Hi guys,
my b'day was two days ago and I finally have the time to post a thread about my present to myself. I have this agreement with my wife that we don't give each other gifts for our birthdays or at xmas - so as usual I bought my birthday watch myself .
I bought something that I liked since it was released - a very familiar module in a nice stainless steel case with standard lugs - a big plus for me in the summer as I only can wear nylon straps when it's so hot - I just sweat too much under the resin straps and standard lugs make things way easier - I don't like to fiddle around with those awkward adapters that ruin the look of most Gs and are a pain to install.
Since it was something special I took a bunch of pics and what will follow is a very tedious unwrapping thread - at least for those who don't like them - well, I do - so here it comes:






Nice - never had this type of tin before:



And here it is:

Anybody notice the model, yet?
It's an LCW-M300:




It's a real beauty IMO - nice size and could be worn with a suit and tie as I intend to do - if my job-plans work out I'll soon never have to wear a suit and tie ever again so I'm glad it looks equally good with jeans .
But first - remove the bracelet as I don't really like bracelets at all:


The look from the side is interesting as it reminds me a little of an Omega Speedmaster from that angle because of the gap between bezel and case - the bezel looks like a separate part but I think the case is machined from one piece of steel:


The lugs are 20mm - this one is the only strap that seemed to look any good on the watch but I ordered a two-piece nylon strap from eBay - hope it gets here today so I will update the thread with a new picture:


And some pics on the wrist - displaying the "GET"-display on the next one as the watch hadn't synced since April - it was running a little fast - too bad I forgot to check by how much:


Kind of hard to photograph as it's so shiny:



And one outside on the balcony:


Some specs for those not familiar with the model or module:
Module No. is 5110 and it's a variation of the famous 5064 first used in the GW-2500 and later in the GW-3500 and with some variations in the MTG-1500 and ECW-M300. The 5110 lacks the 2nd analog dial which indicated another timezone on the GW-2500. But that cleans up the dial and adds to the dressy look. Besides you could still have the 2nd timezone displayed with current time in the WT-mode.
The little analog dial at "9" indicates the mode, battery status and if the watch is receiving a signal.
The watch has WT-mode, STW, timer and the usual 4+snooze alarm mode incl. SIG.
STW goes up to 24hrs however timer is only 60 min but can be set to repeat 8 times. The no. of repeats can not be changed however - you can either set repeat to "on" or "off" - that's it. Good enough for most purposes however.
Alarm volume is average - IMO a little softer than on the GW-2500 which might result from the steel case or geometry of the case and/or size of the piezo speaker.
The buttons work nice and are easy to press - the watch lacks a beep when changing modes - but the mode is indicated by the movement of the sub-dial - on a Casio sound and movement often don't work together - same as light and sound - so as not to put too much strain on the battery.
The worldtime mode has one minor flaw that almost all solar/atomic Casios seem to have - the DST-settings for the worldtime mode are pre-programmed - when setting DST to "ON" or "AUTO" - after a sync the DST gets activated for all the city codes in WT-mode of the continent you're on that were observing DST when the module was made - Moscow just recently gave up using DST so the DST-setting for Moscow is wrong in WT-mode. IMO a minor flaw that I can live with.
The case diameter without the buttons and the protrusions at the side is around 39mm. Height is 17mm. Lug-to-lug is 47mm. The watch wears very comfy with a nice heft to it.
Lume is OK for a Casio - better than on the GW-2500 but I didn't have much chance of testing it properly - have to wait till I wake up in the middle of the night .
So far I'm very happy with the watch - looks like a keeper. And a steel-cased ana-digi with solar and atomic was missing in my collection. Price can't be beat either - considering what you'd have to pay for a similar feature set from another manufacturer - if you find one that is. Either Junghans or Citizen might have similar offerings but at a very different price point.
So the LCW-M300 is a strong buy for all those looking for a slightly dressier solar/atomic ana-digi.