Who's going for the Rangeman?

[Gary7]

At least for me, the Rangeman has become a water divider. I'm really curious to see what Casio can come up with next to live up to this model.

Agreed. I think that based on the price point, it really upsets things in the "Master of G" line. Certainly it kicked the Riseman into obsolescence (hence it being discontinued). Why would someone go for a Mudman 9300 when it's not much more to get a Rangeman? Major mud resistance situations would likely mean less dependence on compass or temperature (other devices would be kept out of mud's way), so you'd go for a G-9000 instead. And if you're really picky about it, titanium on the Gulfman does not cause much of a weight difference nor provide much of a realized benefit in corrosion resistance. I have yet to see a rusty pitted back plate of a G-Shock.

But in thinking it over for a bit longer, my thought is that the Mudman will be here to stay. They will continue to offer the G-9000 a bit longer, or perhaps make a cosmetic revision in a couple of years. The G-9300 should get knocked down a little in price so that it doesn't compete with the Rangeman. I really have to wonder if the Gulfman will make it. Frankly, they could put the tide graph in the G-9300 and retire the Gulfman completely. Sales will dictate its fate, I suspect. I do have to wonder if we'll eventually see a Rangeman issued with a titanium back plate. That would be sweet.

 

[chrisek]

Another interesting point on the Rangeman is the Yellow Lightning has a higher retail than the frogman 8230 Yellow Lightning! I think that sets the tone right there.

My personal opinion is that the single and double sensor Master of G's will get rebuilt and priced accordingly. With the G9000 and the GW9400 as the boundaries on the price structure.

sent with aloha

 

[LUW]

I would say the 9300 will stick around just for it's "mud resistance", but the other 90xx will slowly get the axe. Though we know that's more hype then anything, Casio will continue to market it as the go-to watch if you want to get down and dirty. The Gulfman was a bit silly IMO, since as Gary pointed out, the Ti didn't do much for the watch, and the Riseman, while having a great feature, was made obsolete by the Rangeman. So if I would hazard a guess about the future, the MoG line would be composed by the Rangeman, the 9300 Mudman and very possibly a new Frogman.

 

[rutteger]

Certainly be interesting to see how Casio play it with their Masters. Also expect to see the end of the Riseman. Mudman would expect to stick around, esp given how new it is. Frog is always staying. Gulfman unsure on, always been a bit of an oddball really so might expect it to stay.

And of course congrats to all who have their Rangemans

 

[LUW]

I wouldn't be surprised if next year Casio released a truly new Frog - maybe even with a depth gauge. Right now with the current module the only advantage it has over any of the other MoG is that it is ISO (6425)-rated.

 

[Gary7]

The thing about the Gulfman is that it's really covered by the G-Lide models. Water resistant to 200M, moon phase and tide graph... And if I'm not mistaken there are solar/atomic versions as well. The Gulfman is sort of a higher class version of a G-Lide I suppose... but is it enough to be a good seller going forward? Hmmmmm.

If CASIO wants the Master of G to be approachable at several price points, I could see them keeping on a "lesser" Mudman to serve that role, as they've done with the G-9000. A really rugged mud resistant watch without any extras like compass or temp. CASIO doesn't release sales numbers of the various models, unfortunately. I would be really interesting to see how well each model sells.

I agree with you Luciano, that it is HIGH TIME the Frogman came equipped with a depth gauge. For a lot of people, that has been the Achilles heel to ownership. For the price of a Frogman, you can buy a well equipped Citizen Aqualand that covers everything. And besides, CASIO has long had this functionality provided in the Sea Pathfinder. It's not like they have to create programming from scratch.

 

[rutteger]

@LUW - from a functional point of view I'd agree.

@Gary7 - interesting point with regards to the depth gauge on other Casio models. Previously seemed Casio wan't to keep the seperation between the Pathfinder / ProTrek line and G-Shock by not offering the altimeter funcitonality. Now the has been and gone would seem like a Depth Gauge Frog may appear. Only issue I'd see here is how (relatively) new the latest Frog is, Casio do seem to run modules for a few years...

 

[Gary7]

Only issue I'd see here is how (relatively) new the latest Frog is, Casio do seem to run modules for a few years...

Yeah, I wouldn't expect to see a new Frogman module for another couple of years. But if sales start to languish, maybe they'll do it sooner. I've often wondered how profitable the Frogman line has been for CASIO. They do charge a hefty price for admission, but if they don't sell many each year then that's a lot of kit on the shelf gathering dust.

 

[LUW]

The module that the Frogs use are relatively new, so form a commercial standpoint it wouldn't make sense for Casio to release something new so soon - specially if they're selling well. However, if the Rangeman does well, you'll have a good argument that customers will buy modules with different features, so maybe that would be the push Casio needs to do something radical with the Frog - aka giving the watch a depth gauge.

 

[chrisek]

All good points. I think it is hard to underestimate how many 9000's Casio sells per year, that's why I think it has staying power. I also thought Casio said earlier this year the 1000-series frog is staying for a while.

In the middle is where the questions lay. Are they gonna keep the 8250 frog rolling? I'm newer to G's, in the past have they had a couple Frogs for sale at the same time? I wonder what that purpose is, multiple Frog price points?

sent with aloha