Review of Casio G-Shock AWGM100-1A vs AWGM100B-1A
Digital watch is a wonderful invention that offers watch seeker the option to move away from the typical watch with analog hand movement. Apparently, not everyone loves the idea of digital and there are those who simply love the combination of analog and digital in a single watch.
You may call them indecisive or whatever, but it seems that the number of people belonging to this group is large enough that even attracted the attention from Casio. The G-Shock AWGM100-1A and G-Shock AWGM100B-1A are two G-Shock models that have been designed mainly to cater to the taste and demand of this market segment for tough watches.
If you are new to G-Shock, it is advisable to get basic understanding about how the G-Shock serial number works. It will help you understand at a glance how to distinguish one model from another and how they differ not only externally, but also internally.
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Looking Back at AWG100-1
The AWGM100-1A and AWGM100B-1A are G-Shock’s improvement to the previously released AWG100-1 model. Just for your info, AWG100-1 is one model that was hugely popular. However, there were several drawbacks that the newer AWGM100-1A and AWGM100B-1A attempted to address.
Atomic Timekeeping
First, all three – AWG100-1, AWG100-1A and AWGM100B-1A – are equipped with Casio’s much touted atomic timekeeping.
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To laymen terms, this simply means that your watch possess a self-adjusting capability. This capability is not limited to small tick synchronization but also encompasses daylight saving.
Ultimately, this means that after you bought the watch, you can be assured of time accuracy and you can even forget about adjusting your watch to take into account the daylight saving as the atomic timekeeping feature does all this job for you.
However, one limitation with the initial the AWG100-1 was that it was not designed to work with all the 6 atomic timekeeping stations spread across the globe.
The 6 stations are geographically scattered with 2 of them operated in Japan, 1 each in North America, Germany, UK and China. The AWG100-1 was designed to work with only 5 of the 6 atomic timekeeping stations worldwide with China being the exclusion.
The newer AWGM100-1A and AWGM100B-1A are able to work with all the 6 stations.
5 Daily Alarms
The other shortcoming of the AWG100-1 is the single alarm that many find too limiting. I’m not sure why would anyone need so many alarm. The AWGM100-1A and AWGM100B-1A comes with 5 daily alarm functionality.
This means that you can set one alarm that will wake you up every morning. One alarm, err, to remind you to take your lunch. One alarm, err, to remind you that it is time to knock off. And you still have room for two more.
Whether or not having multiple alarms is important, I think it depends on every individual.
See also: Review of G-Shock GWA1000-1A vs GWA1000D-1A
Auto-LED Illumination
The next shortcoming that is being addressed in the newer AWGM100-1A and AWGM100B-1A models is the lack of ‘auto’ LED illumination built in the AWG100-1 model.
‘Auto’ here refers to the automatic light ambience sensor that once it detects the level of light is too low, the LED illumination will be automatically turned on when it sense a flicker on your wrist.
While this sounds like a cool feature, some complain about it being overly sensitive while some absolutely love it. Personally, I don’t find it much of a use.
Time Telling Made Easier
The other thing that is being improved in the two newer models is the materials used to make the hands and markers. Neo-brite luminuous material is used to make the hands and markers which should make them glowing and visible in the absence of light.
Compared to their predecessor, the newer models is equipped to handle 31 World time zones compared to 29 in the earlier model.
On Battery Life
The original AWG100-1A performs better when it comes to battery life. The approximate battery life when fully charged (and without subsequent exposure to any light) is 7 months compared to 6 months for the two newer generations.
On Weight
Lastly, all three models come in identical dimension but the newer models are slightly heavier (at 56.4g) compared to their predecessor (at 54.3g).
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HEAD-TO-HEAD COMPARISON: AWGM100-1A vs AWGM100B-1A
Now that we’ve discussed all the improvements found in the AWGM100-1A and AWGM100B-1A, the next natural question is how do the two differ?
This is where our G-Shock serial number decipher guide comes in handy. Just by looking at the serial number alone, you could easily tell that both of them are identical in all aspects except for their face dial.
The AWGM100-1A uses silver stainless steel casing and grey face dial. The AWGM100B-1A uses black stainless steel casing and black face dial. Yes, the difference between the two G-Shock models is down to this simple feature. Nothing more. Nothing else.
Price-wise, both models come with the same price tag. During their launches, the MSRP for both AWGM100-1A and AWGM100B-1A is $150. On and off, if you are lucky enough, you would be able to buy the two watches at a price lower than their MSRP with some of the online retailers.
