’s no ground for any confusion. Maybe setting the watch 2 hours behind might appear bit lengthy to some people, but well, personally speaking, I hate shortcuts. I love hopping through time zones and my niece also kind of likes it.
Now, there’s no backlight but the lumes on the hands and the markers make up for it. It’s decent and lasts long. The alarm has no ‘snooze’ function, which removes the chances for rolling over and sleeping. But it’s not of much use if you are somewhat short of hearing.
Now, this is one of those few G-Shocks that come with a black, steel band and that makes it more reliable than resin or rubber. But it’s more of her personal taste (she thinks metal is more masculine and she has hots for masculinity) that she went for the steel; not upon listening to my logic.
IMHO, I gave my niece a proper headstart to set her along the G-road.
