Excellent,
Have the Rangeman and a 5610 one for fieldwork one for lower key but tough situations, both firm favourites.
nice little review, thanks!
Which is the ultimate G-Shock? Well, whichever you like best, but these two must be contenders. The Rangeman is a chunky, aggressive-looking piece with a full load-out of features including altimeter, barometer, and compass. The GW-5000, on the other hand, is sleek, sophisticated, and classic-looking. They both feature Tough Solar, multiband atomic time sync, and 200m water resistance. They both cost about the same amount, which is to say, too much. So how do they stack up?
Wrist presence
Make no mistake, the Rangeman is big. Similar in size to a Frogman, which isn't exactly a watch to hide under your shirt cuffs, it's wide, tall, and deep, but not ridiculously so. It's basically round, which helps a bit. Keen observers have noted a resemblance to Master Chief's helmet from the Halo games. In short, it looks badass.
The GW-5000 is rectangular, slimmer, and smaller, and less military-looking. In fact, it's a homage, if that's the right word, to the original G-Shock, the DW-5000C. It's unlikely that anyone would give it a second glance on your wrist, which may or may not be what you want, depending on the situation.
No such discreet reserve is apparent with the massive, tough-looking Rangeman. If the GW-5000 flies under the radar, the Rangie pinpoints and destroys the radar installation.
Winner: Rangeman
Display
Both watches have large, clear, and readable displays. The Rangeman's, like many of the 'Masters of G' series, is split into an upper and lower section, plus a circular indicator. The upper section can display either the date, or a moving graph of barometer readings. The circular indicator shows seconds, differential altitude/pressure, or compass bearing, depending on mode. Unlike the GW-5000, the Rangeman also shows the current time while in other modes.
The GW-5000 has an electroluminescent display, which means the whole panel lights up, though not very brightly, and with an eerie, greenish underwater glow. The Rangeman has a conventional LED backlight, which is nonetheless very effective. Both have an auto-light feature (a tilt switch detects the rotation of your wrist and turns on the light). On the Rangie, the light button is large and placed front and centre on the watch, so it's easy to find and press. The GW-5000 uses one of the side buttons, and it's small and hard to activate (impossible with gloved fingers).
Winner: Rangeman
Features
The Rangeman is packed with features, most of which, if I'm honest, aren't particularly useful when you're not embedded with special forces. If you're hiking or climbing, the altimeter can give you a good idea of your elevation, so long as you have something to calibrate it against (a map contour or trig point, for example). The barometer is sensitive enough to warn you of approaching bad weather. The countdown timer is always a welcome feature on a watch, and probably more useful than the ubiquitous stopwatch (I boil eggs a lot more often than I go drag racing). It also shows sunrise and sunset times for your programmed location, which is handy, but probably not essential. You can also save a number of timestamps, and the minimum/maximum altitude and pressure readings. Finally, and least usefully on a watch, there's a thermometer, which gives you an excellent indication of the temperature of your wrist, but none at all of the ambient temperature, unless you're dead.
The GW-5000, like the Rangie, has an alternate time zone, stopwatch, and countdown timer. They both have multiband atomic time synchronisation, which works very well, and solar power, as well as a power-saving mode. It's fair to say the features shared by both are the useful ones in everyday life, while the Rangeman adds lots more things which are fun to play with, but not essential.
Winner: Rangeman
Usability
Given the number of things it does, the Rangeman is reasonably easy to use, though you will need to keep the manual around, as you'll never remember how to get to some of the more obscure features. In day-to-day use, however, it's fine. The GW-5000's user interface is also straightforward, but unfortunately its buttons are absurdly tiny and recessed so deeply that you really can't press them with a fingertip, unless your fingers are lot tinier and more delicate than mine. You need to get a good grip on the watch and use the end of your fingernail. Practice helps, but the Rangie is the clear winner here as it's simply physically easier to operate with its big, grip-textured buttons.
Winner: Rangeman
Strap
The Rangeman features a standard Casio resin/rubber strap, which is secure and comfortable, with a big stainless steel keeper. The GW-5000's is definitely the luxury version: slim, flexible, smooth, and buttery soft, with a texture like fine chocolate. Don't be tempted to eat it, though; that invalidates the warranty.
Winner: GW-5000
Overall
Although the Rangeman is more eye-catching, more featureful, and more aggressively-styled, there's a lot to like about the slick, classy GW-5000. It has the beloved retro look of the original 1980s Gs, and everything about it is solid, well-made, and understated. The horrid fiddly buttons are a let-down, though, and it's about three times the price of the very, very similar GW-M5610. Is it worth the extra? Probably not, but it's still a terrific watch.
The Rangeman, on the other hand, does everything, and looks tough and futuristic, though it's not for the slender-wristed. It packs in a lot of features for the money, if features are what you're after. If you're the active type, or, like me, the extremely inactive type who likes to overcompensate by wearing huge tactical-looking watches, there's nothing to beat it in the G-Shock lineup.
In conclusion, then, it's horses for courses. If you're jetting off for an international business meeting, pack the GW-5000 with your suit hanger. On the other hand, if you're a Space Marine making a combat drop from orbit, the Rangie is the perfect sidekick (and if it's too big for your wrist, just strap it to your pulse rifle).
Excellent,
Have the Rangeman and a 5610 one for fieldwork one for lower key but tough situations, both firm favourites.
nice little review, thanks!
Nice review. I bought the GW-M5610 for my son a couple of months ago... it went back still in the box and he now has a Rangeman on his wrist... ;-)
-flugzeit
Sorry I missed this thread when it was first posted. A nice little write up of both watches. Thanks.
I enjoyed reading this thank you. Not helping my current consideration to add a GW5000 to my beat up "Trigger's Broom" 5600 and my 5610BC on Bracelet for days when I don't often need to tell the time!
Ant
how well do the abc functions on the rangeman work, i.e. how easy to use and accurate are they?
Good luck everybody. Have a good one.
I have one, so can confirm;
The thermometer is very accurate, but only when the watch has not been worn for a while. As soon as it's sat on your wrist the only reading you'll get is that of your wrist's ambient temperature.
The compass is accurate and very easy to use. These functions have their own dedicated button and are easily accessed from the more traditional functions of the watch.
As for the barometer. It is certainly is sensitive enough to let you know of impending bad weather. Or indeed good weather. But I have no reference to compare against to confirm accuracy of the exact pressure reading.
The altimeter is the same as the above. It appears sensitive, but I have never had a reference to calibrate it to.
The altimeter and barometer are obviously linked as they both rely on pressure measurements so not too accurate if climbing in changing weather for example.
The altitude does need calibrating but easy enough using something like a GPS app on a phone if otherwise unknown. Once set it does work well though - going upstairs knocks 3m off my altitude.
Maybe a better comparison would be a Rangeman & a Riseman!
Yes, I've found the same - it obviously doesn't really matter what the exact pressure reading is, it's the change in pressure which tells you about approaching weather conditions, and that does seem to be quite sensitive and effective.
Similarly, you probably don't care exactly what your altitude above sea level is, but you would like to know that you've climbed 500 metres from where you started. For this purpose you don't need to calibrate the altimeter, but if you do want to do this, a map contour is a good reference. If you have a GPS unit, of course, you can take an altitude fix from that and plug it into the Rangeman.
The compass is at least as good as a standard baseplate compass, if you take similar precautions of keeping it away from metal and magnets as you would with any compass. It's difficult to shoot precise bearings using your watch, but you can do it, and you can easily walk a known bearing by keeping an eye on the watch as you go.
I'd say the Rangeman's ABC facilities are perfectly good enough for all use cases short of actual wilderness navigation, and even in that case it would be a perfectly good backup to 'real' nav instruments.
I have a Riseman, if you need to use the altimeter function you have to calibrate it to a know altitude before you use it. Because it works on air pressure, and this varies each day, so the altitude will become incorrect as the pressure changes daily. I've been know to be below seal level in my kitchen yet I'm over 400 ft above sea level. I find the pressure quoted to be very close to that stated on the BBC weather page for my location.