Casio Introduces Solar-Powered Limited-Edition Edifice Timepiece

To mark the 50th anniversary of Japanese racing team and tuning company Tom’s, Casio has announced a new limited-edition timepiece.

The Edifice Tom’s 50th Anniversary Edition EFS-S641TMS is a solar-powered quartz chronograph. Edifice, a collection introduced by Casio in 2000, has sponsored Tom’s since 2013.

Tom’s gets its name from its founders, Nobuhide Tachi and Kiyoshi Oiwa, who called it Tachi Oiwa Motor Sport, later shortened to Tom’s.

The new watch from Casio specifically pays tribute to one of the best-known cars from Tom’s back catalogue – the KP47 Starlet.

The Starlet was the car with which Tom’s cemented its reputation in the Seventies as a car with a high-revving engine that set the benchmark at Toyota Motors and won Japan’s Grand Championship.

In a nod to lightweight yet tough materials, the watch has a resin case which is reinforced with carbon fibre, and it also has a carbon fibre dial. The watch weighs a total of 56 grams.

In more direct references to the Starlet, it has the number ‘36’ printed on the minute track, a reference to the car’s engine which was codenamed “3K-R”. The colours of the car’s livery can also be found on the dial.

The inserts on the dial resemble the design of the wheels on the Starlet, while the meshed purple front grille pattern of the Starlet is also replicated on the dial. The shorter end of the leather strap has textures that pay tribute to KP47’s B-pillar.

Some of the functions present on the watch include a one-second stopwatch, a measuring capacity of 29’59, and measuring modes of elapsed time, split time, as well as 1st-2nd place times too. Other functions on it include a date display and battery level indicator. Priced at approximately JPY44,000 (A$464), the watch has gone on sale in Japan.