Review: Casio's motorsport-inspired Edifice EFM-100

According to their website, Casio Edifice was born from the fusion of precision time keeping and motorsport, which probably explains why they’re partners with one of the fastest teams in the F1 paddock – Infiniti Red Bull Racing.

They also sponsor BTCC driver Tom Onslow-Cole, whom we feature in our latest motorsport Q & A.

They provided us with one of their latest watches, the EFM-100D-1A1VEF, to see what we thought and invited us to explore the rest of the range to discover how motorsport connects with their products.

The EFM-100D comes from Casio’s ‘Classic Edifice’ collection – a range which includes a choice of 52 watches starting from around £70.00, but it’s the Edifice ‘Radio Controlled’ collection where the motorsport inspiration is most evident, with prices climbing to nearly £700.00.

Top of the range, as you’d imagine, is the Red Bull Racing Edition Alarm Chronograph (EQW-A1200RB-1AER) which comes with a stainless steel case and an analogue chronograph movement. But if you’d like to spend a little less, there’s a Red Bull Racing branded Edifice watch from as little as £150.00 (EFA-131RBSP-1BVEF).

From Left to Right: Edifice EQW-M600DC-1AER (£350.00), Edifice EFA-131RBSP-1BVEF (£150.00) and the range-topping Red Bull Racing Edition Alarm Chronograph (£650.00).

For us, motorsport is irrefutably linked to the chronograph watch – the stopwatch is perhaps the most ubiquitous tool in the paddock apart from the spanner, so the watch we had on test didn’t resonate in that respect. Our advice to Tom would be to ask for an upgrade – there’s a nice black ion-plated chronograph on sale for just £350.00 (EQW-M600DC-1AER) which would better match the black-and-yellow livery of his Team Hard Passat.

Overall there’s much to recommend about the Edifice range, unlike some in this price range they’re solid, well built and place functionality well ahead of looks. In fact, that’s perhaps where the motorsport connection shows itself most clearly – their business is time keeping and like Tom they seem to know what they’re doing.

Design

The EFM-100D-1A1VEF comes with a screw lock back and crown, with a stainless steel strap and classic rotating bezel. The mineral glass display resists scratching and is water resistant down to 20 bar (or around 200 metres).

Design is a near clone of the Rolex Submariner Date, which by comparison costs around £5,000.00.

Comfort

It’s a heavy watch, weighing in at 139g compared with the 91g of my own Breitling Navitimer. The downside of such heftiness is the metal strap can move around unless fastened tightly to your wrist. On the plus side, it certainly feels more expensive than it is.

Timekeeping

Watches in the Edifice Radio Controlled collection receive radio signals from atomic clocks in Europe, the USA, Japan and China to maintain perfect time. The EFM-100 lacks such wizardry but remained spot on time throughout our two week trial period.

Value

The EFM-100 retails at £150.00, although a quick browse online found them selling for between £68.99 and 105.00. For that you get a watch that looks and feels like one considerably more expensive.