2025 has marked the 25th anniversary of Formex, the independent, family-owned watch brand specialising in bold sport watches with industrial styles. Across the year they’ve released several landmark watches in celebration of this important milestone including the Essence Ceramica at the forefront of a new ceramic collection and the Space Ghost showing the beauty of meteorite. So, to finish out the anniversary year in style they’ve asked the question, what if we take the key features of those previous releases and fuse them into a single timepiece? Enter the Formex Essence Ceramica Dark Matter.
That might sound like an oversimplification but that’s really the case. It features a 41mm case in black ceramic and then a meteorite dial. Starting with the case, it has a brushed and polished surfaces in the characteristic Essence design featuring a smooth bezel and visible screws for that sporty, quasi-industrial vibe. It also has the much talked about ceramic bracelet with the world’s first ceramic micro-adjustment system making it easy to adapt to different outfits and conditions – useful for the winter period when you need to layer up.
On the wrist it has the reassuring weight of ceramic, which actually feels similar to the steel editions. However, ceramic is seven times harder than steel, making it more scratch resistant and durable. On top of that, ceramic is impervious to UV exposure ensuring that there will be no colour fade over time, preserving the rich black.
To pair with the black of the case and bracelet, the meteorite dial has been given a dark-nickel electroplating treatment that gives it a darker anthracite-adjacent colour rather than the normal bright silver of the iron-nickel alloy. The Widmanstatten pattern of random striations is plain to see, a naturally formed texture created as the metal alloy experiences extreme forces hurtling through space and the Earth’s atmosphere. The specific meteorite used for the dial here is the Muonionalusta, the most common source of meteorite in the watch industry.
In keeping with the Dark Matter theme of the watch, the central hands and hour markers are gunmetal grey, looking black under certain lighting conditions. The date wheel at 6 o’clock is also black. It’s the stealthiest meteorite watch I’ve seen, with a cool serious vibe. Thankfully it remains legible due to Super-LumiNova adding luminescence in low light conditions and standing out as white contrast in the light.
Turning the watch over reveals an exhibition caseback that displays the Soprod Newton P092, a COSC chronometer movement developed specially for Formex. It was designed with shock resistance in mind to match the Essence’s case suspension system to improve resilience and sportiness. It has a 44-hour power reserve provided by an automatic, skeletonised rotor. It provides a great view of the almost hypnotic balance wheel at 6 o’clock.
The Formex Essence Ceramica Dark Matter is priced at £3,850, which is the same as the Ceramica Skeleton edition. Considering that it has a full ceramic case and bracelet, COSC movement and meteorite dial, that’s pretty wild value. It’s not a limited edition though there is an annual production of just 100 pieces. I imagine the next target in their sights is to introduce alternative colours of ceramic alongside the core black collection, that would be the next step in expanding the range.
Price and Specs:
More details at Formex.
