Should You Ever Visit Japan

If memory serves me correctly, I first encountered Oceanus in the somewhat short-lived Men's Vogue (US Edition).  At the time I was sorta' pissed off because I had worked like the Devil to get DOXA included in the "Worn/Re-Worn" special section at the front of each issue.  For all of my effort, we got the one page and were grateful.  Had my boss not insisted on trying to jam 5000 factoids into that one page it might have had a bigger impact, but I digress.

Anyway, on the pages opposite, there was a flood of words and facts about a quartz watch with a goofy name - Oceanus!  I got an earful about how come they got so much "language" and we didn't, with instructions to make the people at Vogue (you know, the people who actually gave us the feature without demanding payment) aware of the displeasure my boss felt.  I opted to ignore those instructions. And in truth, I didn't give much of a second or third thought to Oceanus, and like Men's Vogue (US Edition) it was come and gone from these shores in fairly short order.

Fast forward 10 years and I was part of a press junket for G-Shock in which we were briefly introduced to the rest fo the Casio product family.  Fun fact - Casio is BIG in the overhead projector and desk top calculator worlds.  And there almost ignored were a few samples of the Oceanus model -

Shamelessly borrowed from the world-wide info-web

And for one Ohio retailer and myself, it was like when peanut-butter met jelly!  These are really good looking watches, and while they are quartz they prove the theory that there is nothing dumb about quartz.

This is the Casio Oceanus OCW-T200S-2AJF Bluetooth.  And before you scoff and say "Basic quartz with date", allow me to educate you.  Bluetooth is one of the key, operative words.  As I learned from the G-Shock I picked up on that trip 2 years ago, the Bluetooth function links to your cell phone, guaranteeing that your time is correct.  Change timezones?  So long as your phone is with you, it's no problem!  And solar!  So those frequent battery changes will be (for the most part) a thing of the past.

What I've learned during my time as a watch dog is that while mechanical is sexy, and haute is "haughty", it represents a very small portion of the market.  Mechanical watches were simply the result of the technology that was available at that time. Yes, many millions of dollars are invested in improving mechanical technology, and I am just as guilty of appreciating a mechanical movement. But if I am being honest with myself? I am more and more appreciating things that are well made that do not require so much effort. I love Apple products for this reason, my car has an automatic transmission, and I bought a K-Cup machine for my school because although it's not as sexy as some of the more expensive options that let you play "Kitchen Barista", I can honestly say after my tour of duty as a Starbucks manager, it's not something I dream of doing several times a day when I'm in a hurry.

Now unfortunately, as the aforementioned Ohio retailer and I discovered back in Japan, the Oceanus is not available here in the US. But there are outlets in Japan that sell and ship, and if you're looking for something that will look really good, be bang on perfect in time keeping, and not cost you several hundreds of dollars every few years for serving - I would highly recommend the Oceanus.