I Wore The Oceanus Manta Watch By Casio For Two Weeks, Here’s What I Think Of It

While I love the ocean from the shoreline, I don’t dive. Let’s get that straight right away. I am a  beach lover, but that doesn’t stop me from wanting to wear a true water watch – one that looks good and that could go the distance if I ride the waves or jump in the pool. When I got a close-up look at the new Oceanus Manta watch by Casio at the Couture Show in Las Vegas in June of 2022, I was incredibly pleasantly surprised by its functionality, its thinness and its overall good looks. So, I borrowed it for two weeks  to see if it was all it looked like it could be from the first glance.

The Oceanus Manta S5000 Series

First, let’s start with the basics. The watch I borrowed (OCWS5000APA2) is based on a thin movement and offers Multi-Band 6-radio-controlled time correction – meaning it receives standard radio wave signals and can reset itself accordingly. Translated: precision timekeeping.

It is also equipped with Bluetooth® smart phone link for time and date updates to keep you in sync no matter where you travel to. Backing that up is an extensive world time list – 300 cities, in fact – and the wearer can set the world time to any of the cities on the bezel that correspond, and the watch will automatically change the time zone and daylight saving time where applicable. Translated: one smart watch.

As an aside, while the watch is making its own corrections, the blue hands move around the dial and offer the wearer a great show, almost like the watch is dancing in celebration of being set or changed. The Japanese watch, made by Casio, is crafted in titanium and is solar powered – so that it has a sustainable aspect to it, another plus.  It is water resistant to 100 meters  and boasts a high polished titanium bracelet for overall lightness in weight.

As to the functionality, this watch is chocked. It offer a one-second stopwatch, a full auto-calendar to the year 2099, date display, 12- hour or 24-hour time indication, world time in 38 zones, daylight saving on/off indication and so much more.

My Impressions of the Oceanus Manta S50000APA2

Several things that struck me in the meeting in Vegas didn’t disappoint me while the watch was on my wrist. I loved the thinness of it, at just 9/5mm thick, and when I wore the 42.3mm watch, I found that it sits beautifully on my thin wrist.

Another great feature of the watch is its dancing hands that move automatically by one hour increments when setting the time zone. Also, it is equipped with a power savings mode, so the hands stop to save power when the watch is left in the dark. They then come back into position in the light. The battery operating time for the solar dial is about five months without exposure to light after changing. I love this aspect of the watch because it is highly sustainable.

Lastly, the colors that drew me to it in the first place, didn’t disappoint when I got out into the open air. It boasts a pale blue mother-of-pearl dial to mime the ocean and incorporates natural indigo – a traditional Japanese dye produced in the Tokushima Prefecture “Awa Indigo” color, which is also the brand color of Oceanus.

A tour around the dial showcases blue-outlined luminous markers and hands, a date aperture at 3:00 and blue-outlined white mother-of-pearl subsidiary dials. Even the Oceanus Casio logo is in blue with a swimming manta above it. The bezel is ion plated in blue to carry out the maritime theme and the titanium carbide coating on the bracelet and case offer a matte-like finish that is soothing.

I really have a hard time finding anything I didn’t like about this watch. Perhaps it is just that — and many bracelet watches are like this — the bracelet is so big that it could probably fit a Sumo wrestler with no problem at all. Being a Japanese brand, maybe that’s what they were going for. I think, personally, that they should offer two bracelet sizes. Yes, I know, I can have the bracelet sized down, but why waste the extra material? Just saying ….

In short, I really enjoyed wearing this watch. It went in the water with me, worked perfectly and had sexy looks that are worthy of both women and men. The best part, it retails for a cool $2,000. Sadly, I had to send it back.