Furlan Marri Tackle Mechanical Watchmaking for the First Time with Black Sector Ref. 2116-A

Last year Furlan Marri shocked the horological world with their debut Bicompax Chrono. Both the watch and the brand itself were created entirely remotely during the various lockdowns of 2020 and 2021 a feat of willpower that was rewarded with the GPHG award for Horological Revelation, for a quartz watch no less. Now though, from quartz beginnings they’ve moved on to fully mechanical watches courtesy of the new Furlan Marri Black Sector ref. 2116-A.

To be clear, Furlan Marri have gone all out on this transition. It’s the most extreme disparity between the old movement and the new one that there could possibly be. It’s not a case of moving from a Seiko meca-quartz movement, which is what they previously used, to a mechanical equivalent like a TMI or Miyota as you might expect. No. It’s not even one of the Swiss microbrand movement staples like ETA or Sellita. The movement inside the new Furlan Marri is the La Joux-Perret elaboré G100.

La Joux-Perret are one of the most prestigious calibre manufactures in Switzerland and the idea that your mechanical debut would be one of their elaboré grade movements is crazy. The G100 has an impressive 68-hour power reserve with a tungsten rotor, palladium coating and Côtes de Genève finishing. Plus the accuracy is +/- 7 seconds regulated in four positions. This is like a teenager who inherited their mum’s car going out and buying a Ferrari with their first paycheck.

Enough about the movement though, what about the watch that actually houses it? Well, the Furlan Marri Black Sector ref. 2116-A has a stainless steel case measuring a very vintage 37.5mm in diameter with ‘cow horn’ lugs. It has a simple round shape with plenty of quality finishing, even on areas that you don’t regularly see such as inside the solid caseback, which has perlage.

As the name of the watch indicates, the Black Sector ref. 2116-A has a sector pattern dial in black. What the means is there’s a crosshair design on the central portion of the dial intersecting with the central hand stack of hours, minutes and seconds. The finely grained design has been stamped onto the dial using electrical discharge production methods. Completing the appearance of the dial are periphery hour, minute and seconds scales with Breguet numerals.

The relative simplicity of the dial and case is very classy, it’s a great looking watch. However, there’s also the added benefit that by avoiding complexity here, the price of the piece isn’t too extreme. The previous Furlan Marri model was roughly £350, the Black Sector ref. 2116-A is £1,041 without VAT. That’s a sizable jump in price point, especially for a young microbrand. But you must admit it’s still very accessible for a watch of the calibre and it’s going to sell like hot cakes. Pre-orders are open from June 24 – July 4 with the first 1,000 orders due to be delivered in December this year and the rest following in 2023.