UNION’s G-Shock DW-5600RBG-1 carries red and green through the LCD instead of stopping at the bezel. The collaboration marks UNION LA’s 35th anniversary, and it’s built on the square DW-5600, the line that descends from the DW-5000C, the first G-Shock.
Casio’s US page lists the watch at $165 with a Notify Me button, and Casio hasn’t announced a US sale date. Japan moves first: UNION’s Tokyo and Osaka stores release the watch on Saturday, November 7, and Casio Japan follows with a general release on November 20.
Price: $165
Where to buy: Casio
The color reaches the part you actually read
The black resin case carries red and green in diagonal bands across the face, with a green star field at the left and tinted sections inside the LCD itself. The digits sit inside the design instead of on top of it. Three band loops in red, black and green carry the palette down the strap, and the RBG in the reference name is those three colors.
Casio builds the contrast into the whole face. The red band crosses the display window, the green field sits behind the left half, and the black base keeps the digits readable through both. It reads as one composition from across a room, not as a bezel swap.
UNION and Casio both tie the scheme to the Pan-African flag, and it’s a deeper treatment than a collaboration usually gets. A strap swap can copy the colors on the band. It can’t copy color inside the display, and the display is where your eyes spend the watch’s life.
UNION’s logo waits for the backlight
Press the light button and UNION’s Frontman logo appears inside the white LED backlight. The Frontman is UNION’s signature mark, and the same logo is engraved on the stainless case back. The special packaging carries the red, black and green blocking with the mark in gold.
It’s a restrained way to brand a watch. The face stays with the color treatment, and the logo shows up when you go looking for it, in the light or on the back of the case.
UNION brings 35 years of classics with a twist
UNION opened in New York in 1989, on Spring Street in SoHo, as a store built around what the local kids were doing in music, art and fashion. The Los Angeles shop followed when Eddie Cruz moved west, and Chris Gibbs, who worked at the original New York shop, owns the LA store today. Tokyo and Osaka are the other two doors, and LA is the only one left in the US.
The store’s concept hasn’t moved in those 35 years: classics with a twist, brands the staff would wear themselves, and function kept ahead of costume. A G-Shock square fits that brief without translation. It’s the most classic watch Casio makes, and UNION’s twist here is color placement, not a new case or a changed module. The anniversary is the LA store’s, which makes this a hometown piece for the brand’s only US door.
The familiar DW-5600 hardware stays intact
Under the graphics, this is the standard square. The case measures 48.9 by 42.8 by 13.4 mm, the watch weighs 52 grams, and it uses mineral glass, a bio-based resin band and 200-meter water resistance. A CR2016 battery is rated for about five years.
The octagonal case is the shape the DW-5000C started with, and a version of it has stayed in production for over four decades. Collaborations come and go on this reference because the shape is the brand.
The module rundown is the one DW-5600 owners already know: a 1/100-second stopwatch, a 24-hour countdown timer, a multifunction alarm, flash alerts and a full auto-calendar. Shock resistance is the line’s founding idea, and the 5600 keeps the hollow case structure that lets the module sit protected inside the resin shell. Nothing in the collaboration changes how the watch works, and that’s the point of building on this reference. Our rundown of the standard DW-5600 covers the base watch in full.
Japan’s plan is the detailed one. UNION Tokyo’s online store opens sales at 9 AM JST on November 7, with the Tokyo and Osaka shops following at opening, and the watch runs about $125 there. Casio Japan takes reservations from November 13 ahead of the November 20 general release. The November 6 date in early reports is tonight’s launch party at UNION Tokyo, not a sale date in any market. UNION is backing the release with parties at both Japanese stores, tonight in Tokyo and November 13 in Osaka, both with Stones Throw.
Price: $165
Where to buy: Casio
The redesign is the display: a colored LCD, a logo that waits in the backlight, and three band loops in red, black and green. Under it sits the standard DW-5600 at $165. Japan’s dates are set, and the US date is still Casio’s to announce.
