With so many mainstream, independent, and microbrands to choose from, the watch space feels like a dizzying experience.

Most publications that focus solely on watches require significant teams to cover the massive quantity of new watches launched each month, and as consumers, the choices seem endless.

At Professional Watches, the bombardment of new watch releases became so overwhelming that long ago, we switched to a format where we cover fewer brands to focus more on what matters to us. And yes, this typically results in a laser-like coverage of the most popular mainstream brands and models.

Mainstream Brands Are Desirable To Savvy Collectors

Some will call it boring, others will hate on us for not following the groupthink mentality the industry thrives on. Yet, there’s a reason the most popular watches become popular: they’re competitive in a way that makes them a better choice than comparably priced alternatives.

Curation vs no curation

Not to mention, if nobody thins the herd, then consumers suffer because if you cover every single release, how does that help someone who’s looking for recommendations? For instance, if you make a list of 75 watches you recommend in a specific category, there’s no curation in that; you covered every watch in an entire niche.

Furlan Marri seems to be more than just hype

That brings me to Furlan Marri. We’ve been hearing about this up-and-coming microbrand for what seems like forever, yet in reality, it was launched less than five years ago. Admittedly, we’ve avoided covering them until now, mainly because the microbrand space is so crowded, and as I said above, we tend to focus on the blue-chip brands. However, they’re clearly doing enough to stand out to the point where they deserve to be mentioned.

Smart case sizes equal happy customers

The newly announced Furlan Marri Disco Onyx Diamonds features a sleek dress watch case that measures 38 mm x 8.95 mm. And that matters to certain customers more than having automatic winding (which generally requires a thicker case), or other factors that take away from the design aesthetic and wearability. The case features a recessed crown, which makes it harder to wind, but it trades off function for form and improves wearability. So all you really sacrifice is a little bit of usability.

Not in-house but customized

The movement is not exotic, but it’s reliable and Swiss. Specifically, it’s a manually wound ETA Peseux caliber 7001, which beats at 3Hz, has a 42-hour power reserve, and 17 jewels. The movement offers nothing proprietary; however, Furlan Marri did add machine-applied diamond-polished bevels and a black-polished crown wheel and screws.

The dial is the star of the show with Furlan Marri

As the name suggests, the watch features a black onyx stone dial with applied, lab-grown baguette-cut diamond indices at 2, 4, 8, 10, and double diamond markers at 12. It’s as attractive as it is unique and, combined with the Art Deco aesthetic, has a swanky retro vibe.

Furlan Marri is really pushing up its prices

Is the Disco Onyx Diamonds worth over four grand? Anecdotally, every car — and now every watch — seems highly inflated, so it’s not outrageous in that context, although it seems it should be more affordable to my contrarian eyes. Even so, when I think about comparable-looking watches, Patek Philippes and Vacheron Constantins come to mind first, making the Furlan Marri Disco Onyx Diamonds, and other models they carry, look like relative bargains. If Furlan Marri is “biting” as some commenters suggest on Reddit, at least they’re biting from two of the best watchmakers in existence, and in a way that they’re distinctive enough they’ll never be mistaken as direct copies.

Yes, in my opinion, Furlan Marri is the best, or one of the best microbrands, currently available on the market.

Discover Furlan Marri’s latest watch, the Disco Onyx Diamonds ($4,345).

 

Photos by Furlan Marri.