u/YogurtclosetOwn5322

Absolutely love the design of this one and they did it justice!

Watch #45 just added. I think I might have a problem!

I have collected different watches over the last 46 years. This is one that I have admired for many years. It is a little smaller than what I thought, or I am bigger that what I thought! 😄 But, this is a great watch to add on!

I finally got the AQS820W, and I must say that I am definitely a fan of the watch itself, but not a fan of the strap that comes with it. Others might find it comfy, but I am thinking of swapping it to a woven nylon strap. Other than that, I can see this as maybe becoming my daily. I prefer analog over digital, but I also like it that the digital side of it is large enough to see it at a glance. Also, some pretty cool features on this bad boy!

It came in a nice tin and the actual G-Shock manuals with it. The first sign of a fake is the lousy printing around the day of the week. Secondly, the PROTECTION is slightly cutoff at the bottom. 3rd, I could not perform hand shift and it feels really light. As soon as I was taking the screws off the back I realized the straps are incorrect with their design as far as the grooves go next to the pins. Real straps have no grooves. Then as soon as I took the screws out the speaker just fell right off the back and what crappy module is that? I guess I learned my lesson. UGH! It sucks too! I was so looking forward to this watch as well!

I was helping a friend at work try to purchase one of these but his payment online was failing for some reason. So to test out if it was a site issue (Walmart) it actually went through for me and now I am the proud owner of one. Ooops! 👍😂

No regrets! 😎

Someone on here asked me to show how to upgrade both the LCD and the LEDs. So, I thought I would go through and upgrade the LED since I already did the STN Display. So the steps and images will show it.

The only tools I use are tweezers, Philips #000 size screw driver, spring bar tool, fine tipped brush (for painting LED socket) and a jeweler's lighted magnification visor for ease of seeing. Plus have lots of patience to perform this upgrade (MUST).

The following are the order of the pics here:

1. Just showing the GW-M5610U with the white LED.
2. Screws, back, o-ring and rubber protecting shock all removed.
3. Module removed from case. You can see back spring. DO NOT lose this, unless you don't care about sound from the watch.
4. Front of module showing also gold springs that attach to solar panel in front of watch. DO NOT lose these or the watch will not be able to power back on.
5. Showing button arms and clips on side. There are 4 of these clips that need to be undone so you can separate module.
6. Clips removed and battery module removed. (Battery does not need to be removed from back part of module before taking it apart) Front left is the PCB and front right is the LCD, backing paper with light spreader, 2 x zebra strips (1 for the LCD and a tiny one to the right for the LED).
7. Backing paper, spreader and zebra strips removed. LED to right of mirror back of LCD. (Gold springs are still in frame)
8. LCD (STN found on AliEx) and LED removed. LED socket in frame painted silver to help direct light more.
9. PCB. Left side there are two contact points about the middle of the board. Positive (+) is the bottom one and Negative (-) is the top one.
10. Removed white LED with the LED zebra strip. T on LED points to the Negative pad.
11. Backing paper, zebra strips, old LED and light spreader.
12. New 0805 green LEDs. Found on Amazon. Went with this size over the 1206 (which fits the socket better and Casio uses a custom made LED which is impossible to find online) because the 1206 was slightly too tall for the socket, but also the contact pads are too far apart for the zebra strip to make contact.
13. New green LED arrow on back pointing to Negative pad.
14. LCD and new LED in with light spreader put over the top of it. (Unless you put something into the socket, the LED can slide around until put fully together. The paint did help this.)
15. Backing paper, zebra strips and springs all reinstalled.
16. Module popped back together and clips pressed down into place. (Notice display is not on yet).
17. Module installed into case performing AC reset. (Hold for about 5 seconds, then expose face to brighter light. Can take a few seconds for LCD to come back on).
18. LCD back on. Getting ready to set watch to timezone and local time.
19. Watch is all set. Ready to test LED as well.
20. Green LED is working great with STN LCD.

I got the STN display off of a site I believe everyone knows, and at first I was leery of it and it came in with a dark spot where I have the month on display and it seemed used. Over night the dark spot went away. Now I can't stop looking at the watch!

However, I had realized that I had lost the LED light. I was able to find the LED and while I was trying to install it, it ended up flying out of my tweezers and on to the floor. I saw it fall. But heaven forbid, I believe the 4th Dimension opened up and swallowed it! The LED they put into this watch is a custom side light 1206 SMD LED.

I was able to get online and find some Ultra Bright LEDs and I tried to put in another 1206, but it was too tall and wouldn't allow for the zebra strip to fit properly between the LED and the PCB. So I installed an Ultra Bright 0805 into it. I put a pic up of the LED with the 5610U for scale sitting on the left side of the bezel. TINY!!! But it really does produce a lot of good light! I do need to adjust the light a bit here to see if I can get it a little bit more directed onto the LCD panel.

And also a note here, when you reassemble the watch, you will have to perform an AC Reset with the back off the watch and then get it to light pretty quickly to turn it back on.

In all, this upgrade is so worth it! Just be extremely careful if you are performing it due to the TINY parts inside this watch!

Besides the really quiet beeps of the GW-M5610U I really did not like the viewing angles as well. I tend to wear my watches up on my wrist and I like it when I am driving with my left hand at the top of the wheel that I can see what time it is at a quick glance. The DW-5600E I have was not an issue at all. So, on a whim I bought one of those STN LCDs off AliEx and man does it make a difference! Word of warning though, this mod is not for the faint of heart or someone without patience. The LED and the zebra strip for the LED are both like microscopic in size and are super easy to lose!