Casio Magma Ocean Collection: Malaysia Price & Review

Leong Wong 20 February 2019

Hot stuff.

It is really hard to believe that the Casio G-Shock is 35 years old this year. When it was first introduced, it certainly wowed the world and started a trend amongst the Japanese electronic watchmakers with its plastic and rubber casing, moving away from the regular steel cases. This, of course, was created to enable the watch to be more robust and hardwearing, with the ability to take on a fair amount of shock, rendering it practically indestructible. Over the years, it caught on with the younger crowd for its futuristic and funky designs.

With all the elements that made it robust and strong, Casio introduced the Frogman collection a decade later, which took the G-Shock to another level. This time around, the watches were waterproof or, at the very least, water resistant and purpose designed and built for divers.

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For the 25th anniversary of the Frogman, Casio launched the Magma collection named after—you guessed it—the molten lava that erupts from the fissures in the ocean floor after a volcanic activity. As its name suggests, the collection is built to be worn by serious divers in the most extreme conditions.

Just like their fellow G-Shocks, the Magma collection watches possess the same DNA in terms of look and feel. Comprising three models, the common theme that runs through is the element of red. The GPR-B1000TF (above) comes with a singular black dial with LED black-light and encompasses all the functions you would need for a safe diving experience, from GPS Navigation, digital compass, barometer and altimeter to a worldtimer with 39 cities around the globe.

The GWF-1035F (above) bears a very familiar dial that we have all grown accustomed to over the last couple decades, with rectangular window displays and a sub-dial in red between 10 o’clock and 11 o’clock. It has three claws locking the bezel down and two red pushers and two gold pushers on either side of the crown. The watch comes with functions that display the moonphase, tide graph and world time for 48 cities.

The third of the trio is the MTG-B1000TF, which is also the most conventional of the three as it uses an analogue display. The watch boasts rose gold and red accents with luminous central hours and minute hands. Functions include a worldtimer with 27 cities, a stopwatch and countdown timer. It’s also Bluetooth-enabled for updating the time.

The three watches all bear the hallmarks of the Casio G-Shocks with the addition of a Frogman logo to show they are water-resistant up to 200M below the surface of the sea, but they work just as well on dry land any given weekend.

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Leong Wong

Editor

A familiar face in Malaysia's horological publishing scene, Leong has been involved in lifestyle journalism since the mid-1990s. Besides watches, he takes a keen interest in cars and men's fashion.