Casio’s Latest Watch Is a Legitimate Grail with Space-Age Tech and a One-of-a-Kind Bezel

The brand’s underrated sub-label gets its most premium offering yet. Casio If you buy from a link, we may earn a commission. Learn more Casio might be synonymous with affordable watches. But every now and then, it surprises us. Just last week, the brand’s G-Shock label dropped its most expensive timepiece ever: an $80,000 quartz watch made from blue sapphire and 24-carat gold. But most pricey Casios are significantly more attainable, such as its MR-G line and the Oceanus-branded analog pieces (both typically upwards of $2,000). Oceanus is an unusual case. Compared to its high-profile G-Shocks, these ocean-inspired timepieces fly under the radar quite often. However, its latest release hopes to change all that. The Oceanus represents one of Casio’s highest-end watch brands, especially its premium Manta line.Casio Want a Manta? For Oceanus, easily the most important sub-line is the Manta. Introduced in 2007, it’s essentially the flagship branch, emphasizing extremely thin cases, titanium construction, elaborate finishing and increasingly sophisticated bezels and dials. Casio explicitly says a watch has to meet its highest standards for material, design and finishing to carry the Manta name. And the newest entry in the catalog does that perhaps more than anything that’s come before it. Casio’s latest Manta swaps out the typically titanium or sapphire bezel for a marbled ceramic, mixing both black and white ceramic for an effect that evokes the crashing ocean swell.Casio Marbled masterpiece The most expensive Oceanus watch yet, the OCW-SG1000MC doesn’t change anything under the hood, instead focusing on materials and dial design. The ceramic was sintered, machined and polished before being faceted 24 times.Casio Unlike previous Mantas, this version gets an exposed date wheel around the outer dial.Casio Headlining the timepiece is the new bezel, which gets a full material swap. While previous Mantas mostly used titanium or sapphire crystal, the SG1000MC features ceramic. Specifically, Casio mixed black and white ceramic before sintering, machining and polishing it. Inspired by ocean swells, the end result creates an irregular marble pattern that’s different on every watch. If that’s not enough, the bezel also gets cut with 24 facets and is given a curved upper surface. So it gets both an angular geometry and the glossy, almost liquid appearance of ceramic. The cutouts in the dial allow for even greater solar charging thanks to the space tech-derived Gallium Tough Solar, which requires less exposed area to collect light.Casio The dial gets a revamp as well. Doubling down on ceramic, Casio switched to polished black ceramic. Underneath, a large cutout exposes the skeletonized metal date wheel. This Manta still runs on Casio’s Gallium Tough Solar tech, which adapts Sharp’s photovoltaic technology used on spacecraft, including Japan’s SLIM Moon Lander. Because it needs much less exposed surface area to collect enough light, Casio doesn’t have to make the entire dial translucent. That means it can use opaque materials like ceramic and still power the watch through small openings in the dial. The OCW-SG1000MC still features all of Manta’s hallmarks, including the 43mm titanium case, 100m of water resistance and world time chapter ring.Casio If it ain’t broke … The core of the Manta remains the same. That means you still get a titanium case at a relatively wearable 43mm across. Water resistance remains at 100m as well. Powering the watch is a solar-powered quartz movement that offers a stopwatch, a full auto-calendar and a world time function in tandem with the city names on the chapter ring. Bluetooth and Multiband 6 radio sync also provide perfectly accurate timekeeping. Titanium also returns on the bracelet, which receives DLC coating in black to match the case and bezel. Price and availability At the moment, the OCW-SG1000MC is only listed on Casio’s Japanese site, where it’s priced at ¥748,000 (~$4,732) for a November release. No US availability has been announced yet, so don’t hold your breath, especially with only 300 of these watches being made. Casio Japan Casio Oceanus Manta SG1000 OCW-SG1000MC Specs Case Size 47.5mm x 43mm Movement Quartz Water Resistance 100m Learn More About the Author: Ethan Brehm is an associate editor at Gear Patrol writing about footwear, watches, spirits, EDC and more. When he’s not shopping for his next G-Shock, he spends his time watching movies and planning a future road trip with his family. He firmly believes CDs sound better than vinyl. Want to stay up to date on the latest product news and releases? Add Gear Patrol as a preferred source to ensure our independent journalism makes it to the top of your Google search results.