CASIO Oceanus Men’s Solar Radio-controlled Watch OCW-S100-1AJF

I love Grand Seiko, and Citizen Chronomaster, but those watches are not in my budget. I never thought about Casio until reading reviews about this watch. I am glad I decided to give Casio a try, as this JDM watch is fantastic. Great design and finishing on the bracelet, watch face, and case. The comments by others about the difficulty of taking out links of the bracelet are valid ones. If you don’t have the proper tools and experience, do yourself a favor and take it to a quality jeweler that works on watches, and tell them that the watch has a bracelet with the pin and sleeve type links. The watch is easy to set up, and the second hand hits the marks on the watch face exactly. After the time synchs with the atomic clock, it is amazing to compare with the time on your cell phone, and see the minute change on your phone at the same time as the second hand on your watch hits the twelve o’clock position. It is amazing to set the time zone to Tokyo and watch tha watch hands and date change like magic. The titanium bracelet and cas are so light weight that you don’t even notice that you are wearing a watch. A great bargain on a top quality watch. The brand may not have the same status as some, but the watch itself lacks nothing compared to the others. Update: After 3 months, This watch has become my daily watch. My dozen or so other watches have been sidelined, and I am considering selling most of them. I often wear another dressier watch in the evening, but this watch is so versatile and comfortable, there is little reason to wear anything else. It has missed synchronizing only one night in 3 months, and that is when we were staying overnight in an RV, although it worked the other nights in the camper. I have picked up a few minor scratches and tiny scuffs, but the finish is much harder to scratch than stainless steel or regular titanium. For traveling, this is the only watch I bother bringing. For a one watch guy, this could be the one for you. This is a little larger diameter than I usually wear, even with a 7.5” wrist, but is is still modest in size, and with the light weight, you don’t even notice you are wearing a watch.

There are a number of things that attracted me to this particular Oceanus watch. The 2 main reasons are that overall the watch is a smaller sized watch that fits my wrist well and the dial is uncluttered and very readable. While higher end watches in the Oceanus range may have additional features and use higher end components, I find the models with multiple dials just too busy. The S100 has a very clean dial which gives it a "Classic" look that is unlikely to date in the years to come. Like other watches in the Oceanus range, it has tech which places the watch as one of the most accurate watches that you can buy. Yes - it is a quartz watch, but with Atomic time synchronization which means the watch is accurate to the second. Mine synchs to the US Atomic signal in Colorado every night without a hitch. The additional cost you are paying over a simple $20 quartz watch is evident in the titanium case and bracelet which are beautifully finished, the double-dome Sapphire crystal, the tough G-Shock movement and the fact it is Solar powered. This watch is also built for world travel. Flying to another time-zone? Pull out the crown, move the second hand to point to the new time zone on the inner bezel and voila! The watch adjusts the hour hand to the correct zone automatically. On receipt of the watch from Japan (within 3 days of purchase), I needed to size the bracelet by removing several links. The bracelet does have half size links which make it easy to size correctly, but I do recommend buying one of the bracelet adjustment kits available on Amazon to help with this. I have had the S100 for several weeks now and it is very light-weight and comfortable on the wrist. The hands are very accurately aligned (The second and minute hands have dead on alignment). Watches in this price range often suffer from slight hand mis-alignments. Of note - the Oceanus has a self alignment system built in, that you can run to re-align the hands if for some reason the hands are jarred out of alignment. The only down-side that I can see to this watch is that it is a JDM and does not have the regular warranty you would get from a domestic model. Also the longevity and ease in which i will be able to replace the Solar power pack (when it eventually dies) is an unknown at this time. Other than these minor concerns, there are few negatives to balance against a beautifully designed watch whose form and function are outstanding. ***4 Year Update*** This watch has been in daily use for close to 4 years now. Additional impressions and takeaways: - Incredible lightness and comfort - Sapphire Crystal has held up very well. No visible scratches after 4 years use - Titanium bezel and the watchband clasp have tiny fine line scratches. But the rest of the titanium case and strap are like new with no signs of wear - World Time synch has been very consistent with maybe 1 or 2 misses of the nightly synch each month. - Trouble free over long term with brilliant accuracy Overall - This purchase was one of the best value for money buys that I have ever made. Nothing but praise for Casio in putting out this wonderful and stylish watch. A true GEM!

My favorite watch! Well constructed so it could take abuse, yet a very dressy looking watch. The lightweight titanium band and case are a big plus. The time is dead on, and the fact that it sets itself automatically is a real plus. Also the solar feature means there will never be a need for battery changes. All in all, it is the best watch I have ever purchased. The price is a bit steep, but it is a well designed and well built watch. There are only a couple minor gotchas. One is that the band is very hard to adjust. The pins have tiny little double tubes which are really easy to lose or drop. I did it myself, with difficulty, but you may want to consider have a watch shop adjust the band. Also, the automatic nightly resynch does work for me, but interestingly enough, it words best if the watch face is lying up and parallel to the surface. If you set the watch on its side, the synch is less likely to work. I live near Portland, Oregon, and the automatic clock radio transmitter is near Boulder, Colorado, so I'm impressed that the synch does work regularly.

This watch is terrific! I have owned it for roughly a month now and it's probably the best watch I've ever owned. I also had an Omega Seamaster, 007 Edition, Quartz model. The fancy Omega was roughly $2000 and the second hand never even hit the marks on the face. This Casio does that and even has a function to calibrate the hands so that they do hit the marks. It's the easiest watch I've had to change the time zone on. The titanium band with the carbide coating is very sharp, and the sapphire crystal is super clear. The best feature is that it's radio capable and talks to the atomic clock network at midnight each night. It is spot-on accurate, day after day after day. Super expensive watches from Omega and Rolex can't do that. The date window also updates every night. I typically hate the date window on most watches because it needs to be fixed six times a year, NOT with this watch! This watch, or other watches in the Oceanus line, is truly the way to go if you want an elegant and great-looking watch with just the right amount of technology built-in.

I can't say enough good about this watch. I've done a lot of research to find out what my next watch should be, and I believe that I've made an excellent choice. There are plenty of YouTube videos about this watch, and every review is nothing but positive remarks. The only two cons are, one, you are not able to swap out the watch band, and two, the price. My opinion on the price is that you are getting way more than what you are paying for. Some of the watch's features are only found in top end watch models costing many thousands of dollars. What do I like about the watch? First, I like the uncluttered minimalist style making it easy to read. The watch is extremely lightweight. It weighs 80g after links were removed to accommodate a 6.75" wrist. The proprietary Lume is very bright. The finish one the case and band is second to none, even rivaling a Grand Seiko. The titanium material is case hardened with carbon to make it extremely scratch resistant. The sapphire crystal is unique and has a slight iridescence when viewing at an angle, but is crystal clear thanks to the special anti-reflective coating. The watch received a radio signal the first night from a very rainy Southeastern Michigan area and every single night since then, it keeps perfect time with the Atomic Clock. This is one of those watches you never have to fiddle with and it will keep accurate time always. No battery changes, no adjusting for Daylight Savings Time, no adjustments needed for time or date because the atomic clock will take care of it for you. This is a minimalist styled watch. You can wear this with jeans or with business attire. The only downside to me is so minimal, it's not worth mentioning. Please Casio, remove or change the "Tough Mvt." from the dial to something more appealing or technical at it cheapens the appearance. The Tough Mvt. locks the internal components within a thousandth of a second when an impact occurs like dropping the watch or bumping it against a hard surface. All 3 hands can be realigned perfectly by a simple setting, so the feature is totally awesome. Would I recommend this watch? Absolutely. This will be an heirloom someday for me.

This is an excellent watch as jewelry goes. Band is awesome. Fits like a glove. Face is just plain beautiful. And it's a lot less pronounced than the Seiko titanium kinetic it replaced. It also syncs like clockwork every night with the radio time broadcast. And the perpetual calendar and automatic time zones are just crazy simple and unbelievably helpful. Fit and trim? That's awesome too. The second hand stops dead center on each tick and the hour and minute hands are equally well precise (things I'm very sensitive too). So why just three stars? Because it's so darn hard to tell the time. The crystal is highly reflective, so if there's any kind of light or well lit object bouncing off the surface, you have to stop and twist your wrist one way or the other to get an obstructed view of the watch face. Plus, there's some kind of secondary light blue reflection of the same objects that are offset from the primary reflection, and they add to the distraction. Without all the competing reflections the watch face is just great. So that's one star off. The other star deduction is for the date window. If you look straight at it, with sufficient light, it's fine. But the dial with the digits is recessed below the surface by enough distance that viewing angle is limited more than it should be. Plus, it's not as easy to read under some lighting situations. I think it would have been more readable with a background that matched the face and white lettering, instead of black lettering on a white background. Update 07/26/2017: 3/4 of a year later and have grown even more fond of this watch. I've gotten used to the (rather) reflective crystal, and now feel it actually adds to and enhances the "jewelry" element (which isn't necessarily one of my higher priorities, but still appreciated). So, I'm adding back the one star previously deducted for that. The date dial being recessed enough to make viewing on an angle difficult, still warrants a one-star deduction (since a rating of 4.5 isn't possible).

This watch has it (almost) all! It is a titanium watch, so it's very light on the wrist. If you're uncomfortable sizing it, take it to a jeweler and pay to get it sized. It has every time zone I can think of (except for Newfoundland Canada - sorry guys!), and changing time zones is as easy as pulling out the crown, moving the second hand to point to your time zone and pushing the crown back in. Voila! The watch sets the time (and date, if needed) to the new time zone. I have other radio-controlled watches - I imagine this is just like those - it readjusts the time every evening between midnight and 5 AM. I expect the watch to remain almost scratch free. The sapphire crystal should protect the face. The TiC coating on the titanium should keep case and band scratches to a minimum. The watch has crown guards, so the crown should be safe. This watch just oozes beauty and quality. It's not garish or ostentatious - it's just subdued and classy. I expect to be enjoying this watch for years and years to come, and will likely pass it on to one of my grand sons.

I’m underwhelmed. Seriously. I absolutely love the Casio G-Shocks and Wave Ceptors that I own. And I was very excited to purchase this Oceanus. It’s a beautiful watch. However, its inability to sync, and even attempting to manually assist in setting the correct time is beyond frustrating. It continuously fails to set to the correct time, coming SO close, but the closest I can get it is within 45 seconds behind the actual time. I REFUSE to wear an inaccurate watch. So it sits, unused, despite its good looks. As is standard, the watch comes with enough links for a very meaty-armed 400+ pound man. I’ve played with removing these links, and it’s still either too loose or too tight, but never quite the right fit. So…won’t sync, or allow manual override to the correct time - fail. And ill-fitting - double fail. Would’ve returned, but already threw out the box to reduce clutter.