Formex Essence Ceramica Skeleton COSC GT Review

I've had the pleasure of reviewing a few watches from Formex since we started Hourstriker just over two years ago. After each review I'm always astounded by how nice of a watch they produce especially when considering what they retail for. Formex is able to manufacture such high quality watches at reasonable prices since they actually are part of a component producer that makes high end components for some of the most respected names in watchmaking. This includes such specialized components as cases, bracelets and dials. So it's really no shock that Formex is a trendsetter and often the first to release radical new ideas in those components on their watches.

The Essence collection is really the core series for Formex and we have had a few of those watches in for review. The Essence series comes in a host of case sizes and materials that all feature the totally unique case suspension system that aids both in comfort and shock protection to the movement. While I loved the carbon cased Essence we had in for review earlier, today we're going to be taking a look at an even more daring case material used in the Essence line. Before we get into that, let's first go over a quick history of Formex.



Formex was started in Biel/Bienne Switzerland by brothers Hans-Peter and Ferdinand Gradel in 1999. The brand name was a combination of "forme extreme" (extreme shape in French) which nicely defines the original goal of Formex to produce watches that could accompany you on any adventure, no matter how trying it was. The brothers were obsessed with race cars and motorcycles so their early watches took much inspiration from the world of motorsports. One such innovation was the case suspension system which used a system similar to what is seen in car suspension to allow the case to flex to minimize the effect that shocks can have to the movement. While most of the watches produced in the early years of Formex featured this suspension system, today just the flagship Essence line features it.

For nearly the first two decades of Formex the brand focused on the traditional method of having retailers carry the brand for both sales and promotion. The problem with this method is that retail is a very competitive market and retailers often do not want to put the time into educating customers on brands they might not have heard of. For this reason, Formex remained a niche brand. Things changed in 2016 when Raphael Granito, whose family runs a prominent component manufacture, took over as the CEO of the brand.

Granito was quick to drop the existing retail model and transitioned Formex to being a direct to consumer brand. This instantly cut out the middleman and along with dropping celebrity endorsements allowed Formex to sell their watches at much more affordable prices. More money in turn was then put into product research and development. In 2018 Formex put their new Essence Chronometer on Kickstarter and reached their funding goal in only 30 minutes. This was a breakthrough moment for the brand and proved their direct to consumer business would work.



In the years since, Formex has expanded their collections to include field, dive and pilot's watches. Each model is radically different from the others but they all bring something fresh and unique to the niche. With Formex being so connected to a major component manufacture, many specialty components end up making it to Formex watches. Things like a strap deployant clasp featuring micro-adjustments, specialized stone and uniquely finished dials as well as high tech case materials are just some of things found in Formex watches that other micro-brands could only dream of.

Initial Thoughts

The watch we are going to be looking at today is probably the biggest statement from Formex in terms of their case, bracelet and dial manufacturing muscle. The Essence Ceramica was recently released by Formex and features a full ceramic case, bracelet and the world's first ceramic clasp with micro-adjustments. When the Essence Ceramica arrived, the first thing I noticed about it was the finishing of the black ceramic case and bracelet. I'm very familiar with black ceramic watches from Audemars Piguet and Girard-Perregaux and the finishing of the Essence Ceramica is on the same level. The watch is finished with a combination of vertical-brushed and diamond polishing, the end result is just nuts. When you move the watch around every surface of the case and bracelet catches the light differently and is a treat to your eyes. Just doing a simple wrist roll causes so many flashes of light from the expertly finished bracelet.

The next thing I noticed about the Formex Essence Ceramica during my initial time with the watch was the skeletonized dial. The watch uses the Sellita SW200-1 SC skeletonized automatic movement as its base. The openworked dial which is produced in-house then enhances the movement to really highlight its skeletonized features. Tremendous thought was taken for each of the dials brushed and polished elements to get the most visual effect from the movement beneath. Formex was able to do an amazing amount of skeletonization while still keeping the dial highly legible which is no small feat.



The final thing that I took note of during my initial time with the Essence Ceramica was a bit unexpected. I actually had a terrible experience happen when sizing a watch with a full ceramic bracelet fairly recently. When putting the pin back into the link I must not have completely aligned the pin to the hole in the link. What then ended up happening was me shattering a ceramic link on a very expensive watch. Formex knew that bracelet sizing on a ceramic bracelet could be devastating and actually created their own tool to help with this exercise. The tool basically makes removing and then inserting the pin back in pretty much foolproof. So much so that I wasn't the slightest bit scared to attempt removing and then adding back a link even after my last horrible incident with a full ceramic bracelet. Little things like this bracelet sizing tool shows just how Formex is thinking of everything when developing a timepiece.

Technical Specifications

Now that we've gone over a brief history of Formex as well as my initial impressions of the Essence Ceramica, let's now look at the technical specifications of the watch. The Essence Ceramic has a case crafted out of black ceramic with a case diameter of 41 mm and a lug to lug length of 47.2 mm. When sized to my 7.25 inch wrist the Essence Ceramica weighed in at 127 grams and at its thickest point is 11 mm tall.



The Formex Essence Ceramic uses a flat sapphire crystal with anti-reflective coating applied to the bottom of the crystal. It is actually beneficial to have the anti-reflective coating only applied to the bottom of the crystal since the coating is easy to scratch and more than likely would lead to unsightly scratches if also applied to the exposed top of the sapphire.

Underneath the crystal clear sapphire is the openworked dial and skeletonized movement. Around the outside of the dial is a black minute ring integrated into the rehaut with white printed minute markers. Text designating the Essence Ceramica as being a certified chronometer is also found here. Moving one layer down is a brushed and textured metal ring that contains the hour markers as well as the "Swiss Made" text.

Formex uses gold toned applied bar indices on the GT model of the Essence Ceramica we have in for review. Each hour gets one marker except 12 which gets a double marker. The markers are brushed and diamond polished to provide a strong visual presence. Formex deep fills these markers with Super-Luminova BGW9 Grade A which appears white during normal lighting and glows a strong bluish green in low light.



There are three centrally mounted hands on the dial of the Formex Essence Ceramica being the hours, minutes and seconds hands. The hands are gold toned like the hour markers and are also brushed and polished. The hour and minute hands are partially skeletonized and the tips of the hour and minute hands are coated in matching Super-Luminova to the hour markers.

The true dial of the Essence Ceramica is made up of the skeletonized Sellita SW200-1 SC. Through the openworked dial you can easily see the mainspring barrel, gear train and escapement. The movement has a mixture of brushed and textured finishes as well as grey and gunmetal coloration creating nice contrast with the gold tone hands and indices. The dial of the Essence Ceramica really has many layers to it and adds to its sense of depth.

Moving on from the dial is the black ceramic bezel holding the sapphire in place. The top of the bezel is brushed in finish while the sides are done in a high polish. The bezel is a great place to see the case suspension system at work. If you look at the profile of the case and then push on the case back, you can see the bezel lift up over the case by a millimeter or so. There are also four cutouts on the edge of the bezel for the exposed case bolts.



The case of the Essence Ceramica is crafted fully out of black ceramic that is brushed in finish. The chamfers alternately are done in a high polish which really makes the case stand out. The lugs of the Essence Ceramica also have a gentle slope to them and follow the contour of your wrist nicely. This should ensure that the watch wears well on a variety of wrist shapes and sizes.

The right hand side of the watch features a nicely scalloped screw down crown with the Formex logo on top of it. The screw down crown aids with the 100 meters of water resistance seen on the Essence Ceramica. For being a ceramic sports watch with a skeletonized dial and sapphire crystals on both sides of the case, 100 meters is an exceptional water resistance. Un-screwing the crown lets you wind the automatic movement in the resting position. Since there are no calendar functions on the watch there is only one crown position. Pulling the crown out to position one stops the seconds hand and allows you to set the time. Pushing the crown back in causes no jump in the minutes hand and no extra care is needed to get the crown to catch to be screwed back in.



Flipping the Essence Cermica over shows off the sapphire display case back that is screwed down. Important information about the watch is engraved on the bezel of the case back. Through the display window you can see the Swiss made Sellita SW200-1 SC automatic movement topped with a skeletonized winding rotor complete with the Formex branding done in blue. The movement is nicely finished with Geneva Stripes, perlage and sunray brushing.

The Sellita SW200-1 SC beats away at 28,000 vph (4 Hz) and has a power reserve of 41 hours. For the Essence Cermica Formex went with the Chronometer grade version of the movement which has been certified to run within the strict guidelines of being labeled a chronometer. These guidelines say a movement has to have an accuracy of between -4 to +6 seconds per day. On our timegrapher the Formex Essence Ceramica showed an accuracy of -1 second per day when averaged out over several positions, which is well within COSC guidelines.

With the bracelet attached the Formex Essence Ceramica almost has an integrated case look to it. In reality the watch has a 22 mm lug width and can accept leather and rubber straps as well. Formex has a host of great strap options that fit the Essence Ceramica if you aren't a fan of bracelets. Typically I'm not a fan of bracelets, but on the Essence Ceramica the bracelet almost seems necessary. The bracelet can be removed via a quick change system that makes strap changes easy if you want to experiment with other options.



The black ceramic case mirrors the case finishing wise with the h-link links being brushed on the top and sides with polished edges. When you rotate the bracelet in direct light the shimmer effect is amazing. Like I said earlier the level of finishing on the ceramic of the Essence Ceramica is up there with Audemars Piguet and Girard-Perregaux. There is a minor taper to the bracelet from 22 mm at the lugs down to 20 mm at the clasp.

In a world's first the Essence Ceramica features a micro-adjustable clasp fully made out of ceramic. The brushed clasp features the Formex logo and requires two pushers to be pushed in to release the clasp. There is a button on top of the clasp that allows the clasp to extend to several pre-set positions. To size the clasp down, you simply push the bracelet back into the clasp. The bracelet uses pins to set the links and Formex has created a tool to make adding and removing links safe and easy. This tool keeps the bracelet steady while the pin is driven out and then also holds the pin in position when it needs to be re-inserted. I have recently had a bad experience with sizing a ceramic bracelet using traditional watchmaking tools, so it's very nice to see Formex go the extra mile and make this process more streamlined.



On The Wrist

I'll get this out of the way first, I really do not like bracelets on watches. This comes from years of wearing non-adjustable bracelets through brutal Texas summers when it would be well over 100 degrees outside and then 60 or 70 degrees inside. This meant watches were always way too tight or too loose. To this day I still find it hard to get over this mental roadblock even with watches that have adjustable clasps.

Strangely I'm actually happy that Formex did not send any straps over with the Essence Ceramica so that I was forced to wear the watch on the bracelet. While the watch would have been impressive enough if it was just a ceramic cased watch on a strap, the bracelet really takes the Essence Ceramica to the next level. The way the bracelet catches the light is nearly unparalleled in the watch world and really completes the design of the Essence Ceramica. There also isn't too much of a weight penalty for being on a full bracelet with the watch only weighing 127 grams.



Naturally the quick and easy to use micro-adjustment clasp system made wearing the Essence Ceramica on the bracelet more pleasurable. I must have got lucky though hardly needing to adjust the sizing once initially set. We are going through a very hot period in Austin right now with temperatures reaching into the low 100s. Even with this heat the bracelet never became a bother on wrist. The bracelet did an exceptional job of keeping the watch centered on my wrist as well. Being a bit under 50 mm in lug to lug length, I was a bit nervous that the watch would favor one side of my wrist over the other, but that wasn't the case.

I wore the Formex Essence Ceramica for very extended periods of time and the watch never caused any wrist fatigue. Typically watches need to be under 100 grams to totally disappear on my wrist, but even being a bit heavier than that, the Essence Ceramica pretty much fell into the background when I wasn't thinking about it, which I loved. I found the watch to be an excellent wrist partner for running boring errands as well.



To test the legibility of a watch, I use a simple test where I see how easy it is to tell the time at just a glance while driving. In general dive watches with their large hands and hour markers do the best in this test while skeletons (like the Essence Ceramica) do the worst. Going into this test I wasn't expecting too much out of the watch, but it actually ended up shocking me. The dial, even though mostly openworked, of the Essence Ceramica is mostly grey in color and contrasts extremely well with the large white and gold toned hour markers and hands. This actually made quick time telling on the watch a snap. Also with the amount of lume used on the hour markers and hands, low light time telling was a breeze.

The aesthetic of the Formex Essence Cermica is mostly black and grey, so it went perfect with my typical dress of a black t-shirt, shorts and sneakers. While wearing the watch out to dinner and drinks the Essence Cermica received a ton of attention. The funny thing is that most blacked out watches tend to fly under the radar, but through excellent use of finishing the Essence Ceramica just shines. I noticed tons of people looking at the watch and even got a few questions and comments about it. Most people loved the look of the black ceramic along with the skeleton dial and movement. Also most were completely blown away by the price of the Essence Ceramica.





Value and Position in the Market

Speaking of price, the Formex Essence Ceramica retails for $5,500. For that price you're getting a case and bracelet crafted in-house by a top component manufacture in the industry. The dial is also expertly openworked in-house and really brings the skeleton Sellita movement to life. Speaking of the movement, the SW200 family of calibers has been around for a good while and is a dependable workhorse movement that in this case is chronometer certified and should be able to be worked on by most local watchmakers. Finally the Essence Ceramica plays tributes to the history of Formex with the inclusion of the case suspension system. Now would be a great time to look at other watches with similar features and specifications and see where the Essence Ceramica fits in value wise.

First up we have the Royal Oak Double Balance Wheel Openworked from Audemars Piguet which has a 41 mm case crafted out of blue ceramic. The Royal Oak is powered by an in-house automatic movement with 45 hours of power reserve. The Royal Oak only has half of the water resistance of the Essence Ceramica at 50 meters. The Royal Oak is much more expensive than the Essence Cermaica at $106,200 and is very hard to come by at boutiques and has an additional markup on the secondary market.



Next up is the Laureato Skeleton Ceramic from Girard-Perregaux which has a 42 mm case crafted out of black ceramic. The Laureato is powered by an in-house automatic movement with 54 hours of power reserve. The Laureato does have an impressive 100 meters of water resistance matching that of the Essence Ceramica. The Laureato is also multiple times more expensive than the Essence Ceramica at $52,000.

Moving on is the Fifty Fathoms Bathyscaphe from Blancpain which has a 43.6 mm case crafted out of black ceramic. The Bathyscaphe is powered by an in-house automatic movement with an impressive 120 hours of power reserve. Being a dedicated dive watch, the Blancpain does have a full 300 meters of water resistance and features a solid dial. Like the other watches we've compared to the Essence Ceramica, the Bathyscaphe is also much more expensive than the Formex at $23,400.

Finally we have the Ingeniuer Automatic 42 from IWC which has a 42 mm case crafted out of black ceramic. The Ingenieur is powered by an in-house automatic movement with 60 hours of power reserve. The Ingenieur also has 100 meters of water resistance like the Essence Ceramica. The IWC is more affordable than the other three watches, but still retails for nearly four times more than the Formex and doesn’t have a skeletonized dial.



Looking at these four watches you can easily tell how great of a value the Formex Essence Ceramica is. Two things become very obvious while making this comparison. First the other ceramic watches from top Swiss manufactures that also come on a full ceramic bracelet start at many times more expensive and just go on up from there quickly. Second the Essence Ceramica does not have an in-house movement, but in all honesty you aren't missing much accuracy wise. It would be very nice to see Formex one day offer an in-house or manufacture movement on their halo pieces, but the Sellita movements are more than enough if high watchmaking isn't the most important thing to the watch. I feel the Essence Ceramica is more a vehicle for Formex to show off their skill in case, bracelet and dial manufacturing. Also it's very hard to look at the Essence Ceramica and not be blown away with its value, especially considering that a replacement bracelet for some of the above watches would cost more than the retail price of the Formex.

Closing Thoughts

So in the end is the Formex Essence Ceramica for me? In all honesty I really think it is. Firstly I'm a huge fan of high tech materials for case construction. If you look at my personal collection the bulk of my pieces are crafted out of titanium, ceramic or carbon. While the lug to lug length of the Essence Ceramica is a bit lower than my preferred 50 mm, being that the watch is really meant to be worn on a bracelet makes the Essence Ceramica wear larger than it actually is. I feel that the watch might feel a bit too large if the lug to lug length was 3 mm longer. The finishing of the ceramic on the case and bracelet is just expertly done as well, really up there with the finest in the industry.



I'm also a huge fan of skeleton watches and love any time you get a view of the mechanics of the watch from the dial side. The way Formex was able to also use their dial manufacture to craft an openwork dial that accentuates the skeletonized Sellita caliber is just so well done. While I'm not typically a fan of bracelets on watches, even going so far to swap the iconic bracelet of my Porsche Design Ocean 2000 for a Velcro strap, I have to say I really enjoyed the bracelet on the Essence Ceramica. The bracelet really finishes off the design of the watch and is a feast for the eyes when exposed to direct light. The ceramic clasp with micro-adjustments also makes the watch easy to live with when temperatures drastically fluctuate. It would be very interesting to see how the Essence Ceramica wore on a rubber strap though and if I'd still prefer the watch on a bracelet.

Would I then recommend the Formex Essence Ceramica to somebody looking for a ceramic sports watch? There really isn't anything I can ding the watch for when comparing it to much more expensive rivals. Possibly the use of a Sellita caliber is the only "negative" the Essence Ceramica brings to the table. Many would actually see this as a positive since it is a reliable movement that is easy to work on and also keeps the cost of the watch way down. The Sellita also doesn't offer the longest power reserve, but other much more expensive watches we compared had a similar power reserve number. Other than that, you do get the legacy of the established centuries old brands with the other watches we looked at above, but they come with a price penalty of at least four times the retail of the Essence Ceramica. Also remember Formex is part of an ecosystem that manufactures parts for many of these established brands and what your finding component quality wise in the Essence Ceramica is the same as what is found on those much more expensive pieces. For all these reasons, I think it would be a very smart move to consider the Formex Essence Ceramica while looking for a full ceramic sports watch.



I'd really like to thank Formex for sending us this Essence Ceramica to review. Once again it has proved that the brand produces top tier watches and are able to sell them at a fraction of the price that similar quality watches go for. I'm honestly going to miss the Essence Ceramica and feel it fits into my personal collection very well. Formex seems to be innovating at a great pace and I really can't wait to see what they have in store for the coming months.

For more information about the Essence Ceramica please visit : Formex

Technical Specifications

Reference Number: 0336.9.6051.410

Retail Price: $5,500

Case Size: 41 mm

Lug to Lug: 47.2 mm

Thickness: 11 mm

Weight: 127 grams (On Ceramic Bracelet)

Case Material: Ceramic

Bezel: Ceramic

Strap: Ceramic Bracelet with Adjustable Ceramic Clasp

Movement: Swiss Made Sellita SW200-1 SC Automatic Movement

Functions: Hours, Minutes and Seconds

Power Reserve: 41 Hours

Water Resistance: 100 Meters