Daniil Kvyat and Daniel Ricardo weathered to perfection their Formula One race in Hungary; finished second and third place. It brought the first podium of the 2015 season for the new Red Bull driving team.
Lately, Casio has been introducing some very nice wrist gear with plenty of models from which to choose – at reasonable, affordable prices. And, each time Casio developes new tech feature-sets in their other watch lines, they figure a way to incorporate useful conservative elements of them in the new Edifice products.
The highly professional collaborative association of Red Bull and Edifice has been successful for a while now, influencing the sophisticated watch design ever more as both watchmaker and racing team mature, always raising expectations which has come to define a fresh distinctly classy “signature” look-and-feel to which the entire Edifice line now tilts.. and is all that much better because of it.
Always one step (sometimes, a really large step) ahead of the competition, of which Citizen and Seiko would head the list, Casio’s Edifice leads the way forward in the never-ending quest for usefulness of wrist worn devices without sacrificing legacy roundness or analogness.. meaning, watches that look like traditional watches. As described below, integration of smart phone/watch features via Bluetooth Mobile-link time setting and correction in some models makes for some delightful wearable tech indeed.
EFR-549RBP-2A
Notable for its diversion from the Edifice traditional silver, gold, black and white, this new Edifice model sports an attractive colorway that includes purple which is the Infiniti Red Bull Racing team color with red, blue and yellow as used on their F1 car. Developed from the base model, EFR-549, this unique colorway chronograph as a very limited edition, is highly collectible and reasonably priced at Yen 25,000.
The black resin band emulating racing tires is a nice touch. Other notable features include: stainless case, screw back, tachymeter ring, mineral glass, 10 bar water resistance, five-year battery life, stopwatch, date and day readout, and a large case of 50mm by 12mm.
ERA-500D-1A & ERA-500DB-1A
Feature packed, the ERA-500 is a world time, dual time readout, day and date, temperature (weird, I know), with auto “super illuminator,” perpetual calendar, timer, five alarms, stainless band and case, with tri-fold-button release clasp, retractable hands (makes reading display easier), and a two-year battery life. The 500DB model has a black IP bezel. Prices (respectively, are) Yen 29,000 and 32,000.
ECB-500D-1A & ECB-500DB-1A
Also a dual dial world time model, the ECB-500 features “mobile link” via Bluetooth connection to your smartphone (with airplane mode), solar charging, five alarms, day and date, perpetual calendar, “super illuminator” with after glow, all stainless case and band, easy button release clasp, and solar charging. The DB model has an all black IP coating, Prices of the ECB-500s are (respectively) Yen 35,000 and 45,000.
EQB-510D-1A, EQB-510DC-1A & EQB-510RBM-1A
This newer series’ features with clean, balanced layout are similar to the ECB-500 (above) forgoing digital readouts completely for elegant analog sub-dials and even a fly-back day indicator, the EQB-510DC-1A’s all black IP coating, and the EQB-510RBM-1A’s additional enhancements of rose gold accents and bezel on all black IP coating, sapphire crystal, is a special co-branded collaborative Red Bull X Edifice limited edition. Ones impression of this model could be: it is a flagship and at reasonable price (tiers), you, a thinking man is most easily tempted to ignore these higher tickets (than the G-Shock, Citizen, Seiko or Nixon you started out looking at) to wear the dressy, formal D to black tie or board room, the stealthy, (almost) murdered out DC to show off the butt-kick bad boy in you, and the super-sporty RBM to your box seats at the playoff game. You never have to reset the time (Mobile-link); you never have to wind it or change a battery (Tough solar). Prices (respectively) are Yen 40,000,50,000 and 67,000. Casio usually gets it right, in the case of the EQB510 product, they went way beyond right. I gotta admit,these watches impress this blogger all the way down to the buttons.
EFR-541SBD-1A, EFR-541SBDB-1A, & EFR-541SBRB-1A
Less feature packed, but presenting as classic Edifice layout, the EFR541s feature solar power recharging, date window, an alarm, one hour stopwatch, along with stainless construction and 10 bar water resistance. Where the SBRB, Infiniti Red Bull limited edition sports sapphire and rose gold accents, the SBD is all silvertone and the SBDB upgrades the bezel to black IP. Prices are: Yen 28,000, 30,000 and 50,000
EFR-542RBM-1A
Sporty elegance distinguishes this Infiniti Red Bull Racing Limited Edition world time chronograph. It has rose gold accents on a mixed finish of brushed and polished stainless. Though not solar-powered, back-lit or atomic, the watch does offer stopwatch (1/20 seconds, a total of 24 hours, split), timer (set unit: 1 minute, set up: 24 hours, measured in seconds), time alarm, and date and day of the week flyback sub-dial display. Retail price is Yen 38,000.
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