The Male Guide's review on the EQB800
Watches are possibly one of the trickiest accessories to get right, but when it’s made ‘just so,’ it can absolutely perfect an outfit.
It took me a long time to appreciate the art and technology that goes into watches. They can be a deeply personal thing in terms of taste, but I was lucky enough to team up with Casio to bring you a review of what I believe it the best watch for any suit-wearer, the EQB800.
AESTHETICS
Glass: Mineral Glass
Band: Stainless
Case size: 53.5 x 49.2 x 13.1mm
EDIFICE is Casio’s luxury line for men. These are the pinnacle for the business male from Casio, and my god are they all good-looking watches. In fact, placing the watch on my wrist for the first time commenced a subsequent 3 or 4 days when I couldn’t take it off and just kept looking at it. Funnily enough, a couple of months on, I still adore looking at it.
The EQB800DB-1A, as tested, features a black fact, electric blue trimmings with mid and light blue chronograph trim. The stainless steel band and structure includes details such as a matching light blue band on the main function button. This thing absolutely shines in the daylight but it isn’t anywhere close to outrageous. It captures attention but in the best way possible.
Now, you may thing that having so much blue makes pairing this watch with an outfit difficult. It doesn’t. The watch’s stainless takes over and it is an extremely versatile watch for any outfit and just about any occasion.
"The EQB800 is as stunning on the wrist as it is versatile."
FUNCTIONALITY
Power: Solar (Casio’s famous Tough Solar) with Power Saving
Water: WR 100m
Where do we begin? It’s a Casio watch: the functionality is what this watch prides itself on.
One thing today’s business man is going to be really impressed about is the continuation of the World Time feature with the Bluetooth EDIFICE Watches. In fact previous connectivity pairing issues have now been completely rectified and the EQB800 pairs brilliantly with your smartphone. This enables two main functions:
- Automatic time updates
- Selection of a second time zone, city-selected
The first watch I ever bought for myself, the EQB500, also had this feature. When travelling and making numerous calls a day to different time zones, this was possibly the most brilliant function. I could quickly glance at my watch for the second time zone and know if it was time to call. When travelling, I’d never had any issues knowing what time it was as it would update automatically!
This feature continues with the EQB800 and to me provides one of the most useful pieces of technology available in a watch today.
Power Saver is another neat trick from Casio and one I’ve tested! Being a solar-powered watch, if it’s not worn for a while it can run out of battery. But no, not with a Casio – a handy feature stops the hands from moving when the watch is in the dark. When it detects light, the hands move straight away to the current time and the watch carries on as reliable as ever.
Find my watch is a pretty nifty tool. I’ve only had to use it once in the few years I’ve been a Casio-lover, but gosh it was handy! I simply connected the app, pressed “Locate Watch” and the watch beeped until I found it. It had somehow found it’s way into an overnight bag and was inside a jacket.
Stopwatch data measured with the watch can be sent to a smartphone, where it can be displayed on a 1/1000-second unit lap time graph. Smartphone pairing also allows the user to check race data in a variety of ways that would be difficult with a watch alone, such as highlighting laps where the target time was exceeded.
OVERALL
I’m a Casio fan and we all know it, being a user for years now. But the EQB800 is a watch I’m genuinely very proud to wear. In meetings I find people taking glances at it, and have had a few people ask about it and check it out.
This is a younger business gentleman’s watch and priced perfectly for the quality and technology you expect from a Japanese watch-maker, but the aesthetics of the finest Swiss luxury watches. Can’t go wrong!
View the full review here!
