Casio G-Shock WW-5100C-9

The early G-Shock look is iconic to 1980s Casio and they were groundbreaking in spawning a sub-industry of ‘action’ watches that were able to withstand far more punishment than the average wristwatch. Wearing a G-Shock watch said something about you as a person (even if you wore it with a suit to your job at the bank).

There are plenty of websites dedicated to the G-Shock – and with good reason – the original DW-5000 was released in 1983 and there have been new models every year since.

The most collectible, though, seem to be the the first 10 versions released. Of those, the DW-5500 (G-Shock II) and the two wide-temp models (WW-5100, WW-5300) are the most difficult to find. And, of those, the WW-5100C-9 appears to be the holy grail for a lot of G collectors.

It differs from the WW-5100C-1 in its gold buttons, gold bezel text, and crystal but is otherwise the same.

UPDATE:

You know how they say lightning never strikes in the same place twice? It did for me, when I found another WW-5100C-9 in early 2013.

Condition-wise it was better and worse than the first one. While the crystal was pretty much unmarked (you could see some fine scratches if you held it to the light on certain angles, but they certainly weren’t obvious) the graphics were a little faded and there were a couple of small bubbles.

That is just being picky though – like the first one, this was a great looking watch.

While I don’t love the after-market replacement bezels, they are by far nicer than not having one at all and since it’s the overall effect you are going for rather than focusing on every tiny detail, it does a more than adequate job.