Hands-On: A Look At Furlan Marri, The Worst Kept Secret In Great Affordable Watches
If you‘ve run in certain circles of the watch internet (especially on Instagram), you’ve probably seen Furlan Marri’s early releases. The brand started with mechaquartz-powered watches inspired by some of the best chronographs in history – largely early Patek Philippe – made in limited quantities that sold out quickly.
The watches were incredibly faithful homages that brought things like the ref. 1463 “Tasti Tondi” and made them accessible to folks like me who dream of owning one of the most iconic watches but lack the hundreds of thousands of dollars required to get a foot in the door. Heck, even people that own a real ref. 1463 were adding a Furlan Marri to their collection as fun, wearable alternatives you wouldn’t worry about wrecking or ruining as an investment. But for most, these watches were an affordable way to wear something that was a nod to one of the “greats,” and you could actually get them. Well, kind of.
I always missed these limited runs. A lot of people did. They were announced and seemed to sell out before you even heard about them in the first place. Then the watches began to pop up on resale sites, often for four or more times their original price, and no matter how great they looked, that’s a hard pill to swallow for a mechaquartz homage. And since the founders swore never to make these models again, I felt destined to remain without tasting that Tondi goodness and the magic Furlan Marri had tapped into.
Well, no longer. Co-founders Andrea Furlan and Hamad al Marri took notice, too, and have slowly been rolling out a permanent collection for the brand. Among the options are three mechanical watches with many fun, distinctive design elements for those same vintage lovers that might have liked the early chronographs, offered in grey, white, and salmon sector dials. I got two of these – skipping over the salmon dial, which seems to be well-represented on the market lately – to see how they measure up against the FOMO that’s been gripping me since I saw my first Furlan Marri release. Spoiler: they’re great.
Essentially, the brand has taken many of the best parts of vintage watches, especially chronograph design, and combined them into dress-watch-styled offerings with mechanical central seconds movements but no chronograph function. It seemed to have done so without cutting too many corners or giving a feeling that screams “I’m affordable” when you handle or wear the watches, save for a bit of a squeak from a fresh and maybe slightly thin strap or a bit of wobble from the rotor on an affordable movement.
The watches do only cost CHF 1,250 (around $1,450 at the time of publication), so that helps level-set your expectations, but even then, when you open the box, it’s hard to not be impressed by everything from the fit, finish, and even packaging that gives you a sense that you’re getting more than your money’s worth.
Even the packaging feels more thoughtful than I often see at the price point.
The case measurements feel a little bit wonky, on paper at least – or at least it surprised me to read that the 37.5mm diameter watch I had been wearing for a few days was 10.5mm thick, something I mean with all compliments. That thickness seems like it might just be on the edge of imbalance for a dressier watch like this but with the “cows horn” lugs, the 46mm lug-to-lug distance helps the watch sit more balanced on the wrist.
Even viewed in profile, the watches don’t seem to sit high – and let’s be honest, 10.5mm isn’t all that thick – but the curved profile of the lugs can slightly emphasize that height if only visually because it lowers the attachment point of the strap and when viewed from the side the watch might seem to be sitting higher than it feels. The flip side is that profile gives a peek at the watch’s production number nestled between the lugs.
One of the things that leaped out at me when I finally got the watches in hand was how good the finishing was. While the white dial is by far the most legible of the two – and the most colorful, with blue text on the minute track and logo complimenting the subtly-blued hands –under the right light, the grey dial hits different.
In either case, there’s a lot of basics about the watch to love. The brushed bezel and stepped polished case sections are clean and classic (though the stepped section do pick up a bit of dirt and grime in short order). Then when you look at the watch from the side and you notice the brushed midcase that carries through to the brushed sides of the lugs which works really well with the polished top lug.
The production number of the watch between the lugs at 6:00 is a nice touch.
The side profile gives a better sense of the mix of finishing you get on the case, something that you don’t see on a lot of other watches at the price point.
You get a display caseback, which feels like a treat rather than a “take it or leave it, but better to leave it” option as most do at the price. Sure, it’s not the world’s best-finished movement. Still, the La Joux-Perret G100 movement does have better côtes de Genève and snailing than one might expect and a full tungsten rotor with palladium galvanic plating for better rotation and weight distribution. You don’t lose much when it comes to water resistance, which still is 50 meters. The movement also hacks, which seems like yet another bonus.
I mean… come on. Those Breguet numerals? Sign me up.
That’s all good and might add up to a fair watch for the price, but the attention to detail of the design is what gets me.
There are a lot of different metaphors that could describe all the little details the brand has used on these watches. For a vintage watch lover, I’ll go with the “Supreme Court” definition of a “vintage detail” – you know it when you see it. So when you see things like the crosshair on the sector dial, the applied Breguet numerals, and the outside track – one that, yes, is better suited for a chronograph – your mind both starts reaching for the specific reference you’ve seen these on before and simultaneously can process that it’s a whole lot of things rolled into one in a way that still feels like its own cohesive thing.
This is where I get into the little details that some people were probably tearing their hair out going, “how could he not see THAT?!” There are the lugs, which are very obvious and might seem like a rip-off of Vacheron Constantin. It’s not that simple. While we might associate “Cornes de Vache” lugs with one specific brand, there’s been a number of companies throughout history that have used the case shape, due in part to the fact that so many brands used the same case suppliers in that era.
The curve leaf hands are well-constructed for the price and draw from vintage Patek Calatravas, despite a dial that tries to have it all with a combination of dress and chronograph language. They also give depth that plays off those applied Breguet numerals that I can’t help but mention again.
Then there’s that step case I was talking about. A look from the back confirms the watch case is heavily inspired by one of the most iconic and important case designs from the legendary François Borgel, with the ten faceted sides to the case back. I love Borgel cases; chalk it up to another one of those things that you just become obsessed with when you study watches closely to collect the knowledge when you can’t collect the watch itself.
The curved leaf hands catch light in interesting ways.
If your legacy can live on 1/10th as well as François Borgel’s iconic case design, you’re doing something right.
While these details are fantastic, it’s not like Furlan Marri is trying to pull a fast one here and say they are coming up with something new. It’s doing something that’s been done before (in vintage watches and even in modern ones) but doing it from a good place, with good execution, and using its platform to highlight what it’s doing and where it’s drawing ideas from.
For instance, the brand mentions on its website that its watches are “imagined, sketched, designed and pre-prototyped (3D printed case) in Geneva, Switzerland,” which is “the same city of François Borgel’s workshop, who was among the greatest case manufacturer by the past (patent of the first waterproof screwed caseback with gasket in 1931) and supplied many watch cases that are iconic today.”
There are other details I could love or leave – the engraving on the rotor, the dual spring bar holes to allow curved or straight bars, and the reference printed at 4:30 on the dial, for instance – but you can’t tell me they don’t seem thoroughly planned out.
The brand is also transparent about where its watches come from. In some cases, the brand uses components from Hong Kong and Japan. It turns to Italy and France for straps and accessories. And its watches are assembled in Switzerland for mechanical movements and in Hong Kong for mechaquartz ones.
I didn’t mention it earlier, but the brand has also released a permanent collection of mechaquartz chronographs. Unfortunately, the designs feel a bit busy compared to the earliest releases, when it seemed to have caught lightning in a bottle. The new three-hand watches give you a touch of that, and even at a higher price point, it represents a massive value, especially in design and finishing.
It’s worth noting that the brand is flexing its muscles in other ways. It recently announced its Only Watch contribution, an incredibly complex, hand-built, and thin “secular perpetual calendar” with the help of Dominique Renaud (of Renaud & Papi fame) and young independent watchmaker Julien Tixier. I won’t go into too much detail as it’s worth its own story, but have a look.
The Furlan Marri Only Watch for 2023
With a ton of vintage watches from that era to draw design inspiration from – and many other creative plans on tap – my bet is we didn’t miss the best era of Furlan Marri, even if brands like this can often leave us with FOMO sometimes. These releases certainly won’t be going away any time soon. And as for the brand’s future, my gut says it’s only getting started.
Furlan Marri “White Sector” and “Grey Sector” three hands mechanical watches. 37.5mm diameter x 10.5mm high stainless steel case with 46mm lug-to-lug, with 50m water resistance. Finely grained sector-style dial featuring a stamped finish achieved by
electrical discharge machining. La Joux-Perret G100 caliber with hours, minutes, and central seconds with hacking. 4Hz frequency movement with 68-hours power reserve, with a full tungsten rotor with palladium coating. Two straps of various colors depending on the model with curved bars, with measurements tapering from 20mm to 16mm. Lugs have two sets of holes to accommodate straight or curved spring bars. Price: CHF 1,250.
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For more information on Furlan Marri watches visit the brand’s website.
Hodinkee
