Unboxing the Solid Gold G-Shock G-D5000-9JR ‘Dream Project’ at Topper Jewelers

roadwarrior

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$70,000 USD & just over 300 grams

FEB 23, 2020 — BY ZACH PINA https://www.ablogtowatch.com/unboxin...k-g-d5000-9jr/

It started with a box. A big one. One of those kinds of shipping crates that comes nailed to a wooden pallet, inside of which is a series of increasingly smaller boxes, each with bits of straw and packing peanuts layered in between. And inside the smallest box of all would be a long lost golden artifact of perhaps Egyptian origin, completing its long journey from some distant corner of Mesopotamia. Inside this particular matryoshka though, was no priceless artifact but a watch — and a digital one at that.

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In total, 35 of these Dream Project G-Shocks were made, and of those, only 10 made it out of Japan. Of those 10, only two were allocated to the United States. Topper Jewelers rightfully earned the distinction of being able to sell one of them to an equally lucky client, and as it sits on my wrist reflecting my own gaze in a bezel-shaped halo of orange and yellow, I’m struck by how incomprehensibly heavy it is. The tactile trick your wrist is playing on your brain is more or less a visual one — G-shock’s familiar 5000-series plastic cases weigh next to nothing, and this watch — for all intents and purposes, looks exactly like a resin-cased variant — from the familiar rectangular liquid crystal display framed by a smooth bezel into which “PROTECTION” and “G-SHOCK” are etched, right down to the little dimples that punctuate each side of the lugs and trail down the sides of the strap. Except a basic GW-5000 weighs around 70 grams. This one is a little over quadruple that, and double the weight of the “Full Metal” stainless steel GMW-B 5000 variants, topping out at a little over 300 grams.

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And therein lies what’s probably the most impressive — and equally polarizing — thing about this watch: it’s still a G-Shock. Lest we not forget that every G-Shock must be subjected to and survive the same battery of torture tests undergone by the same cadre of Casio’s affordable tool watches worn by men and women in the military, first responders, surfers, sailors, and all of us in between. Except this one is cast in gold, and costs 70 thousand dollars. It leaves us with the question: At what point is a watch no longer just a watch? G-Shock is, arguably, one of the most purpose-built timekeeping tools ever conceived (shoutout to Mr. Kikuo Ibe), and here, in solid gold, it betrays those trappings with spectacular aplomb. It’s a precious metal engineering marvel at best and conceptual pop art at worst, and regardless of which side of the fence you’re on, both of those things are extremely satisfying.

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