A razor bump is a small problem that can ruin a whole morning, and Cutting Edge men’s grooming is built around that one complaint. The lineup of clippers, trimmers, a body groomer and a head shaver uses ceramic and titanium-coated blades, and each tool is priced under $50.

What Is in the Cutting Edge Men’s Grooming Lineup

The Cordless Hair Clippers pair a ceramic blade with a stainless-steel edge. The ceramic is hypoallergenic and runs cool, which helps on sensitive scalps during longer trims. The clippers come with six guide combs, a built-in adjustable taper lever, a 90-minute runtime and an LCD battery display. The clippers are made for men and women, at home or in a salon.

The Dual Speed T-Blade Trimmer arrives as a two-piece set with a BeardMate VAC, a handheld vacuum for the trimmings. The gold-tone carbon steel T-blade runs at 6000 or 7000 RPM for edging, fading and beard shaping. The set adds six guide combs from 1 mm to 12 mm, a blade cover, a cleaning brush and a USB charging cable, and the vacuum runs up to 30 minutes per charge.

The LCD Full Body Hair Groomer is fully waterproof, so it works in the shower, and it adds an adjustable guide comb, a battery display and a built-in light for hard-to-see spots. The Rechargeable LCD Head Shaver uses titanium-coated foil blades and flexible rotary heads, with a boost feature for coarse hair, a washable magnetic head and a travel lock. The trimmer set’s vacuum is compact and surface-safe, made to cut cleanup around the sink.

How Cutting Edge Men’s Grooming Tools Handle Irritation

I know the frustration of skin irritation, all too well. I ditched the straight razor for trimmers years ago, and my skin has never looked better. That history is why a lineup built around irritation caught my attention, and why the Cutting Edge men’s grooming range is on my radar.

Irritation is the thread through the whole Cutting Edge men’s grooming range. The ceramic blades are hypoallergenic and stay cool, the head shaver’s titanium-coated foils are meant to reduce bumps, and the body groomer is made for wet or dry use. Those are the maker’s descriptions, not test results.

Hair type is part of the story. Cutting Edge was founded in 2017 for men whose hair texture and skin needs traditional grooming tools often overlook. That focus shows in the blade choices, and it is why the clippers talk about pulling and overheating as much as they talk about length.

What to Know Before You Buy Cutting Edge Men’s Grooming

The trimmer’s guide combs run from 1 mm stubble to 12 mm, which covers most home cuts. Every tool in the range is rechargeable and cordless, and the clippers, trimmer, body groomer and shaver all use an LCD to show battery or speed, which saves you from guessing when the charge is about to run out.

Grooming is the least glamorous corner of a man’s routine, and the one he touches every day. It sits in the same drawer as a bottle of Char No 3 cologne, and it gets less attention than it deserves. A tool that spares your skin ends up being the one you actually reach for.

A number stamped on a plate can turn a very large SUV into something you keep. The Escalade-V 125th Anniversary Collector Series is Cadillac’s first Collector Series Escalade, unveiled ahead of the United States Grand Prix in Austin, and the run is capped at 252 units.

The run splits evenly, with 126 in Midnight Stone Frost and 126 in Vibrant White Tricoat, each numbered from 1902 through 2027 for the years of the brand’s history. Buyers can pick their own VIN and serial number, which is the part of this truck that no one else can copy.

Kristian Aquilina, vice president of Global Cadillac, describes the Escalade-V 125th Anniversary as a way for collectors to mark Cadillac’s legacy while the brand looks toward its future. It opens the company’s 125th anniversary year, and the numbering makes the anniversary countable: one number for each year from 1902 through 2027, in each color.

The outside is built on contrast. Forged 24-inch wheels sit under carbon-fiber trim at the grille surround, the lower rear fascia, the mirror caps and the engine cover. Blue brake calipers and dark-finish badges finish the look, and heritage V-8 puddle lamps light the ground at the doors. Together the parts read as a package built for people who intend to look at the car as much as drive it.

Underneath, the Escalade-V runs a 6.2-liter supercharged V8 rated at 682 horsepower and 653 lb-ft of torque, with a 0 to 60 mph time estimated at 4.4 seconds. The Collector Series announcement names no mechanical changes, so those numbers belong to the standard truck.

The Santorini Blue Cabin of the Escalade-V 125th Anniversary

Inside, a Black and Sheer Gray two-tone interior carries Santorini Blue stitching. Illuminated sill plates mark the occasion, and the cabin adds exclusive badging, blue seat belts, Collector Series floor mats and a blue key fob. Every blue piece points back to one color.

Santorini Blue comes from the blue in the Mondrian pattern of the V-Series emblem. It was developed as a visual link between the fifth-generation V-Series and the V-Series.R race car, the hardware the one-off V-ONE concept shares. It first appeared on the Cadillac Project GTP concept and has since shown up on V-Series race cars, road cars and concepts.

Where the Escalade-V 125th Anniversary Fits in the Collector Series

Since 2022, Cadillac’s Collector Series has paired special editions with milestones and racing achievements. The 2026 CT5-V Blackwing F1 Collector Series carried that idea to a 26-unit sedan tied to the brand’s first year in Formula 1, and it was unveiled at the Miami Grand Prix.

This one arrives ahead of the race in Austin and brings the idea to the flagship SUV for the first time. Cadillac has not said whether more Collector Series Escalades will follow.

The Escalade-V 125th Anniversary is sold in the United States and Canada and is open for ordering now. Pricing starts at approximately $239,000.

Cadillac’s own Escalade-V page lists a starting price of $169,300, so the Collector Series carries a premium of roughly $70,000 before any dealer adjustment. What that money buys is a color, a trim package and a number. Somebody will pick the number that matches a birth year or a wedding date, and the truck will carry it for as long as it exists.

A cigar box makes a decent souvenir, and Davidoff has worked out that a box with a city skyline on the lid makes a better one. The Davidoff City Edition arrives this month with two blends, one for New York and one for Las Vegas, each sold only in that city’s Davidoff flagship stores.

The New York blend is a gran robusto, 55 ring gauge by 5½ inches, or 2.2 by 14 centimeters. It pairs Dominican filler with an Ecuadorian binder and wrapper, and Davidoff rates the strength at 3.5 out of 5, with notes of coffee, wood and oak. The Las Vegas blend uses the same Dominican and Ecuadorian build, with one change in the filler.

Davidoff has tied cigars to its stores before. Its Boutique Selection links three blends to the Geneva, Hong Kong and New York Madison flagships. The Davidoff City Edition widens that idea from a single store to a whole city, and it aims at people passing through, collectors and gift buyers as much as the regulars.

I like the logic. The Boutique Selection reads as a cigar for the people who already live in the shop, and this reads as the one a visitor carries home. Davidoff’s recent Voyager’s Selection Black Band ties a blend to four growing regions. Here the tie is to a place on the map you can book a flight to.

The New York Davidoff City Edition

The Ecuadorian wrapper gives the New York blend a spicier, more aromatic profile than the brand’s classic style, which makes it a shade bolder than the mild reputation Davidoff carries. It is sold at the New York flagships, including 515 Madison Avenue, a store on 6th Avenue and 156 Broadway in Brooklyn.

Most of this lineup is about balance, and the Davidoff City Edition for New York looks built to prove that a medium-strength cigar can still have some bite. I would want to smoke it before giving a verdict, but the recipe on paper is sensible. Because the Davidoff City Edition is sold only in its own city, a collector who wants both boxes has to travel or know someone who will.

The Las Vegas Davidoff City Edition

The Las Vegas blend gets a wine cask aged Dominican filler, which adds character and aromatic depth. The notes run to fresh pepper and spice, and the finish is meant to be smooth and well balanced. Davidoff has not yet posted a size, a strength rating or a street address for this one.

Wine cask aging is the most interesting idea in either blend, mostly because the choice of wine changes everything. A port cask and a Bordeaux cask would give very different cigars, and I would like to know which one Davidoff used before I decide how pepper and spice fit with it.

The series begins with New York and Las Vegas, which implies more cities to come. Javier González, who leads global marketing and innovation at Oettinger Davidoff, says the series “belongs entirely to the cities that inspire it.”

The G-SHOCK MRG-D5000 is a 20-piece blue sapphire G-Shock, and Casio America is bringing six of them to the U.S. between December 2026 and June 2027 at $80,000 each. Announced October 1, it builds the case and bezel from blue sapphire crystal and finds a way to hold it all together without screws.

It is the newest piece of the MR-G line, which launched in 1996 and turns 30 this year, as the Frogman 30th anniversary watch showed. The same blue sapphire theme arrives in two more watches in November, so there is a way into the idea at every price.

How the G-SHOCK MRG-D5000 Is Built

Sapphire cracks when screws pinch it. So the G-SHOCK MRG-D5000 uses a Multi-Guard Structure, a case and bezel made of separate components assembled without screws, in a way that draws on Japanese kigumi joinery. Casio says it is the first G-SHOCK to get a shock-resistant structure out of blue sapphire parts, and that it studied how force travels into the crystal before laying it out.

The sapphire is cut from ingots, and only sections with the right color and clarity are used. A blue sapphire is also set into the Grade 5 titanium case back, which is a screw-lock design engraved with a number from 1/20 to 20/20. The titanium portions are DLC-treated, and the glass is sapphire with an anti-reflective coating.

The dial is blue with 24k gold lettering over a brick pattern. A Dura Soft rubber strap with a one-touch three-fold clasp fits wrists from 145 to 215 mm. The case measures 51.1 by 43.2 by 16.5 mm and weighs 121 grams, so this is a large watch.

For all that jewelry, the G-SHOCK MRG-D5000 is a working G-Shock. It is rated to 200 meters of water resistance and runs on Gallium Tough Solar, with about 11 months on a full charge in normal use without light and 22 months with power saving on. Accuracy is within 15 seconds a month without a signal.

The G-SHOCK MRG-D5000 is also radio-controlled, using Multi Band 6 time calibration with signals from Germany, England, the U.S., Japan and China, and it checks in up to six times a day. World time covers 38 cities plus UTC with automatic summer time switching, and the full calendar runs to 2099.

The tool set is classic G-Shock: a 1/100-second stopwatch, a 24-hour countdown timer, five daily alarms with a snooze, an hourly time signal and a Super Illuminator LED backlight with auto light and afterglow. Nothing about the sapphire changes how the watch works.

Price and Availability for the G-SHOCK MRG-D5000

The price is $80,000, and the six U.S. pieces arrive on a staggered schedule through June 2027. Casio’s product page says registration, selection and the purchase window are still subject to final terms, and that availability may vary by location. For most of us, this watch will be something to look at in photos and in a display case.

Two Blue Sapphire Watches Beside the G-SHOCK MRG-D5000

The MRG-B5000SA is limited to 500 pieces at $6,600 and arrives in November. A pair of two-carat, eight-facet blue sapphires sit at the top and bottom of the case, and they are lab-grown. The top bezel is COBARION, a super-hard alloy, with blue arc ion plating on the case and bezel, and the case back carries an MR-G 30th logo.

It is solar and radio-controlled, with Bluetooth and 20 bar of water resistance. The GMW-B5000SB is the lower-priced way in. It is a full-metal G-SHOCK with blue sapphire stones set at four points on the front of the bezel, listed at $770 from November at gshock.com, the G-SHOCK Soho Store and select retailers. Our GMWBZ5000 story covers another full-metal piece.

Taken together, the three watches show where Casio is heading with sapphire. Twenty pieces is a small experiment, and what Casio learns about holding sapphire without a screw is the part to watch.

The Cohiba Talismán, a cigar that started life as a limited edition in 2017 is now a permanent part of the lineup. It is a 54 ring gauge x 154 mm parejo with a pigtail, medium to full in strength, and Habanos says it burns for about 60 to 90 minutes. It is also the ninth vitola in Cohiba’s Línea Clásica.

Habanos, S.A. announced the cigar on October 8 after a London launch the night before, with about 400 guests including distributors, enthusiasts and executives. Cohiba turns 60 this year, having started in 1966, and Habanos is calling the run of releases the Año Cohiba. I would call it a smart way to open a birthday: put a cigar people already wanted back in the box.

What the Cohiba Talismán Actually Is

Its factory name is Sublimes No. 1, and the Cohiba Talismán is the commercial name you will see on the box. The leaves come from the San Juan y Martínez and San Luis vegas in Vuelta Abajo, in Pinar del Río, and Habanos says they are a “selection of the selection.” It is Totally Handmade with long filler, and there is an extra fermentation step that Habanos credits for the brand’s aroma and flavor.

A 54 ring gauge is a thick cigar, so expect a cool, slow smoke that rewards sitting down. The tasting notes in the release describe a perfect draw, dense gray smoke and a compact ash. Woody notes build as it goes, and the final third shows roasted coffee. That is Habanos grading its own cigar, so check it against your own palate.

The new look is half the story. The Cohiba Talismán comes in a 10-count Boîte Nature box with an NFC chip in the label, so you can tap a phone to verify authenticity and open a digital experience. A foot band prints the vitola name, which makes it easier to tell what is in your humidor at a glance. The packaging will roll out across the Línea Clásica.

The box of 10 is available worldwide, though Habanos says availability will expand gradually through the year. There is also a gift pack of 3 for the UK only, at a recommended £600. The release gives no box-of-10 price and no U.S. date, so ask your tobacconist first.

Cohiba trades on rarity, and turning a hard-to-find limited edition into a regular cigar runs against that habit. I think it is the right call. A smoker who missed 2017 gets another shot, and a fan of the Vistosos vitola or the Riviera gets a thick, slow parejo to compare them against. Anyone holding 2017 boxes may feel differently.

Bringing back a shape with a story works in the humidor. The Trinidad Corcel Cuban exclusive and the Punch Princesas revival follow the same instinct. The Talismán is the biggest example so far, because it is the first major release of a brand’s 60th year.

What the Cohiba Talismán Means for the Año Cohiba

José María López Inchaurbe, Habanos’ Vice-President of Development, says “Talismán is just the beginning of what is yet to come.” The release names no other products and no dates, so the rest of the Año Cohiba is a promise for now. What we can say is that the first cigar is a good one to build on, and it gives the year a real anchor.

So raise a glass to sixty years of Cohiba. The Cohiba Talismán turns a collector’s cigar into one you can actually keep in the humidor, and the year ahead has a lot to live up to. If the rest of the releases arrive with this much care, 2026 will be remembered as a very good year to be a Cohiba smoker.

The Porsche Mission S has a five-tube instrument cluster with a real analogue needle, no fixed center screen and a phone holder that slides out of the dashboard, and that cockpit is the best reason to pay attention to it. Porsche calls it a permanent mid-engine super sports vision model above the 911.

The car debuted Thursday, October 15, on a pier in Queens, New York, facing the Manhattan skyline. It is the same pier where the first pictures of the mid-engined 550 Spyder went around the world in 1953, a nod to the 718 RSK Spyder lineage that followed. Porsche picked the spot to say that its history is the brief for what comes next.

Inside the Porsche Mission S Cockpit

The five tubes sit behind the steering wheel with a tachometer in the center. Its analogue needle runs in front of a display, and in some drive modes the whole tachometer moves closer to the driver. The tubes also rearrange by mode, either side by side or one behind another. It is a cluster that changes shape to match the mood of the drive, and I like it.

There is no permanent center display and no passenger display. Instead, a retractable phone mount works with MagSafe, so a smartphone can serve as the navigation screen when you want one. The My Porsche app lets an owner pick historically inspired designs for the round instruments. Push-pull controls in the dash handle comfort and driving functions, and the key holder stays to the left of the wheel, as it always has on a Porsche.

Two lines run through the dashboard and doors to make you feel seated deep in the car, a layout taken from the 550 Spyder and the 356. The seats get a seatbelt buckle built into the center panel and electric adjustment controls in new positions. The interior is Special Black, and it reads as a cabin where nothing is there by accident.

How the Porsche Mission S Looks

The shape runs on torpedo fenders, a long roofline and a low, wide stance that Porsche describes as floating volumes. A single line wraps the car and ties the front and rear lights together. Above it the surfaces carry the muscle, and below it the car shows its technical parts and its light construction. The engine sits in the middle, which gives the Porsche Mission S its classic mid-engine flyline.

The round headlights and fenders echo the 911, the shut lines running into the lights nod to the G-model 911 of 1974 to 1989, and the flat nose comes from the 911 GT1. The roofline under the rear wing recalls the 959. The rear carries a car-in-car shape from the GT1, a cooling solution that recalls the 917’s radiator fan, and an integrated active rear wing.

The wheels take their pattern from the 928’s dial design, redrawn for lightness. Paint comes in Firn White Metallic, Light Red Metallic and Black Chrome, reinterpreting the white, grey and red of Porsche’s racing cars. It is a lot of history on one body, and the proportions keep the Porsche Mission S from looking like a collage.

Why the Porsche Mission S Sits Above the 911

Michael Leiters, chairman of Porsche’s executive board, put the design brief in one line: “A Porsche must be recognizable as a Porsche at first glance.” The Mission S also previews a mid-engine super sports car platform that sits above the 911. Porsche says it is not a one-off hypercar but a permanent, versatile part of the lineup, a first for the brand.

That is the real news. A one-off show car is a mood, and a standing tier is a price ladder. Compare the Porsche Mission S with Cadillac’s V-ONE, a one-of-one concept built to stay a single car. Porsche is talking about a platform, which means owners and rivals can plan around it.

What Comes Next for the Porsche Mission S

Porsche has not said what powers the Porsche Mission S, how fast it is, what it costs or when a production version arrives. Those answers will decide whether the car matches the promise of the show car. The cockpit matters more than usual here, because it is the part of the design buyers will touch every time they drive.

The more interesting question is what rivals do next. Every flagship of the last decade has competed on screen area, and the Porsche Mission S enters the next round with a needle, a row of tubes and a phone holder.

If Porsche carries that cockpit onto a production car, a tier above the 911 gives it room to prove that buyers at this price will pay for less glass. Expect the first car in the tier to be judged on its cockpit as much as its speed.

The 2027 Ducati Panigale V4 S costs $35,995, and the $8,000 over the base V4 buys the parts that matter most on a track: Öhlins electronic suspension, a steering damper, forged wheels and a lithium battery. It also comes in nine pounds lighter. If the bike is going to see more than one track day a year, this is the one to buy.

What the 2027 Ducati Panigale V4 S Adds Over the Base V4

Start with the suspension. The V4 S carries an Öhlins NPX 25/30 pressurized 43 mm fork, a TTX36 shock and a steering damper, all electronically controlled through Smart EC 3.0 with an event-based mode. The base V4 gets a fully adjustable Showa big-piston fork and a Sachs shock and damper, which are good parts by any normal standard.

The wheels are what you notice when you walk up to it. Forged aluminum five-spokes, inspired by the Desmosedici GP, save 4.78 pounds and cut moment of inertia 22 percent at the front and 23.5 percent at the rear. The V4 S also gets a lithium-ion battery and clip-ons that adjust up 10 mm for track use. Weight without fuel is 412 pounds, against 421 for the V4.

Factory Made Options on the 2027 Ducati Panigale V4 S

The V4 S also joins Ducati’s Factory Made program for the first time, which lets a buyer configure the bike at the factory in Borgo Panigale. There are 11 colors: two Icon (Ducati Red, Ducati Yellow), two Style (Thrilling Black, GP19 Red), two Sophistication (Aviator Grey, Arctic White Silk) and five from the Ad Personam program at Automobili Lamborghini (Arancio Xanto, Giallo Belenus, Verde Scandal, Viola Pasifae, Blu Uranus).

Two liveries, Performance and Corse, sit on top of the colors. Factory-installed options include the Front Brake PRO and PRO+ packages, the STM dry clutch and adjustable footpegs, all homologated, so the bike leaves the line configured and never needs a shop visit. If I were spending extra money on a V4 S, this is where I would spend it before I visited the accessories counter.

What Powers the 2027 Ducati Panigale V4 S

The engine in the 2027 Ducati Panigale V4 S is the same 1,103 cc Desmosedici Stradale V4 in both models, making 209 hp at 12,750 rpm and 89 lb-ft of torque at 11,250 rpm. Revised intake, exhaust and lubrication add about 2 hp at high revs, and the rev limiter is now 15,000 rpm in second through fifth gear. A longer final drive means fewer shifts on a technical lap.

A new front air duct borrowed from the V4 R and dual-profile winglets sit on the nose. The Front Frame is 12 percent less stiff laterally, which is meant to keep the front tire planted at big lean angles. Lap times at Vallelunga drop an average of four tenths of a second in the European configuration.

Electronics on the 2027 Ducati Panigale V4 S

Two new systems do most of the work. DEB, the engine-brake system, replaces Engine Brake Control and adjusts engine braking by reading the load on the rear tire. Race Brake Control adds rear-wheel braking under deceleration. For a rider, that means braking later and carrying more speed into the corner with less drama at full lean.

The rest of the 2027 Ducati Panigale V4 S package reads more like a grand tourer than a superbike. A 6.9-inch TFT, cruise control, a lap timer, a pit limiter and Bosch Cornering ABS are standard. The bike is also ready for heated grips, turn-by-turn directions, GPS, a USB port, tire pressure monitoring and the Ducati Data Logger.

2027 Ducati Panigale V4 S Price and Availability

The 2027 Ducati Panigale V4 S is $35,995, up $400 from the 2026 starting price of $35,595, and the base V4 is $27,995. Destination adds $1,295, which puts the S at $37,290 before taxes, title, dealer charges and any tariffs. Dealers set the final price, and North American dealers receive the bikes in April 2027.

Ownership is friendlier than the spec sheet suggests. Oil service comes every 7,500 miles or 24 months, and the valve clearance check waits until 15,000 miles. Anyone coming from the 2025 Panigale V4 will find the same engine with more finish. The Lamborghini edition at $78,400 and the V4 R at $49,995 remain the places to go if the budget runs higher.

What the 2027 Ducati Panigale V4 S Says About the Next Superbike

The $8,000 step from V4 to V4 S now buys what used to belong to a race-shop budget. Electronic suspension, forged wheels and a lithium battery have moved from special editions into a catalog model, and each model year pulls another piece of the paddock into the showroom.

I expect the next generation to push forged wheels and electronic suspension further down the range, and the V4 S will be the bike that taught buyers to ask for them.

The Matchbox The Movie Scrambler is Triumph’s 1200 XE, and for riders, that is the reason to press play. According to Triumph, the bike runs through the film and takes center stage in one of its climactic action scenes. Matchbox The Movie landed on Apple TV on October 9, with John Cena as an undercover CIA agent. A movie about a toy car brand just picked up a real motorcycle.

What the Matchbox The Movie Scrambler Does on Screen

Apple’s synopsis has Cena playing Sean, the long-absent leader of a group of childhood friends who comes back to his small town and pulls them into an international mission. Sam Hargrave directed the PG-13 action movie, Jessica Biel, Sam Richardson and Arturo Castro are in the cast, and the story is inspired by Mattel’s toy brand.

The Matchbox The Movie Scrambler Off Screen

The Scrambler 1200 XE is a big, tall adventure twin dressed in Bonneville clothes. It has a 1200cc parallel twin rated at 89 bhp and 110 Nm of torque, with 250 mm, or 9.8 inches, of suspension travel at both ends. It rolls on a 21-inch front wheel and a 17-inch rear, with Brembo radial calipers up front and ABS. It weighs 230 kg wet, about 507 pounds, and the seat sits at 870 mm, roughly 34.3 inches. If you want the Matchbox The Movie Scrambler in your garage, sit on one first. It is a lot of motorcycle for anyone short, and a lot of fun for anyone who likes gravel.

The Matchbox The Movie Scrambler looks great on film because it’s a working machine. The spoked wheels and long-travel suspension read as capable on camera before anybody twists the throttle, and a 1200cc twin sounds like it means it. That matters in a stunt scene, where the audience decides in a second whether to believe the rider.

At the other end of the family is the small Scrambler 400 XC, a far smaller bike. The 1200 XE is the one you buy because it looks right in a movie.

Triumph, Screens and the Matchbox The Movie Scrambler

This is not Triumph’s first trip to the screen. In The Great Escape, Steve McQueen’s character jumps a Triumph over barbed wire, and Bud Ekins made the jump for him after he and McQueen worked out an 80 mph run-up to clear a twelve-foot fence. It is widely held to be the most famous motorcycle stunt in movie history.

More recently, the Scrambler 1200 and the Tiger 900 appeared in No Time to Die, where the Bond stunt team needed high-performance bikes, and a limited Scrambler 1200 Bond Edition followed. The TF 250-X went into the Call of Duty tie-in. Putting a bike in front of people who don’t read motorcycle magazines is a habit, and a smart one.

Put the movie on some Saturday night, pour something good, and keep an eye out for the Scrambler. A good movie bike sends you to the garage afterward, and that is the test the Matchbox The Movie Scrambler has to pass.

The Springfield Armory Echelon Pro takes the modular Echelon pistol and gives it a laser-sculpted grip, a Grey Cerakote slide and a list of control upgrades. It arrives in three configurations, the 4.0C, 4.0FC and 4.5F, all at $899, and the grip texture is the part that deserves attention.

What the Springfield Armory Echelon Pro Changes

The headline is LightForged, a process that uses lasers to sculpt the surface of the grip module. Springfield says the result is reminiscent of custom stippling, with more consistency and control. Hand stippling varies from one gun to the next. A laser pattern repeats, and Springfield pitches that repeatability as the point.

The Springfield Armory Echelon Pro debuts the process with a pattern called Badlands, a cracked-earth texture Springfield calls aggressive. The compensated slide is forged and finished in Springfield Grey Cerakote for wear and corrosion resistance. A trench cut forward of the action gives the hand an index point, and serrations at the front and a flared rear give it purchase from several angles.

Control upgrades follow the same logic. An integral compensator redirects gas upward to tame muzzle rise, and a stainless steel guide rod adds forward mass. The barrel is hammer forged with a Melonite finish. A flared, removable magwell of machined steel is meant to guide reloads, and the slide stop and magazine release are ambidextrous.

How the Springfield Armory Echelon Pro Fits the Family

Underneath, nothing about the platform changes. The Central Operating Group is a serialized stainless steel chassis that moves between compatible grip modules and slide assemblies, which is the idea behind the Echelon since its original launch. The Springfield Armory Echelon Pro uses that core in three combinations.

The 4.0C pairs a Pro compact grip module with the Pro 4.0 slide. The 4.0FC puts a full-size grip module with a compact dust cover under the same slide. The 4.5F is a full-size grip and the Pro 4.5F slide.

Three extended magazines ship with each pistol, 20 rounds on the 4.5F and 4.0FC and 18 rounds on the 4.0C. The 4.0FC pairs a 4-inch barrel and compact slide with that full-size grip. The removable magwell lets shooters run flush-fit magazines instead.

Sights and optics get the same attention. A tritium front sight with an orange luminescent ring sits over a serrated black rear sight to pull the eye forward. Beneath the slide cover plate, the patent-pending Variable Interface System lets owners mount a wide range of optics directly, with no adapter plates, by setting self-locking pins to the footprint they need.

Springfield also says the Springfield Armory Echelon Pro was designed and tested beyond SAAMI drop test parameters. A secondary sear inside the Central Operating Group adds protection against an unintended discharge if the pistol is dropped. Both are manufacturer claims, and they will need to hold up in the hands of owners.

What the Springfield Armory Echelon Pro Costs

Springfield lists all three variants at an $899 MSRP: the 4.0C Comp, 4.0FC Comp and 4.5F Comp. For context, its Echelon page lists the Echelon family at $710 to $832 and the Echelon Alpha at $599 to $649, both in 9mm. The release gives no ship date, so check with a dealer before you plan around one.

The Pro Comp name makes sense once you see the compensated slide, which follows the Echelon 4.0C Comp we covered last year. Springfield Armory Echelon Pro buyers are paying for the tritium sight, steel magwell and texture. Steve Kramer, the company’s vice president of marketing, says the Pro adds “a wide range of performance-oriented enhancements” to the platform.

California buyers have a reason to look closely too. Springfield already offers a California-compliant Echelon line with 10-round magazines. Springfield has not said whether the Springfield Armory Echelon Pro will get one.

My read is that Badlands is the start of a catalog and not a one-off. A process that sculpts a grip with a laser can sculpt any pattern, and Springfield framed this one as the debut. The Springfield Armory Echelon Pro suggests the company now sees feel and finish as the next place to compete, with the serialized core underneath staying the same while everything the hand touches becomes a choice.

The BRABUS URBAN E Fragment Edition is a $50,000 electric motorcycle with 37 horsepower, and its best argument isn’t speed. Brabus and Fragment Design are unveiling it at ComplexCon in Los Angeles this weekend, October 3 and 4, in a run of exactly ten bikes. That’s a hard sell to anyone shopping by spec sheet, which is part of the point.

The bike underneath comes from DAB Motors, a French electric motorcycle maker. Brabus and Fragment Design layered a black-and-white scheme over it, with white carbon-fiber wheel covers, white calipers and a white quilted leather seat. A capsule of leather gloves, a rider’s jacket and a fleece zip hoodie arrives with the launch.

How the BRABUS URBAN E Fragment Edition Came Together

The story starts in Milan. Brabus showed the URBAN E there during Design Week in April, built with DAB Motors, and Hiroshi Fujiwara, the founder of Fragment Design, came across it on the street. DAB’s founder, Simon Dabadie, says Fujiwara loved the bike, and the question of what a Fragment motorcycle might look like followed from there.

Fujiwara says he never designs “thinking about what the market wants,” only what he would like to use himself. Brabus CEO Constantin Buschmann frames the pairing as an outside eye: a designer like Fujiwara brings something Brabus never thought of, and Brabus returns the favor.

Brabus is better known for its tuned Urus SE builds and for putting its name on a Sunreef yacht, so a minimal black-and-white motorcycle is a change of register. Fragment’s habit is selective collaboration, which makes it a quieter partner than the usual fashion tie-in.

Black, White and Carbon on the BRABUS URBAN E Fragment Edition

Black bodywork and exposed carbon fiber carry most of the bike. The white parts do the talking: the wheel covers, the brake calipers and a Masterpiece leather seat with Brabus’s quilted Shell pattern. A translucent LED taillight under the seat works the Fragment logo into the light itself, a detail only the person standing behind the bike will see.

Up front sits an illuminated BRABUS logo in a carbon frame, a projector headlamp below it and vertical daytime running lights set into scoops on the tank fairing. The Supermoto-style handlebar carries CNC-machined aluminum levers. More carbon shows up on the front fender, belly pan, side engine cover and rear winglets, and a compartment ahead of the seat holds the charging cable.

What Powers the BRABUS URBAN E Fragment Edition

The drivetrain makes 27 kW, or 37 horsepower, and 475 Nm (350 lb-ft) of torque, with a 72-volt lithium-ion battery rated for up to 150 kilometers (93 miles) and a carbon belt to the rear wheel. Top speed is 120 km/h (75 mph). The release gives no battery capacity in kilowatt-hours and no curb weight, which are the two numbers a range claim needs.

Five riding modes cover Eco, Street, Sport, Nitrous and Reverse. Eco caps speed at 60 km/h (38 mph) and softens the torque curve. Nitrous is a ten-second overboost that overrides the active mode. Reverse uses electronic phase inversion at restricted torque, which is a fair thing to want in a tight parking spot. Starting is keyless, with a PIN code and a 2.8-inch LCD.

The chassis is the part a rider will care about: a fully adjustable 46-millimeter inverted fork and a CNC-machined rear shock, each with 100 millimeters (3.9 inches) of travel, plus Brembo brakes with a radial four-piston caliper on a 320-millimeter floating disc and dual ABS. Charging from 50 to 100 percent takes about 90 minutes, and empty to full takes three and a half to four hours.

The release calls the outlet a 220-volt household socket. In most American garages that probably means a dedicated 240-volt circuit, and it’s worth settling before anyone orders.

Price and Scarcity of the BRABUS URBAN E Fragment Edition

Brabus lists a base price of $50,000 in North America and 45,000 euros in relevant European markets, before taxes. Buyers don’t check out. They request one of the ten through Brabus. Ten is also a house number: the URBAN E First Edition is offered in runs of ten per color across four colors.

The capsule collection is how most people will actually touch this project, though there are no prices, sizes or on-sale dates yet. Limited electric bikes aren’t new to this audience either. The Beachman Electric Café Racer and the 500-unit Stark VARG SM Sköll run the same lane at different volumes.

The BRABUS URBAN E Fragment Edition Is an Object First

A 37-horsepower bike at $50,000 won’t win a spec-sheet argument, and nobody involved seems to want one. Fujiwara designs for himself, and Brabus describes its goal as touching people within a second of seeing the thing. Both are arguments about the first look, not the lap time.

Ten bikes won’t change how anyone commutes, and they were never meant to. The BRABUS URBAN E Fragment Edition is a motorcycle edited down to contrast: one black body, a few white parts, and a logo in the taillight. The sensible test is the one a collector applies. Would you still want it if it never left the garage?