Formex Essence Leggera Forty Three Carbon Review

I had never heard of Formex prior to starting Hourstriker two years ago. That being said, in those two years the brand has just blown my mind with the quality of their timepieces. I'm lucky enough to see everything from watches that cost a few hundred dollars all the way up to six figure masterpieces. While Formex pieces occupy the low to mid four figure range, in-hand these watches compare better to watches at the five figure level. There is a very good reason for this past them just making nice watches, and we'll get to that in a bit. By now I've reviewed a model from pretty much every collection Formex offers, so I decided to something a bit different this time. For this review, I decided to act like a consumer and ask Formex to send me the watch I would actually purchase from the brand.

Before we get into that watch, let's first go over a quick history of Formex. The brand was founded by Hans-Peter and Ferdinand Grädel in 1999 in Biel/Bienne, Switzerland. The brothers were both watchmakers that had a passion for extreme sports, in particular motorsports. Their goal was to create watches that were both high-tech and could handle the stress put on them by their adventurous lifestyles. Formex is actually short for the French "forme extreme", or "extreme shape".



By analyzing suspension systems in race cars and motorcycles, the brothers discovered that it would be possible add a shock absorption system into the case of a watch. This case suspension system would allow the case of the watch to flex with the movement of the wearer's wrist as well as absorb most of the impact from a hard shock, thus protecting the fragile mechanical movement. For the first fifteen years of the brand's existence, over forty models focused on this extreme engineering were produced.

A huge shift for Formex occurred in 2016, when the brand was acquired fully by the Granito family. The founding brothers were nearing retirement age and the offerings from Formex had grown rather stagnant. The Granito's already had a close relationship with Formex, since their watch component company, Dexel SA, had been supplying parts for Formex watches for many years. Raphael Granito had actually grown up on the factory floor of Dexel and was the one that persuaded the family to purchase Formex.

Raphael went on to leave his position at Dexel and become the new CEO of Formex. Dexel not only produced components for Formex, but they are also one of the leading component manufactures in the Swiss watch industry, producing parts for many of the top tier Swiss watch brands. Raphael saw this connection with Dexel as a huge advantage for Formex. Not only would Formex be able to reduce their manufacturing costs by not relying on third party component manufactures, but the brand would have full access to high-end prototyping, material development and manufacturing capabilities.



While Raphael did share a passion for extreme sports like auto racing and skydiving with the founding brothers, he did have much different idea of how Formex would sell their watches moving forward. The brothers used a traditional retail model for selling Formex watches, which was to rely on authorized brick and motor retailers to get their watches into consumers' hands. The problem with this model is that distributors and the dealers themselves needed a cut of the profits to make their money, in effect causing Formex to raise the final price of a watch. Raphael decided to do away with this business practice and shift Formex to selling direct-to-consumer through their website. When you combine this model of selling their watches with the brand's relationship to Dexel, you have a situation where Formex can sell incredibly high-tech and advanced watches at a fraction of what a traditional high end watch brand could. This is why a $5,000 Formex watch compares favorably to a $25,000 watch from a more established traditional Swiss brand.



Initial Thoughts

Now that I've gone over the history of Formex, let's now talk about the watch that I like the most in their catalog. The watch in question is far from the most expensive piece Formex offers, but in terms of material and design is the one that speaks the most to me. My favorite watch from Formex is the Essence Leggera Forty Three with the carbon dial. I actually reviewed the Essence Leggera Forty Three with the grey dial about a year and a half ago and was blown away with it. The one thing nagging me was that the watch didn't have the full forged carbon dial. I reached out to Markus at Formex recently and asked if there was a chance that I could be sent the full carbon version for review and he said of course.



I actually picked up the watch at the Intersect watch show being held here in Austin a few weeks ago where Formex was exhibiting. I also asked if Markus could send two additional straps after I picked the watch up, since I thought they would each drastically transform the look of the watch. So for this review I had the Essence Leggera on the stock black rubber strap, along with a grey fabric strap and a black leather strap with grey stitching.

When I looked over the Essence Leggera full carbon for the first time, naturally the thing that stuck out to me the most was the full carbon dial. I did really like the watch with the grey dial, but now comparing the two I feel the grey dial is a bit static and cold when comparing it to the super dynamic forged carbon dial. One of the things Dexel and Formex excel at are their ability to craft out of this world dials. In my opinion it's kind of required to have a Formex watch with a bold dial on it. In this regard the Carbon dial did not let me down and I feel really completes the package of the carbon bodied Essence Leggera.

The next thing I noticed about the Formex Essence Leggera was just how lightweight the watch was. We are now living in a world of Richard Mille's weighing 30 grams, so I applaud any brand that embraces the less is more approach when it comes to weight. Remember the Essence Leggera is a rather large watch with a case diameter of 43 mm, so that it only weighs 68 grams on the rubber strap and deployment clasp is crazy. Oddly enough, this is 2 grams less than the grey dialed Essence Leggera we had in previously. Unlike the Richard Mille, the Formex uses an automatic movement from Sellita that hasn't been purpose built to be lightweight and also has a large winding rotor. That they were able to keep the weight down on the Essence Leggera is very impressive to me.



The final thing that I took note of during my initial time with the Formex Essence Leggera was the deployant clasp with micro adjustments. I'm one of those people that has to wear a watch with a good firm fitment. I cannot stand when a watch is loose and slides around my wrist. This leads to me sometimes having to wear a watch slightly too tight. Another casualty of this is that I no longer can wear a watch on a bracelet stemming from years of wearing non-adjustable bracelets through brutal Texas summers. Even now with many bracelet watches offering micro-adjustments, the trauma bracelets have left me with stops me from every enjoying a watch on a bracelet.

Before having a Formex watch in for review, the thought of a deployant clasp on a strap having micro-adjustments would never have occurred to me. After experiencing the endless adjustability that the Formex straps offer, I find it hard going back to regular watch clasps and buckles. So much so that I have started to move some of my personal watches over to Velcro or Parachute style straps that offer fine adjustments. The clasp of the Essence Leggera has a built in sliding system that allows around 7 mm of movement in each pin position, basically allowing endless fine tuning to the fitment of the watch. It's a practical and useful innovation that is possible once again due to the connection between Formex and Dexel.





A Closer Look

The case of the Formex Essence Leggera is fully crafted out of an in-house developed carbon fiber composite. The look of the case is a matte black with no patterns like what you'd see on forged carbon or carbon fiber weave. The watch has a 43 mm case diameter and a lug to lug length of 49.9 mm. The watch weighs in at 68 grams on our scale and at its thickest point is 11.3 mm tall.

The Essence Leggera has a flush flat sapphire crystal with anti-reflective coating applied to both sides. Underneath the crystal clear sapphire is the stunning forged carbon dial. With the way Formex machines the forged carbon, each carbon dial is actually going to be unique, in turn making each full carbon Essence Leggera a piece unique. A very interesting aspect of the forged carbon dial is that it is very subtle. From distance the dial actually looks matte black. Up close or in direct lighting the dial just explodes and reveals the very intricate and organic pattern of the carbon.

Around the outside of the dial is a white printed minute track on the rehaut, with each minute being represented by a small hash mark and each five minute interval getting a larger mark. Formex uses hand applied indices on the Essence Leggera that have been mirror polished. These indices are then filled with grade A Super-LuminNova BGW9 which appears white in normal lighting and glows bluish green in low light. 12 o'clock gets a double index, while 6 gets a short index to make room for the black backed date window.



There are three centrally mounted hands on the dial of the Formex Essence Leggera being the hour, minute and seconds hands. These hands are also finished to a mirrored polish and the hour and minute hands are filled with matching Super-LumiNova. The hour and minute hands are done in an Alpha style, similar to more common sword hands. The seconds hand is long and slender and not lumed. Finishing off the dial is the Formex logo and branding at 12 o'clock and "Automatic Chronometer" along with "Swiss Made" at 6.

Moving on from the dial is the black ceramic bezel that has a brushed finish on top and polished sides. There are four cutouts in the bezel to make room for exposed case bolts. The use of ceramic further demonstrates the mastery Formex has working with high-tech materials. The black ceramic also compliments the matte black carbon fiber case nicely.

Looking at the profile of the case, you can see that there is a gentle curve to the Essence Leggera which follows the curvature of your wrist nicely. In this view, pushing on the back of the case shows how the case can actually rise a few millimeters off of the mid-case demonstrating the movement saving suspension system at work.



The right hand side of the Essence Leggera features a non-screw down black ceramic crown. The crown has thick scalloping and is easy to grip and adjust. The crown is both matte and polished resembling the ceramic bezel. Even without a screw down crow, the Essence Leggera still offers 100 meters of water resistance. This is enough water resistance to swim with, but the lack of a screw down crown means the watch really isn't suited for any kind of diving.

The automatic movement can be wound in the resting crown position. Pulling the crown out to the first position allows you to set the date and pulling the crown all the way out to the second position stops the seconds hand and allows you to set the time. Moving the crown in and out allows you to feel the strong resistance of the gaskets, alleviating some concerns about water resistance. Pushing the crown back in causes no jump in the minute hand either.

Flipping the watch over shows off the screwed down display case back held down by eight screws. The case back is crafted out of carbon fiber just like the rest of the case. This is yet another great example of how Formex doesn't cut corners when it comes to their cases. A lot of carbon cased watches will use either a steel or titanium case back paired with their carbon case. Also most will also use a rubber covered crown instead of something like ceramic. Formex using a carbon case, ceramic bezel, ceramic crown and carbon case back just proves how committed the brand is to creating a top tier product.



Important information about the watch is engraved around the case back bezel which surrounds a sapphire crystal with both sides once again coated with an anti-reflective coating. Through the display window you can see the chronometer grade Sellita SW200-1 Swiss made automatic movement. On top of the movement sits the partially skeletonized Formex branded winding rotor. The SW200-1 is a workhorse movement, but it is finished nicely in the Essence Leggera with liberal usage of perlage and blued screws.

The SW200-1 beats away at 28,800 vph (4Hz) and has a power reserve around 41 hours. The power reserve is a little bit on the low side, but in all honesty the Essence Leggera is the type of watch that will be worn daily, so more than likely it won't require frequent winding and setting. Even if the watch had another 20 hours of power reserve it wouldn't be worth writing home about. I really put value into a power reserve when it hits a minimum of 72 hours, but even then 5 to 7 day power reserves only really start to impress me as a feature. The SW200-1 inside of the Essence Leggera has been certified by the COSC as an official Chronometer. On our timegrapher the movement showed an accuracy of +2 seconds per day when averaged out over several positions, which is well within chronometer standards.



The lug width of the Formex Essence Leggera Forty Three is 22 mm. By default the watch comes on a black rubber strap which has a slight taper down to 20 mm at the carbon fiber deployant clasp with micro-adjustments. The rubber is extremely supple and required zero break-in to be very comfortable. The strap is double ribbed for a bit more rigidity as well. I also had Formex send the grey nylon strap which has a black leather backing as well as a black Italian leather strap with a grey leather backing. The nylon and leather straps were both supple like the rubber strap and were comfortable from the first wear.

All three straps featured quick release spring bars making switching between straps a breeze. The deployant clasp did require the usage of a spring bar tool to Swatch in between straps though. Each strap drastically changed the look and potential usage of the Essence Leggera. The black rubber strap is probably the most versatile of the trio and would more than likely be the way I'd wear the watch for the majority of the time. The grey nylon strap gives the watch an extremely sporty look and contrast so nicely with the all black look of the case and dial. Finally the black Italian leather strap dresses the Essence Leggera up well, with the grey stitching giving the strap just a bit more visual interest.



Finally there is the ground breaking carbon fiber deployant clasp. It's already impressive enough to have a clasp crafted out of carbon fiber, once again, most companies would opt for an easier to manufacture titanium or stainless steel clasp here. The real interesting part about the clasp is the built in micro-adjustment system though. Once you have sized the strap to your approximate wrist size using the two pin buckle, you can then use the micro-adjustment system controlled by a single pusher to move the strap in or out by 7 mm to get a truly perfect fit. Not only is the system extremely easy to use, but it's a feature that I feel every brand should start adopting in their clasps. Hey, I'm sure Dexel would be willing to offer similar deployant clasps to their costumers…



On The Wrist

If you were to list out the perfect specs for a watch that I would personally collect, the Formex Essence Leggera hits most of them. It is made out of high tech materials which I tend to collect being carbon and ceramic. The only other material I collect is titanium, but there is really no need for that in this watch. The Essence Leggera is a good size at 43 mm in case diameter and a hair under 50 mm of lug to lug length. The watch is also feather light at only 68 grams with the strap and clasp. Finally the dial is unique and bold being created out of forged carbon.



Even without having experienced time with a very similar Essence Leggera without the carbon dial, I would have had a good idea of how the watch would wear. Honestly the Essence Leggera just wears like a dream on wrist. I know I've mentioned before that certain watches disappear on wrist, but the Essence Leggera truly does. It's one of those watches that you never think about when it's being worn, it's so light that if by some misfortune it fell off, I might not even notice that it was gone for a while. A lot of the pleasure of wearing the Essence Leggera is due to its weight, but an equal part is also thanks to the excellent micro-adjustments on the deployant clasp. It doesn't matter if the weather is cold or hot with your wrist constantly changing sizes, you'll always be able to dial the right fit in with the adjustable clasp. You can also feel the slight flex of the suspension system when you bend your wrist. This also adds another small improvement to the overall comfort of the watch.

On my 7.25 inch wrist with a 55 mm flat area, the Essence Leggera fit my wrist perfectly. There was no overhang and the case of the watch took up an appropriate amount of my wrist. The leather backed straps as well as the rubber strap did great jobs of keeping the watch centered on my wrist as well. I wouldn't say I had a favorite amongst the three straps, but if the watch was in my collection it would probably spend the summer on the rubber strap and the winter going back and forth between the nylon and leather straps. All three straps are excellent choices and give the watch a much different character.



The completely black look of the Essence Leggera goes perfectly with my normal dress of a black t-shirt, shorts and sneakers. The black rubber strap and grey nylon strap in particular are great matches for my more casual lifestyle. The black leather strap does class the watch up a bit and then lends the Essence Leggera to more formal occasions. The two watches in my collection I wear closest to what would be considered a daily wearer would be the Porsche Design by IWC Ocean 2000 and IWC GST Aquatimer 2000 both in titanium on Velcro straps. I gravitate to these watches since they are both lightweight, in the 60 to 80 grams range, and can be endlessly adjusted on the wrist due to the Velcro straps. I do feel that the Essence Leggera could challenge those for daily rotation since it just such a treat on the wrist.

I use a simple test to gauge the how legible a watch is, which is trying to tell the time at just a glance while driving. In this test dive watches with their large high contrast dials and large markers do the best, while skeleton and complicated watches tend to do the worst since they value design over legibility. I was unsure of how the Essence Leggera would do since the watch is very aesthetics forward. The watch actually did much better than I expected since the nearly jet black background of the forged carbon contrasts nicely with the high polished hour markers and hands. While it’s not as legible as a dedicated diver, the Essence Leggera did extremely well on my test. Strangely though, on the carbon dialed version, I'd almost sacrifice legibility and have used matte or grey markers and hands on the Essence Leggera to create a more stealth look. Super-LumiNova is used very effectively on the dial of the Essence Leggera as well, making low light time telling a breeze.



I wore the Formex Essence Leggera on my daily boring everyday errands and the watch was a great wrist companion. It was never on the forefront of my mind and was only there when I needed it. When I wore the watch out on errands as well as out to dinner and drinks the watch pretty much flew under the radar. That's not too surprising since the watch is all black on either the rubber or leather strap. I did notice that the watch did get a lot more looks when on the grey nylon strap though. Formex doesn't currently offer a white rubber strap for the Essence Leggera, but I feel if they did the watch would just pop on it and be a real attention grabber. When I showed the Essence Leggera to friends while out, they were all impressed with how lightweight the watch was, as well as really liking the carbon dial and case construction. For the most part everyone also thought the asking price for the Essence Leggera was low to fair.



Value and Position in the Market

Speaking of price, the Formex Essence Leggera Forty Three with the carbon dial retails for $2,230 on the rubber strap and carbon deployant clasp. For that price you are getting a watch made fully out of carbon fiber and ceramic. The combination of carbon and ceramic not only keeps the weight of the watch down, but it also makes the Essence Leggera a super tough watch that could take pretty much anything you throw at it. The watch also shows off what Formex and Dexel can do when they team up in the manufacturing of the in-house carbon fiber composite case, forged carbon dial and ceramic bezel and crown. The Essence Leggera is powered by an extremely reliable Swiss made Sellita movement that can be serviced by any local watchmaker as well. Now is the time in the review that we compare the Essence Leggera to other watches with similar features and specifications to see how it holds up value wise.



Up first is the Wild One from Norqain which has a 42 mm case crafted out of carbon fiber. The Wild One is the first watch that comes to mind when thinking of watches to compare to the Essence Leggera with its carbon fiber case. We've had a few Wild Ones in for review and they are great watches. With the screw down crown, the Wild One does have 200 meters of water resistance and is powered by a manufacture movement with 70 hours of power reserve. The Wild One does come with a pretty high premium over the Essence Leggera though, costing nearly three times more at $6,150.

Next up we have the Pelagos FXD from Tudor which has a 42 mm carbon composite case. The FXD is more of a classic dive watch complete with a dive time bezel. The watch is powered by a manufacture movement similar to the Norqain and has 70 hours of power reserve. The FXD also has the same water resistance as the Wild One at 200 meters. The Tudor is also much more expensive than the Formex at $4,325.

Moving on is another diver in the T-183 from Squale which has a 42 mm case crafted out of forged carbon. The T-183 has a vintage dive watch look with the crown located at 4 o'clock. The T-183 is powered by the non-chronometer version of the Sellita SW200-1 movement found in the Essence Leggera and offers an exceptional 600 meters of water resistance. The T-183 is a bit less expensive than the Essence Leggera at $1,990.



Finally we have the SUB 300 Carbon from Doxa which has a 42.5 x 45 mm case made out of forged carbon. The DOXA has the traditional SUB 300 cushion shaped case which might be a bit divisive to some collectors. The SUB 300 Carbon is powered by a similar Swiss made automatic movement to what is found in the Squale and Formex. Being a dedicated diver, the SUB 300 Carbon offers a full 300 meter of water resistance. The DOXA is also much more expensive than the Formex at $4,390.

Looking at the above four watches, you can see that the Essence Leggera offers a ton for its asking price. All the watches are great pieces that I've spent a good deal of time with and would be hard to go wrong with. The Formex and Squale do offer exception values when compared to the much more expensive Norqain, Tudor and DOXA though. With the Norqain and Tudor you do get manufacture movements made for the brands by Kenissi that offer more power reserve, but that comes at a price. You also know that with in-house components manufactured by Dexel, that the Formex is outfitted with the best the Swiss watch industry has to offer.





Closing Thoughts

So in the end, is the Formex Essence Leggera for me? If you've made it this far into the review, I'm sure you know how I'm going to answer that question. Without a doubt the Essence Leggera is 100% for me. Before I get into what about the watch in particular makes it something I'd love in my collection I need to talk about Formex first.

With the Squale Master I just reviewed, I stressed that if you're a serious dive watch collector, you should have a Squale in your collection, given the huge impact the brand had on the development of early waterproof dive watches. On the same hand, I feel that any real collector should probably have a Formex in their collection as well. Even though Formex has been around for decades and basically re-launched nearly ten years ago, the brand is really just beginning to find its footing. Of just about any brand, I feel that Formex is sitting on the cusp of explosive growth and innovation. Looking at their recent full ceramic pieces is a great example of this, even more so when you see what full ceramic watches from other brands cost, especially when a lot of those brands have ceramic components supplied by Dexel. Now just seems to be a great time to get onboard with Formex to me.



Past that, the Essence Leggera in full carbon checks all the boxes of something that I look for in a personal watch. The watch would be a great daily wearing option to go with my Ocean 2000 and GST Aquatimer 2000, with its super lightweight construction and adjustable clasp. I love all the engineering that has gone into the Essence Leggera and I'm a sucker for high tech materials like carbon and ceramic. While the carbon fiber case might not be as obvious in its construction like forged carbon or carbon fiber weave would be, the forged carbon dial more than makes up for it in terms of looking special. The power reserve isn't the greatest, but for me even watches with 7 day power reserves tend to have to wound and set when I get around to wearing them again. I personally enjoy getting a watch out of the safe and winding and setting it before leaving the house.

While the Porsche Design and IWC both have the traditional grey case color of natural titanium, the Essence Leggera offers a nice change in pace to a blacked out look. I did recently sell my IWC Pilot's Chronograph Top Gun that was more of a daily wearer in black ceramic and now only have the IWC Big Pilot's Watch Perpetual Calendar in black ceramic which isn't exactly a daily wearer. So it would be nice to have a black piece back in the collection that I could wear more frequently. Also, like I said, a Formex should be a consideration to be in any serious collection… and I don't have one yet!



So would I then recommend the Essence Leggera to somebody looking for a unique yet tough sports watch? Naturally of course I would. Formex is in the unique, and enviable, position to have extremely close family ties to one of the top component manufactures in the watch industry. This gives them the ability to offer extremely high tech top tier timepieces at a fraction of the price that other brands relying on third party components could offer. The weight, toughness and water resistance of the Essence Leggera also truly make the watch a good "Go Anywhere Do Anything" (GADA) watch. The lack of a screw down crown would normally give me pause about taking the watch into the water, but the crown gaskets seem beefy when setting the time. By playing around with the strap options you can also dress up or dress down the Essence Leggera making it a great choice for a daily wearer.

There is also a lot of practically built into the watch, mostly being that it runs on a Sellita automatic movement that is a known and reliable workhorse that can be serviced and repaired locally without the need for it to be sent in. Formex also went the extra mile and got the COSC Chronometer certified version of the SW200-1 for the Essence Leggera. While any watch over $2,000 isn't exactly cheap, there is a ton of value baked into the asking price of the Essence Leggera. Formex is mostly direct to consumer, so it might be hard for you to see the watch in person. They do offer a 30 day return period and also participate in watch shows worldwide, so if you're interested in the watch it's not impossible to get hands on with one, which I would highly recommend.



I'd really like to thank Formex for sending us this Essence Leggera Forty Three in full carbon to review. It answered the questions I had about how much more I'd like the carbon dial of the Essence Leggera over the grey dial version I reviewed a while ago. Needless to say I've grown very used to having the Essence Leggera in the safe and will be sad to send it back to Formex. It is by far my favorite watch from the brand and I also feel the purest example of what they are capable of in terms of case and dial manufacturing. Even today Formex just released another exciting watch, so hopefully we will continue to review all the new and exciting releases from the brand.

For more information about the Essence Leggera Forty Three Carbon please visit : Formex



Technical Specifications

Reference Number: 0330.4.6399.910

Retail Price: $2,230

Case Size: 43 mm

Lug to Lug: 49.9 mm

Thickness: 11.3 mm

Weight: 68 grams

Case Material: Carbon Fiber Composite

Bezel: Black Ceramic

Strap: Black Rubber with a Carbon Fiber Deployant Clasp with Micro-Adjustments

Movement: Swiss Made Sellita SW200-1 Automatic COSC Certified

Functions: Hours, Minutes, Seconds and Date

Power Reserve: 41 Hours

Water Resistance: 100 Meters