Jack Baruth, Author at The Truth About Watches

October 28, 2020 Jack Baruth

G-SHOCK TCM Covid Catastrophe

On March 4 of this year, I woke up in a Chinatown hotel with two objectives: get my G-SHOCK TCM (Titanium Camo Limited) to the SoHo store for service and get the hell outta town. “Wait,” you’re no doubt saying, “since when has a Casio digital watch needed service?” Good question. The “squares” are not known for failure. Not even the $19.99 models. This being the $1,700 model, however, The Law Of Watch Drama, in which the likelihood of a timepiece giving trouble rises with the square of the retail price, applies . . .

July 27, 2020 Jack Baruth

G-SHOCK Prices – Room for Squares

Last March 3rd, I took an Uber from Chinatown to G-SHOCK Soho. I handed over my GMW-B5000-TCM camo titanium square for service. Needless to say, I’m just getting it back now. In the four months between then and now, G-SHOCK prices have gone on something of a wild ride. For while it looked like the market for Casio’s little square watches was going to go the way of the fashion-watch business. In particular . . .

February 19, 2020 Jack Baruth

Vortic vs. Swatch

Vortic video ahead! Much of the head-to-head below is pure cringe — PERSONALLY, I LOVE THE SWATCH GROUP! It suffers from the typical YouTube disease of stretching a five-minute explanation into a half-hour marathon, but it might be worth your attention. If you don’t like watching videos, here’s the scoop . . .

February 10, 2020 Jack Baruth

Swatch Sistem51 Hodinkee Generation 1986

In the modern era of watch-as-cultural-phenomenon, a timepiece can be reviewed in at least two different fashions (pun intended). You can focus on the actual merits and faults of the thing, or look at it in the greater context of social messaging, group identity, resale value and long-term desirability. In this case, we’ll do both to the Swatch Sistem51 Hodinkee Generation 1986. One of these reviews will be extremely, almost brutally, short.

January 26, 2020 Jack Baruth

G-SHOCK Anniversary Models: Review

Welcome back to Room For Squares. I’m your host, Jack Baruth. Last week we discussed the $1600 limited-edition titanium square. It has a laundry list of desirable qualities, but the beauty of G-SHOCK is that there’s usually more than one way to get the features you want. How about one of the G-SHOCK Anniversary Models? Or something very similar . . .