A Cult-Favorite Affordable Brand Enters a New Era with Its Most Impressive Watch Yet

For watch enthusiasts in the know, Formex has long represented some of the best value in Swiss watchmaking.

The family-owned brand has a leg up on its competition thanks to its ability to manufacture nearly all of its components effectively in-house, as the brand’s owners also own Swiss-based manufacture Dexel, which makes cases, bracelets and clasps, along with Swiss dial factory Cadranor. Both of these facilities produce parts for big-name luxury brands, and they also do so for Formex at considerably lower cost.

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Essentially, Formex has been producing all of the major parts of its watches itself, except for one: its movements. In-house movement production is considered the most prestigious manufacturing achievement for a watch brand, and Formex’s reliance on third-party movement has been the sole knock against the brand. (Not that it’s a valid knock, but watch nerds are a picky bunch.)

Well, those days are over, as Formex has just launched its first-ever watch with its own exclusive manufacture movement.

Formex

Fully integrated

The vessel for Formex’s new movement is the Aria, a legitimate luxury watch that marks the brand’s entry into the crowded integrated sports watch space and is unequivocally its most impressive model yet.

I’ll begin by discussing the movement, as it’s clearly the headline feature of the Aria. It’s the Formex Calibre FX01, an automatic developed for Formex by fellow Swiss independent brand Horage. The FX01 is based on Horage’s K2 calibre and is exceptionally thin at just 2.9mm, thanks to its incorporation of a tungsten micro-rotor set within the movement itself.

Formex

The rotor provides a full three days of power reserve, and the movement features a unique flexible geartrain pinion that eliminates backlash when setting the time, a personal pet peeve of mine, allowing for more precise movement of the hands. The movement, like most Formex movements, is a COSC-certified chronometer.

It’s highly anti-magnetic, too, thanks to its hairspring, escape wheel and pallet fork all being made of amagnetic silicon. Formex’s in-house finishing of the movement is decidedly industrial and contemporary, in line with the brand’s aesthetic, and features galvanic black gold plating, laser-textured cutouts and hand-brushed bevels.

Formex

Outside of the movement, the rest of the Aria is pretty impressive, and naturally, is produced in-house.

The 40mm case is made of durable and lightweight Grade 5 titanium and measures a scant 6.9mm thick. It’s seamlessly integrated into the quick-release, tapering bracelet.

Both the case and each individual link of the serpentine bracelet feature a hand-brushed finish with mirror-polished chamfers. The dual-folding clasp offers a discreet microadjustment system that can be adjusted even while on the wrist and offers 3mm of travel on each side.

Formex

The matte brass dial is lacquered with a small-seconds display at 6:00 and applied hour markers. The rose gold-plated indices and hands are both filled with a custom, orangey Super-LumiNova, with the lume cantilevered so that it hangs over the edge of the indices and skeletonized hands.

Formex

Availability and pricing

Naysayers will point out that the Aria’s movement isn’t truly in-house, as it’s a modified version of a movement from Horage. But who cares? So many movements today, including alleged in-house calibres, are based on existing movements, so it’s really not that big a deal.

This particular version of the K2 is exclusive to Formex, and it’s damn impressive at this price point with its micro-rotor, COSC certification, fully silicon escapement, anti-backlash gear train and bits of hand finishing.

As for the watch itself, it doesn’t look quite like any other integrated sports watch on the market, which is a feat in itself. It does remind me a bit of the Moser Streamliner thanks to its organic flowing form, its snake-like, single-row bracelet and its cantilevered lume, but it still looks different enough to be its own thing.

As far as pricing goes, the Aria is definitely a step up for Formex at $7,900. That’s comfortably in luxury territory. Now, I would not categorize Formex as a luxury brand, and most of its offerings lean more into affordable territory, but there’s no question the Aria is a luxury watch when you look at the materials used, the level of finishing and the quality of the movement.

Once you take all that into account, even $7,900 feels like a bargain for what you’re getting, making the Aria still feel very Formex at the end of the day. The Aria is available now on Formex’s website but is highly limited in this initial production run, with just 100 individually numbered examples available in total across three colorways: Denso Blue, Selva Green and Ardesia Grey. Deliveries are expected to begin in September.

Formex

Formex Aria

Specs

Case Size	40mm
Movement	Formex Cal. FX01 automatic (Horage base)
Water Resistance	30m

• $7,900 at Formex

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