Review: Casio Edifice Honda Racing Limited Edition

Collaborations are often formed when there are common interests. As for Casio and Honda Racing, not only are they partners with the Scuderia Toro Rosso Formula One team, but they are both Japanese-based companies who have a common goal of pursuing high-tech and innovative capabilities.

This year, Casio had decided to launch a special timepiece in partnership with Honda Racing. Honda Racing is a special division of the Honda Motor Company, in which they are involved in developing products for the motorsports world. This includes materials, racing components, and engines.  The Scuderia Toro Rosso Formula One team is currently one of the F1 teams that are using Honda-powered engines.

Casio Edifice Honda Racing Limited Edition: Case, Dial, and Hands

A close-up of the Casio Edifice Honda Racing Limited Edition.

The watch, without the need for much introduction, is certainly one that we can easily associate with motorsports from its appearance. The tell-tale signs are the red accents, as well as the carbon fibre dial. One of the most interesting features, in our opinion, is the layer of sapphire crystal that is sandwiched between the carbon fibre dial and the hour markers. That gave the logo and indices the “floating” effect, which we thought was a rather neat touch for the watch.

The Casio Edifice Honda Racing Limited Edition. The white strap gives the watch a rather striking appearance.

The 47.5mm stainless steel case certainly gives the watch a giant wrist presence. The size is also accentuated by the slightly thin bezel, as well as the large chronograph pushers. It certainly gives the watch a rather masculine feel, which matches that theme of motorsports rather well. Despite its large size, the watch fits snugly and feels comfortable on our wrists. We attribute that to the design of the lugs, in which it curves nicely to ensure a proper fit on our wrists.

Another angle of the Casio.

Due to its large size, there were more room for Casio to expand the size of both the hands and indices, as well as the sub-dials. This helps to make the watch much more legible, especially since the watch is slightly cluttered with the sub-dials and the carbon fibre dial. The larger sub-dials also allows us to read the elapsed time better. The main problem with chronographs is that the indicators are usually too small, but Casio had managed to leverage on the large size to deliver a larger sub-dial.

The Movement

The caseback of the Casio Edifice Honda Racing Limited Edition.

The watch is powered by a solar-powered movement. Its battery has an approximate battery life of 5 months without any solar charge, and there is an indicator at the 6 o’clock sub-dial to indicate the battery level. Besides the power reserve indicator and chronograph function, the watch also features a date indicator at the 4:30 position and a 24-hour time indicator at the right sub-dial. The movement is also reasonably accurate, in which it deviates by only around 20 seconds per month.

Concluding Thoughts

The watch on the wrist.

Priced modestly at S$339, we feel that this Casio watch exudes good quality for money. The watch is rather well-made in our opinion, and we think that it looks rather good as well. It is also the perfect watch for someone who supports Honda Racing, or owns Honda cars. In fact, during the week when we had this piece, there were several Honda car owners who reached out to us and enquired about this particular timepiece.

We reckon that this good-looking timepiece, with its modest price-point, will be a hit with many. Granted, it is not a mechanical timepiece – but we think that anyone who is buying this watch will place either its namesake (Honda Racing) or aesthetics as the top priority instead. That is simple yet good enough justification to add this timepiece into a collection.