How the G-Shock DW-5000R display differs from the DW-5600, plus good news for battery life

The upcoming and highly anticipated G-Shock DW-5000R, expected to be released in December 2024 (but possibly facing a delay), is based on the original G-Shock DW-5000C from 1983 and is closer in appearance to the original than recent DW-5000 limited anniversary editions. The DW-5000R, which will be a standard release and not a limited one, has a slightly different LCD display layout than recent DW-5000 and DW-5600 models. It also has an approximate battery life of five years.

Indicators on the DW-5000R Display:

1. Split Measurement
2. Afternoon in 12-Hour Format
3. 24-Hour Format
4. Auto-Repeat for Timer
5. Alarm
6. Hourly Time Signal
7. Flash Alert (LED backlight flashes with sound for alarm, countdown timer alarm, and hourly time signal)

Like the original DW-5000C, the alarm and hourly time signal indicators on the DW-5000R are on the right side of the display instead of the left. For the alarm indicator, six sound wave lines appear (three on each side) without anything in the middle. For the hourly time signal indicator, the square and two sound wave lines appear (one wave on each side). If both the alarm and hourly time signal are activated, both indicators appear.

Instead of the graphical flash alert indicator of the DW-5600, there is a “FLASH” indicator below the alarm and hourly time signal indicators.

When a split or 1st and 2nd place time measurement is performed in stopwatch mode on the DW-5000R, the “SPL” indicator appears on the left of the current time display, instead of the rather small “SPLIT” indicator that appears below the current time display and near the middle of the digits on the DW-5600. The “SPL” indicator appears to be a larger font and easier to see than the one on the DW-5600.

The other display items are basically the same, such as the “PM” and “24H” indicator, the “AUTO” indicator for the auto-repeat option on the countdown timer, the day display and mode indicators, and the date section in timekeeping mode which also displays the current time in stopwatch and timer modes. (The DW-5600 also has the “24H” indicator for 24-hour mode, but it is not shown in the DW-5600 manual.)

Casio kept the functions the same as the DW-5600 as expected, so the DW-5000R doesn’t have the adjustable date format or day display language of the GW-5000U and GW-M5610U. Those who are familiar with using the DW-5600 won’t need to read the manual for the DW-5000R.

Regarding the battery life, the DW-5000R (with module 3576 and LED backlight) has an approximate battery life of 5 years. The first DW-5000 model with module 3534 and the LED backlight, DW-5040RX-7, has an approximate battery life of 3 years, which is only a 1-year improvement over previous DW-5000 models with the EL backlight, so there was some concern that the DW-5000R would be the same. (DW-5600 models with the LED backlight have an approximate battery life of 5 years.) These estimates are assuming the use of one alarm per day (20 seconds with flash alert) and the backlight once (3.5 seconds) per day, so it is possible to get longer battery life by limiting the use of those and other functions.

Thanks to Japanese fan site Great G-Shock World (gshockjp.blog.jp) for finding the official Japanese manual for the DW-5000R, where this information was sourced from.