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I’m Bridging the Gap with the Casio GW-6900

Intro

So as I mentioned recently about the DW-290, it isn’t a perfect watch. Also, I did eventually fall into the rabbit hole once more. The idea was to have a Casio that had all the other features the DW-290 did not have, and that is where this GW-6900 made an entry.

The GW-6900

A closer equivalent to the DW-290 was the DW-6900, which was the older version of this watch. Remember how I mentioned that a DW watch can turn into a GW watch and gain superpowers? This GW-6900 is a perfect example of that, and yes, this is a G-Shock, so it comes with all the rest of the toughness certifications as well.

Clear Upgrade from DW to GW

As far as I’ve read and seen on the web, every time you upgrade from a DW watch to a GW watch, you gain the following additional features at the minimum:

  1. It adds the world time feature for multiple cities and a way to check the time for a chosen timezone at the press of a button.
  2. It increases the number of alarms you can set from one to five.
  3. It adds solar charging so that you do not need to worry about changing the battery until the solar battery is all worn out, which as some people say lasts over a decade and sometimes even more.
  4. It adds multi-band reception so no more adjusting time, at least if you keep getting those sync signals late at night, rather early in the morning.

With this GW-6900, there’s an additional feature where the EL backlight now comes up every time you turn the watch towards you to check the time when you’re in a dark area.

There is finally some aftermarket mod support for this watch, unlike none for the DW-290, although if you see on the web, there are more mods for the DW-6900 than this GW-6900.

More Cool Stuff I Learned Later

The feature upgrades that I mentioned until now were something I knew from the web. However, there were several other cool things I only learned about after I received this watch:

  • We know how the three graphs on the original DW-6900 did not do anything useful, however on this GW-6900, two of those are status indicators of various functions. A useful one among them is the Mute feature that will turn off all sounds from the watch, which I guess could be really helpful.
  • There are more configuration options for the hourly chime than just turning it ON and OFF.
  • More text can be displayed on the screen, like this full year while setting time and the letters of the day of the week in the time-keeping mode.
  • There is a power saving feature that I’ve come to learn is a thing with solar Casio watches.

The Things I Lose

The only two things that are absent here are the flashing alerts and the unique and iconic design in the DW-290 which is unlike any other Casio watch. I also noticed that the strap on the DW-290 fits narrower and is more comfortable on my relatively thinner wrist.

Conclusion

While pulling the trigger on this GW-6900, I kept looking back at the GWM-5610 with the overwhelming positive reviews of that watch and for how it is considered the best G-Shock to ever exist. However, after experiencing this watch in person, and for how awesome it looks, which is even better in those pictures and videos all over the web, I’m glad I chose this GW-6900.