Some licensed watches slap a logo on a dial and call the job done. Cadola rebuilt its Testa di Toro bullhead chronograph around the Mach 5 instead, then numbered every single piece.
The Speed Racer Mach 5 Limited Edition costs $250 in either colour, and the run stops at 300 numbered pieces per colour. Two colours, one price.
Speed Racer began as Tatsuo Yoshida’s Mach GoGoGo manga before the 1967 cartoon turned the Mach 5 into a bedroom-wall poster.
Cadola Testa di Toro Chronograph Speed Racer Mach 5 Limited Edition
42mm stainless bullhead case · Japanese quartz chronograph · 300 numbered pieces per variant · Jet Black or Race Red
Price: $250 at Cadola · On sale November 19
Where to buy: Buy at Cadola
Cadola Testa Di Toro Chronograph CD-1058-03
42mm bullhead case · quartz chronograph · the standard Testa di Toro line
Price: $149 on Amazon
Where to buy: Buy on Amazon
Two liveries, one cartoon car
Jet Black pairs a crisp white dial with a black leather strap and red stitching. Race Red flips the recipe with a jet-black dial, yellow hands and a race-red leather strap. Both dials carry a checkered red and yellow chapter ring, three working subdials and the Speed Racer logo parked on the counter at 6 o’clock.
The straps do the racing part properly, with big perforated rally holes and yellow lining showing through each one. Cadola cuts both from 22mm genuine leather. Same watch, two tempers.
The details reward a closer look without turning the dial into a billboard. An arrow-shaped hour hand does the pointing, the Speed Racer logo fills the whole subdial at 6 o’clock, and a small date window tucks in beside 4 o’clock. Limited Edition is printed right on the dial, under the Cadola name.
Why the pushers sit on top
Testa di Toro is Italian for bull’s head, and the case earns the name. The crown and both chronograph pushers ride on top of the case, the layout vintage racing chronographs used so a gloved thumb could work the timing without twisting a wrist. No rotating bezel here.
The barrel-shaped case measures 42mm across in brushed stainless steel, with a fixed bezel keeping the profile rounded. Cadola finishes the dial matte, in Speed Racer’s signature red, black and yellow. Gadgeteer met the brand’s retro streak earlier this month in the Ascend Jump Hour review, and the Toro pushes it further.
The hardware on top gets its own styling pass. The crown wears red rings and a round emblem on its cap, while both pushers carry a thin yellow ring near the tip. Those rings echo the dial’s checkerboard colours, so the case top looks like part of the livery instead of plain steel.
The quartz part, said out loud
Power comes from a Japanese quartz chronograph movement, and all three subdials work as real counters. The lens is mineral with an anti-reflection coating rather than sapphire, and the water resistance stops at 5 ATM, so splashes are fine and swimming isn’t the pitch. Quartz keeps it cheap.
The screw caseback is engraved for Speed Racer, and each watch ships inside a full Speed Racer collector’s set. Every piece is individually numbered. That numbering, the engraved caseback and the box turn a $250 quartz watch into a shelf piece as much as a wrist piece.
None of that spec sheet pretends to be Swiss, and that’s exactly why the price lands where it does. A mechanical movement would double the cost and thicken the case, and Cadola clearly wanted a cartoon car on more wrists instead. Battery power also means the watch sits ready in the collector’s box, ticking, whenever its owner reaches for it.
How the November 19 drop works
Sales open November 19 at 9:30 pm CT, with Los Angeles at 7:30 pm PT and New York at 10:30 pm ET. Sign up on Cadola’s page and the early-access link lands by email one hour before the public sale. Signing up reserves nothing.
Each customer can buy one piece per variant, two watches maximum across the collection. There’s no launch discount, and Cadola says discount codes won’t work on this watch. The run is fixed at 300 per colour, with no second batch announced.
Collectors outside the US get their own windows, with London opening at 3:30 am GMT on November 20 and Hong Kong at 11:30 am the same day. The two-per-customer cap means one buyer can still hold both colours. That makes the full set 600 numbered watches, split evenly between black and red.
Cadola Testa di Toro Chronograph Speed Racer Mach 5 Limited Edition
42mm stainless bullhead case · Japanese quartz chronograph · 300 numbered pieces per variant · Jet Black or Race Red
Price: $250 at Cadola · On sale November 19
Where to buy: Buy at Cadola
Buy it if the Mach 5 raised you and a numbered quartz chrono at $250 sounds like the right kind of tribute. Skip it if mineral glass and 5 ATM break the spell, since the standard Testa di Toro does the same bullhead shape for $149 on Amazon. Decide before November 19.
