The battery supplies the watch with sufficient energy for approx. Casio’s traditional four-screw stainless steel caseback is engraved with the Carbon Core Guard logo. Should Casio introduce other colors, you’ll be able to mix and match the straps. Japan-cased watches carry the JF suffix, at a price premium of about 40 to 100 percent. Considering G-SHOCK’s automated assembly, I’m not sure it makes any difference where the factory is located, at least in terms of quality.
Under a macro lens you can see that the hands’ finish is a bit spotty. The flaws aren’t visible to the unaided eye at a normal distance. What makes the GA-2100 extremely compelling is that even among the G-Shock ranks, $99 is still the first stop on the way in (if you’re looking at list prices – we’ve seen this watch listed by re-sellers at triple list). It’s not only an affordable G-Shock, it’s the most affordable one in the entire range at $99, and that includes purely digital and ana-digi models. The “BAR” value indicates the number of atmospheres to which water resistance is ensured. Watches marked “200m” have the same water resistance as 20 BAR watches.
Features such as time zone settings, stopwatch function, countdown timers and alarms provide versatility and unbeatable utility. White-on-black model’s analog hands are fine, “stealth” gray-on-black, and red-over-red models not so much. Digital screen is hard to read in direct light but on-your-wrist legibility is fine.
Zach is a native of New Hampshire, and he has been interested in watches since the age of 13, when he walked into Macy’s and bought a gaudy, quartz, two-tone Citizen chronograph with his hard earned Bar Mitzvah money. It was lost in a move years ago, but he continues to hunt for a similar piece on eBay. Zach loves a wide variety of watches, but leans toward classic designs and proportions that have stood the test of time.
Allowing you to customise the look, it comes fitted with an interchangeable strap, and to finish, it’s water resistant for up to 200 metres. All three of the original GA-2100 versions have a negative liquid crystal screen with light colored letters. The other two are black , blending in well with the rest of the watch face. There’s a supplementary half dial – indicating the day – next to the 9 o’clock index, and a small digital screen positioned in the lower right quadrant. In Timekeeping mode, they can be toggled between date/seconds and time/seconds. The GA-2100 sword-shaped minute and hour hands won’t please lumatics, but the lume’s bright enough for one-handed time check in the dark, and it saves battery power.
It has an octagonal case shape, not unlike a certain Holy Trinity brand’s famed sports watch, and it’s bright red. If you wear this watch out in a public place, someone is going to comment on the fact that it’s red. You’ll notice people’s eyes gazing at it awkwardly, probably assuming it’s a new smart watch, or maybe assuming that you’re Meek Mill.