Hands-On: G-SHOCK GMW B5000 Full Metal (VIDEO)

When is the last time you bought a watch that put a smile on your face. Right?! I mean just look at this thing. It is 50% nostalgic, 50% contemporary and somehow 200% awesome. Loud, in your face, impossible to ignore and it puts a huge smile on your face.

I am not a fan of the current watch industry trend, for some odd reason almost entirely stuck in the past. Releasing old watches with some added fake patina and perhaps a splash of color and then calling that innovative new releases. Uninspired re-editions and endless limited editions.

That said, this is by no means a re-edition. A nod to the past yes, but that’s about it. This is taking everything you grew up liking about G-Shocks and putting that in a set of highly contemporary clothes. This is a completely different animal from any other watch in the G-Shock family.

First thing you’ll notice as soon as you pick up this watch, it is heavy. Very heavy. This is not a watch that you’ll forget you’re wearing, it is anything but lightweight. When you put it on your wrist, another thing you will see is that the end-links do not articulate which is something worth knowing when deciding if this watch will fit your wrist or not. The end links do slope down a lot so this should be fine for most wrists.

The bracelet does not just wear well, it also looks great, the links are brushed, with those little polished dimples, and it contrasts nicely with the polished case and the brushed square bezel. One thing to note is the clasp. It is a good and solid clasp, don’t get me wrong, but it leaves a pretty large gap as you can see in the picture here. I would have liked to see a bit of a better fit here at this price point. Obviously this is not a dealbreaker, but it did bother me the first couple of days.

This is of course a G-Shock, so you get a hard wearing watch, water resistance and a lot of functionality. It looks and behaves exactly how you expect any other G-Shock. It has all the functions I need in a digital watch, and nothing I don’t. One thing to note is that it is a Bluetooth connected watch. You can connect your watch to your phone with an app, and then set the different timezones and do all sorts of magic. Honestly speaking, I almost never use the app.

I can already tell you that this is a watch that will not leave my collection. It just puts a big smile on my face every time I wear it. This is a watch that does not fly under the radar, I’m not the type of person who generally enjoys that but this is certainly an exception. It’s just a very fun watch.

P.s: Anyone growing up in the eighties or nineties, you owe it to yourself to check this one out.