Hands-On: Salvatore Ferragamo F-80 Skeleton Watch
If I’m being completely honest, until fairly recently, I didn’t even know that Salvatore Ferragamo made watches. Founded in Florence, Italy back in 1927, Salvatore Ferragamo is likely best known to many people as a brand that produces shoes and leather goods, and I was under the incorrect assumption that they more-or-less exclusively produced these products. In my defense, shoes and leather goods do make up more than 86% of the brand’s revenue, but Salvatore Ferragamo also produces a wide variety of other products, including watches. Given that I had zero experience with any of Salvatore Ferragamo’s timepieces and had nothing but an open mind, I happily accepted the opportunity to check out the green version of the Salvatore Ferragamo F-80 Skeleton watch that recently came in for review.
The 41mm stainless steel case of the Salvatore Ferragamo F-80 Skeleton features a thoroughly modern overall design that offers elements of both the Audemars Piguet Royal Oak and Hublot Big Bang, with its angular integrated lugs and bezel with exposed screws. However, the watch isn’t an exact recreation of either brand’s design. Running the lateral length of the case are prominent grooves that add dimension and visual intrigue, while a signed push-pull style winding crown sits at the 3 o’clock location and offers access to the automatic movement that powers the watch. Fitted with six exposed screws, the bezel surrounds a flat sapphire crystal that protects the dial side of the watch, while a second sapphire crystal is fitted to the screw-down caseback, which offers a view of the skeletonized internal movement and helps provide the watch with 50 meters of water resistance.
Fitted to the angular integrated lugs is a strap that is intended to highlight Salvatore Ferragamo’s comment to environmental sustainability, and the color-coordinated band is manufactured using materials with a low environmental impact. The inner liner of the strap is made from a thin layer of FSC-certified cork, while the outside is made from post-consumer recycled PET fiber fabric, with the sizing hole covers constructed l from vegetable-tanned leather. Although the section of the strap closest to where it connects to the lugs is a bit stiff right out of the box, I’m fairly certain it would break in rather nicely after a few days of wear and use. Completing the strap is a stainless steel, double push-button deployant buckle that is finished with the brand’s signature double Gancini logo.
As for the dial of the Salvatore Ferragamo F-80 Skeleton watch, the central layer is a metallic green skeletonized surface that has been cut away in the shape of the brand’s double Gancini motif to reveal the skeletonized movement that resides below it. The “Ferragamo” name sits at the 3 o’clock location, and surrounding the central section of the dial are applied polished hour markers. Along the very edge of the dial is an angled rehaut that contains the minute track with cut-outs that surround each one of the hour markers. Mounted to the center of the dial are a trio of pencil-shaped hands, with the hour and minute hands finished with small luminous strips to help increase low-light legibility. All things considered, the finishing on the dial isn’t going to be winning any awards for its artisanal craft. However, it does offer a rather visually striking design, and the way that it incorporates the brand’s double Gancini logo into the skeletonized middle section helps create a cohesive overall appearance.
Powering the Salvatore Ferragamo F-80 Skeleton watch is the DP24 automatic movement. At its core, the DP24 is a skeletonized version of the ubiquitous ETA 2824 and as such, it runs at the usual frequency of 28,800vph (4Hz) and offers users a power reserve of approximately 38 hours. It’s worth noting that the “DP24” label isn’t something that Salvatore Ferragamo created for the sake of marketing, but rather the actual name of the movement itself. In the same way that the Sellita version of the ETA 2824 is called the SW200, the Depa version of this frequently used movement design is called the DP24, and the variation fitted to the Salvatore Ferragamo F-80 Skeleton watch has its bridges and plates cut away to maximize the amount of visible open spaces. Similar to the dial, the finishing on the movement isn’t anything revolutionary, but it is rather aesthetically pleasing and the movement comes fitted with a custom green finished rotor that matches the dial of the watch.
Although Salvatore Ferragamo will likely always be best known for its shoes and leather goods, the brand does produce a fairly diverse assortment of timepieces, and the F-80 Skeleton watch offers a fresh take on one of the company’s most popular models. Just like the strap fitted to the watch, the packaging underlines the brand’s commitment to sustainability, and it features a number of low environmental impact materials, such as FSC-certified cardboard, hemp, post-consumer recycled PET fiber fabric, and a bioplastic material that is 100% derived from sugar cane. Offered in either blue or green (alongside a pair of models with black ion-plated cases), the Salvatore Ferragamo F-80 Skeleton watch is accompanied by an official retail price of $2,195 USD, and it will be produced as a limited-edition model, although the brand does not indicate that production will be capped at a specific number of examples. At this price point, plenty of other watches with similar designs will also be options, and I’m not necessarily sure that the Salvatore Ferragamo F-80 Skeleton watch would be my number one choice. However, it’s still refreshing to see fashion brands taking the time and consideration to actually put Swiss-made mechanical movements inside their watches, rather than just doing whatever is least expensive and simply trying to capitalize on the widespread recognition of their brand. For more information, please visit the brand’s website.