It has been several years since the US market has seen Casio's premium line known as Oceanus.  Named from the ancient god of the sea, Oceanus brings the highest level of quality to the Casio line up utilizing premium materials, craftsmanship, and technology that is unrivaled. The fully metal GPS Hybrid Wave Ceptor OCWG1000 is the first of the new wave of Oceanus to return to the US Market after years of being exclusively sold in Japan. Made at Casio's flagship facility in Yamagata, Japan, these luxury timepieces are produced on an exclusive premium production line, where only award winning craftsman assemble Oceanus, as well as Casio's other premium products.  Arizona Fine Time is extremely proud to be the first and exclusive authorized dealers for the new OCW-G1000-1A in the USA!

Oceanus is focused on integrating Casio's advanced technology with sophisticated styling.  They use titanium for the case and bracelet, maintaining a lightweight and comfortable feel at only 106g on the wrist.  The case, hands, indexes and portions of the bracelet are hand finished to a mirror smooth surface, known as Zaratsu polishing, and gives an incredible sparkle to its surface.  The case and bracelet are also treated in a titanium carbide finish, which hardens the surface and makes it incredibly wear and scratch resistant.  The actual case measurement is 46.1mm including the crown protector and flare out on the case side, but the actual bezel measures at only 43mm.  The thickness is only 14.7mm, which is surprising considering the GPS and radio wave receivers inside as well as the the multiple motors that drive the functionality.  These new miniaturized motors are reduced 74% in comparison to conventional motors, allowing to fit all components necessary in a smaller case.

The OCWG1000-1A is solar powered timepiece that uses a shadow dispersing solar cell, developed in house by Casio.  This allows for a highly efficient conversion of light to energy, which is necessary to power not only the high power consuming GPS capabilities, but also the RC and multi-motor drive.  The solar cell lies below the dial, which surprisingly shows no sign that there is a solar cell beneath.  The watch has a power reserve of 7 months in the dark while running.  However, the watch has two levels of sleep mode it will go into, extending its power reserve.  If in the dark and still for about an hour, the watch will go into power save mode 1, where the seconds hand will stop physically counting (though it keeps time internally).  If in the same conditions for 6-7 days, the watch will go into power save mode 2, which all hands stop physically counting (though time is still kept internally), and if in this mode from a full charge, can go up to 18 months in the dark before needing to be recharged.  You can check the current power reserve by quickly pressing the lower left button when putting it back into timekeeping mode.  The second hand will fly between 12:00 and 6:00 and stop briefly between.  The closer it stops near 12:00 means the watch is near full power reserve.  If it lands near the 6:00, it is getting very low. 

The dial's legibility remains due to it's prominent hands and indexes, though there are many different indicators spread throughout.  The sub dial at 3:00 is your mode indicator.  This will display day of the week while in timekeeping mode.  If you push the lower left button once, it will change the watch to chronograph mode which can measure from 1/20th of a second up to 24 minutes and is displayed in the 8:00 sub dial for minutes and seconds, with the center seconds measuring 1/20th of a second.  The upper right button will start and stop, while the lower button resets.  If the lower left button is held for 3 to 4 seconds, this puts the watch in airplane mode, turning off the GPS receiver completely.  You take the watch out of airplane mode in the same fashion, and if the watch is exposed to sunlight for 1-2 minutes after coming out of airplane mode, the piece will attempt to connect to 3 or more satellites in order to determine your location and adjust the hands to that timezone automatically.  The Oceanus GPS watch does not include the countdown timer and alarm as the G-Shock models do, but also does not produce noise as the other pieces do.  I believe this is to add more to the elegance and dress watch factor. 

In timekeeping mode, the sub dial at 8:00 is a secondary timezone display which reads in 24 hour increments.  To set this timezone, you simply pull out the crown to the first click and turn the crown until the seconds hand points to the city code desired on the inside of the bezel.  You can also manually set the center hands in the same manor, but with the crown pulled out to the second click.  Daylight savings is something that will automatically correct itself when necessary, but you also have the option to adjust it manually.  The sub dial at 10:00 indicates whether the center hands are in AM or PM, with the date displayed between 4:00-5:00.  This piece is also a perpetual calendar, so it will always display the correct date.

Between the 9:00 and 11:00 indexes are the indicators for your different accuracy updates.  The one nearest to 9:00 is the "T" indicator, which is when the piece connects to a single satellite to obtain information to update the accuracy of seconds and minute hand.  This action can be done by holding the lower right hand two piece button highlighted with blue accents for about 1-2 seconds while outside.  The OCWG1000-1A will also do this action automatically if exposed to sunlight for 1-2 minutes automatically, once per day.  The indicator near 10:00 is "T+P" which is for time and position.  To activate this function, you will hold the same lower right blue button for 3-4 seconds while outside.  This will connect the watch to 3 or more satellites to determine you current location and adjust the hands automatically to that timezone.  This can take anywhere from 30 seconds to 2 minutes, but usually occurs in a minute or so.  Once the piece has established your location, it will determine if that region observes daylight savings and automatically adjust it to the appropriate time.  The OCW-G1000 uses a GPS receiver in which Casio collaborated with Sony to develop.  This allows the piece to use a grid of the world that breaks down to 2.6 billion pieces, making sure accuracy is within a 500 meter (or 0.31 mile) tolerance.

 If for some reason you do not get the Oceanus GPS Hybrid outside to connect to satellites, the timepiece will automatically connect to one of the 6 terrestrial radio wave broadcast towers if within range to update accuracy.  This will occur if the watch has not recently received satellite connection in the last day, and will happen between midnight and 5:00am.  You can indicate whether or not satellite or radio reception was successful by quickly pushing the lower right blue button and the second hand will point to the "YES" or "NO" indicator near the 6:00.

The motif of the satellites inspires the 12:00 index, as well as the uniquely shaped seconds hand. The accents of blue are symbolic in the brand of Oceanus. These radiant blue attributes found on the chapter ring (showing difference from UTC), mode indicator at 3:00 and around the inside of the sub dial at 8:00 (your secondary timezone display) are coated in a micro-fine transparent film of spattered coloring which results in the beautiful blue translucent finish.  The piece is topped off with a domed sapphire crystal using anti-reflective coating on both sides, that is 99% clear, improving the clarity of the dial.  One other note is that this piece does not use an LED light, but a bright variation of Casio's own Neo-Bright luminous material for nighttime legibility.

The new Oceanus GPS Hybrid Wave Ceptor OCW-G1000, model OCWG1000-1A retails for $2,000 and is available exclusively at AZFineTime.com in the USA.

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