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Here is another recent arrival. I have picked up a number of older 'G's recently and this is another. It is my first watch from the DW-6100 series, which was a popular one.
This watch is the very rare DW-6194-1C issued for the USA 94 World Cup. There are two versions, this one and the more common DW-6194-1B.
I picked this up real cheap because, even though the watch is in unworn condition, it suffers from a very common problem afflicting the DW-6194s a seeming delamination of the film round the outer edge of the crystal. Indeed the watch was described as having a 'peeling' of the film.
Here is the sellers photo.
You can see the discolouration.
Now this seems to be a problem in the manufacture of these watches. Every DW-6194 I have seen has this issue. What causes it I don't know. However, it seems to me not to be a peeling off of the film but more an issue with deposits on the plastic or the crystal. If the film was disintegrating you would surely see signs of this in deposits on the module.
I would have bought the watch in any event, as they are rarely seen and all seem to have this problem anyway and I am a fan of the USA 94 Casio's. However, I had an idea to remove the module and see what could be done.
So this Is what I did when the watch arrived. Unfortunately I did not take a 'before' picture but here is an 'after' picture.
Once I removed the module I found that the plastic insert prevented access to the crystal and I didn't see any easy way to remove the insert. Without the right tools and info about how it was fitted I reckon you would just destroy it. Anyway I first soaked it in warm soapy water and then directed jets of water around the inside of the case and low and behold the deposits finally came off after about 15 minutes. I got nearly all of them off but missed just some tiny bits, I will probably try and do a100% job when I have to change the battery.
The discolouration is therefore definitely not delamination and seems to be some sort of out gassing of the plastic insert and it seems like Casio got something wrong with this model.
However, I now have a lovely, near pristine, rare vintage at a great price for just a little bit of effort. I am quite chuffed actually.
The watch has some interesting features it has the usual alarm, hourly signal and 24 hour stopwatch modes.
In addition it has sunrise and sunset times which can be checked against any date.
It has a temperature graph on the face which gives the temperature for each of the last 6 hours. You can also display the current temperature instead of the date in timekeeping mode. This module 984 only allows you to show the temperature in centigrade. The export model of the DW-6100 had module 974 which allowed you to change to Fahrenheit. This watch was made in Japan I think most of the later DW-6100s were made in Korea..
The watch has a temperature record mode which records the last 30 temperature measurements. You can set the timing of these measurements in periods up to 24 hours, though the default is one hour.
This is quite interesting as you can review what has been happening with the temperature over quite long periods. I have a wine storage area and it will be nice to check how the temperature moves here and how quickly. Here is current record and record 6.
The module has an 'eye' which visually shows you the amount of daylight and nighttime for the day. A flashing line points to the current time and darkness hours are marked with dark lines. This is quite a cool feature actually.
For illumination, surprisingly, it uses the wimpy light bulb system. This was unusual for Casio when this watch was made and I don't know why as the EL system is miles better.
The watch is a pleasing 'old school' design, with a 'false' G button making it look like a classic five button model.
I have always liked the look of the 6100s but I have not got one 'till now as I wanted to get either a World Cup model or the Camo model as these are my favourites and I would have ended up getting them anyway notwithstanding that I already had another model. That is it with this mad hobby, you have to try and control yourself.
Really pleased with this pickup and also that I have resolved this discolouration problem on the edge of the module and confirmed you can get rid of it.
So yet another characterful vintage with some cool features and which again also shows that resin can last a heck of a long time looking as new if it is looked after.
So what do members think?
Mitch
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Originally Posted by G-fob
