Furlan Marri Remakes Iconic Disco Volante Shape With Three Groovy New Watches; G-Shock's New Summer Entry Has An Iridescent Look; Unimatic Has A Fresh Look With Morgan; Piaget Gets Rainbow Bezel

Hey friends, welcome back to It’s About Time. It just might be me, but it seems that Furlan Marri has a different approach to making watches than other microbrands. They started off with a very interesting vintage-inspired watch but they are headed for something much more complicated than simple watch recreations. I can’t wait to see where it takes them. A friendly reminder that I revamped the entire Patreon and am writing daily articles there as well. Today we have Watch School Wednesday in which we go back to basics.

In this issue:

• Furlan Marri Remakes An Iconic Shape With The New Disco Volante Trio

• G-Shock Has An New Entry For A Summer Watch With The Beach Time Lapse Collection

• Unimatic Gets A Very Fresh Look With Their New U2-MMC Made With Morgan Motors

• Piaget Gives The Already Extravagant Gold Piaget Polo Date A Rainbow Precious Stone Bezel

Today’s reading time: 9 minutes

👂What’s new

1/

Furlan Marri Remakes An Iconic Shape With The New Disco Volante Trio

The Disco Volante is one of those iconic watch shapes that you wither adore or can’t stand. Meaning “flying saucer” the design has been around since the 1930s, but most that come to mind are very groovy examples from the late 1950s and early 60s. This was the perfect combination of classy Art Deco and futuristic space-age design and it was embraced by everyone - from Movado through Omega and Universal Genève, all the way up to AP (of course, designed by Gerald Genta), Vacheron and Patek Philippe. The proposition was simple - a fully round case, a broad bezel and hidden lugs and crown. It looked almost alien on wrist and was a genre of watches that has since nearly completely disappeared. And it’s the exact genre that small upstart brand Furlan Marri decided to revive with the new and very appealing Furlan Marri Disco Volante.

Furlan Marri is a really young brand. Like, really young. They are in their third year of existence. And yet, they have put out so much cool stuff, I would easily guess they have been around for at least a decade. Launched in 2021, Furlan Marri has focused on bringing some of the best vintage designs into the modern era, first with a mecha-quartz powered vintage-like chronograph and later with a sector dial that reached back to the 1940s for inspiration. So while certainly unexpected, a modern Disco Volante makes perfect sense for Furlan Marri. However, it should also be said that Furlan Marri is positioning themselves as a very unique microbrand. By al standards they are still a microbrand, but they also have their sights aimed quite high. That’s why their entry into the Only Watch auction, a completely bespoke perpetual calendar that was expected to sell for at least CHF 30,000, was such a huge shock. Can’t wait to see what they have in store.

But before we see what’s next, we have the Disco Volante. The modernisation of the iconic shape included Furlan Marri enlarging the stainless steel case a bit. But don’t worry, it’s still not large. It measures 38mm in diameter and seeing as how it has hidden lugs, it also means that it’s 38mm tall, which is surely an interesting look on wrist. Combine that with a thickness of 8.95mm and this is destined to be quite a nice wearing watch. On top is a large and stepped bezel that hides the lugs and has a cutout on the right side to house the crown. From photos it seems that there’s a box style sapphire crystal that slightly protrudes from the case. The bezel is fully polished while the case gets a brushed ring. Water resistance is an expected 50 meters.

The dial has an interesting mix of what made Disco Volante watches great and play on previous Furlan Marri models. There’s a lot of roundness and sectors on this dial, to match the case. There’s a ring on the periphery for the minutes, another ring for the applied hour markers at 3, 9 and 12 o’clock, and a small seconds sub-dial at 6 o’clock. But it’s not just color that separates the various sectors. In a hypermodern twist, Furlan Marri places a strip of Super-LumiNova between the hour ring and the small seconds counter. The hands are also lumed, Old Radium SLN on the Havana Disco and Disco Verde variants, and sky blue SLN on the Disco Celeste. As the names of the colorways might suggest, the Havana Disco dial gets a brown outer part of the dial and a salmon centre part, the Disco Celeste is a combination of blue on the outside and white in the center, while the Disco Verde is green on the outside and cream on the inside.

Inside, a familiar movement, the manual-winding Peseux 7001 calibre which I had a chance of using in the Baltic Prismic which I reviewed (it’s still on the Patreon just for subscribers who get early access, it will be available for all next week) recently. It’s a super thing movement that measures just 2.5mm tall, beats at 21,600vph and has a power reserve of 42 hours. Furlan Marri also decorated the movement significantly with Côtes de Genève and hand-finished, diamond-polished bevels, while the crown wheel and screws are mirror-polished and chamfered. The watch comes with two leather straps, one that matches the outside color of the dial and one that matches the inside, which is a pretty nifty idea.

The new Furlan Marri Disco Volante is available for pre-order now and shipping is expected in September of this year. The one thing that might not be great about it is the price. This is obviously a well made watch with pretty incredible decorations on an interesting movement, so it’s up to you to decide if it’s worth CHF 2,500 to you. See more on the Furlan Marri website.

2/

G-Shock Has An New Entry For A Summer Watch With The Beach Time Lapse Collection

A Casio G-Shock is already a perfect watch for the beach. It’s rugged, it’s waterproof and comes in bright colors that are perfect contrast to the blue of the sea. Doubling down on that purpose, G-Shock is releasing the Beach Time Lapse Collection, with a clear intention. The collection is made up of six watches in two case colors and all with the same and really funky looking iridescent crystals on top.

The two colorways are both made up of three models, the iconic square DW-5600, the “Casioak” GA-2100, and the GA-110 with its large distinctive case. The first three come in a bright white case with a white strap, while the other three have a really cool translucent grey case and strap. These are not necessarily all that revolutionary, but what is new is the glass that covers the dials which gets a special vapor deposition process. This finish reflects various hues, creating an iridescent effect that ranges from blue to yellow, and constantly shifting.

The functions are exactly what you would expect from G-Shock. Shock resistance, 200 meter of water resistance, LED lighting, a 1/100-second stopwatch and a countdown timer, as well as various alarms, calendars, timers, and accuracy to +/- 15 seconds per month.

The G-SHOCK Beach Time Lapse Collection is available now and prices are $140 for the white GA110TL-7A, $110 for the white GA2100TL-7A, and $110 for the white DW5600TL-7. The grey GA110TLS-8A is 150$, the grey GA2100TLS-8A is $120, and the grey DWS5600TLS-8 is also $120. See more on the G-Shock website.

3/

Unimatic Gets A Very Fresh Look With Their New U2-MMC Made With Morgan Motors

Morgan isn’t exactly selling cars. I mean, sure, they have wheels (not always four), an engine and a transmission, and when you turn it on and press the rightmost pedal it will propel you forwards. But it’s not a car in the traditional sense of a car. I don’t think a single of their models has a roof, I’m pretty sure that two is the maximum number of seats you might find in them, and it seems that the purpose of a Morgan car is not to be a car, but to sell you a feeling. With their incredibly retro designs, Morgan puts you into an era, creates a character for you, while providing the bare minimum of what a car should be. And yet, they are incredibly fun contraptions that people spend tens of thousands of their money on and I completely understand it.

Interestingly, the Italian watch microbrand Unimatic is very similar to Morgan. Their diving watches aren’t particularly useful for diving as they lack the precision markings on the bezel, while their chronographs suffer the same fate when you want to time something precisely. Unimatic sells you the feeling of being a diver or a race car driver that has to time a lap. But they do so in a really fantastic way, with incredible designs and solid construction. So you can see how they are similar to Morgan. You can also see why a collaboration between Unimatic and Morgan makes so much sense. And, most ironic of all, this is perhaps the furthest Unimatic has gone away from their design language and I love it.

The U2-MMC comes in their U2 case which is most reminiscent of a classic field watch, but with more angular surfaces. It measures 38,5mm wide, 13,75 mm thick and has a 47.5mm lug to lug. While that height measurement is pretty decent, keep in mind that this watch has hardly any lug length, so it might wear a bit large. And while the thickness also sounds significant, the watch has a 2.7 mm thick ultra double-domed sapphire crystal, making the actual case much thinner. The finish on the watch is fully brushed, giving an even more industrial look. Water resistance is 300 meters.

Then we move on to the dial, which is just incredible. I can’t think of a single other Unimatic dial that was such a departure from their usual design language. Gone are the simple, somewhat militaristic, hands and indices. Instead, you get a glossy blue-grey highly polished dial, with a slightly ornate seconds track on the edge, while the hands are gray ghost ladder phantom hands and a copper-finished reverse lollipop second hand with a glossy cool gray tip.

Inside the watch is a slight disappointment. While the U2 model usually houses the respectable Sellita SW200, this version is powered by the ubiquitous, but not particularly high-quality, Seiko NH35A automatic movement. It beats at 21,600vph and has a 41 hour power reserve. The watch comes on two straps, one made out of biscuit colored pebble leather and the other black, both of which are used to make Morgan seats.

The Unimatic x Morgan U2-MMC is limited to 80 pieces and available now for £562. You can see more on the Morgan website.

4/

Piaget Gives The Already Extravagant Gold Piaget Polo Date A Rainbow Precious Stone Bezel

Watch brands often get made fun of for trying to find even the most tangential excuse to celebrate an anniversary. I’m pretty sure that I saw some brand celebrating their 65th anniversary. Happy birthday, but it’s not that significant a milestone to warrant a huge party, unless you’re planning on retiring. On the other hand, this year marks the 150th anniversary of Piaget, which is quite the accomplishment. On top of that, Piaget has been on quite a roll these past few years, introducing amazing new models and reviving some brilliant classics. One of their mainstays is the Piaget Polo Date 36 mm which now gets both a rose gold case and a gemstone rainbow bezel. Woah.

Like I said, the model they used is a 18k rose gold Piaget Polo in the 36mm configuration. It comes in the recognisable cushion shape, with sapphire crystals on top and bottom, and an overall brushed finish. It even gets to keep quite a decent water resistance of 50 meters. But everybody is here for that bezel which comes up to 3 carats of gemstones. In total it contains 17 trapeze-cut gems with 7 sapphires (approx. 0.45 ct), 6 purple sapphires (approx. 0.38 ct), 5 rubies (approx. 0.30 ct), 4 pink sapphires (approx. 0.22 ct), 6 spessartites (approx. 0.36 ct), 6 green tsavorites (approx. 0.30 ct) and 6 citrines (approx. 0.25 ct). They are set in a rainbow pattern, so each gem shows a color transition to the next, making a full round around the dial.

But you can’t have that case and not pay any attention to the dial. It’s made out of mother-of-pearl with a “Decor Palace” pattern, a gold engraving technique Piaget has been using since the 60s. Of course, the hour markers are also baguette-cut gemstones, made up of 2 sapphires, 2 purple sapphires, 2 rubies, 1 pink sapphire, 1 orange sapphire, 2 green tsavorites and 2 citrines.

Inside is the thin caliber 500P1 which gets a 40 hour power reserve. Of course it’s highly decorated with circular Côtes de Genève, a circular grained plate, and a beveled bridge, along with blued screws and a slate grey oscillating weight with an engraved Piaget Coat of Arms. The watch comes on a 18k rose gold bracelet.

Piaget says this watch is individually numbered, but doesn’t say if it’s limited to a certain number. They also don’t have the watch on their website or give their price, but it should be somewhere in the neighbourhood of €144.000. Keep an eye out on the Piaget website if it does pop up on there.

🫳On hand

Our selection of the best reviews we stumble upon

1/

A review of the Victorinox Dive Pro Automatic Quartz and Automatic

2/

Hands on with the Vacheron Constantin Traditionnelle Tourbillon Chronograph Excellence Platine

3/

A review of the Marathon Jeep Rubicon GSAR 41mm

⚙️Watch Worthy

A look at an off beat, less known watch you might actually like

The Beaufort Seatrekker — A Big-Hearted Dual-Crown Diver From New Zealand

The print is white and crisp in a clean-cut and modern font. It beats fauxtina for legibility, which is a good idea on a relatively busy dial. The inner bezel moves smoothly and confidently, which cannot be said for all watches of this style. And I confess that after spending a night with the Seatrekker (don’t tell the wife), the C3 lume lasts for hours. All this sits in a well-appointed tonneau case with a slim, beveled edge that follows the lug shape. This is a big plus worth the production expense, so bravo to Beaufort. There is also a scalloped base to the flanks, and the sapphire window on the rear shows off a nice machine-decorated movement. During a couple of days with me, it ran well at only about +5–10 seconds per day, which is another big plus.

Read the whole review on Fratello

⏲️Wait a minute

A bunch of links that might or might not have something to do with watches. One thing’s for sure - they’re interesting

• “THE NEW SATANIC PANIC,” blares the August cover of Harper’s. “Exorcism in the age of TikTok.” What you’ll really find is Sam Kestenbaum’s behind-the-scenes account of working a tent revival in Tennessee—a fascinating read that’s gonzo and empathetic at the same time. Greg Locke learned how to court online outrage as a pastor in the 2010s, but he really hit his stride during the pandemic; now, he and his like-minded “Demon Slayers” hold events of mass exorcism, in which they drive demons from the faithful with one hand and sell merch with the other.

• In 2007, a gasoline truck crashed on the MacArthur Maze, a high-trafficked tangle of multiple freeways in Oakland. The explosion from the crash melted the overpass. In this compelling story for Popular Mechanics, Mitch Moxley recounts how Clinton “C.C.” Myers, a construction boss known for high-speed emergency bridge repair, took on the challenging job and rebuilt this section of the freeway in only 26 days.

• The title here says it all: How To Survive 3 Years In North Korea As A Foreigner.

👀Watch this

One video you have to watch today

Again, production value on YouTube never ceases to amaze me, even when it’s from a major publication like Bloomberg. In 2021, a research cable off the coast of Norway was severed. It may have been accidentally snagged by a fishing vessel, but analysts allege it may be part of a wider pattern of hidden Russian sabotage.

💵Pre-loved precision

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-Vuk