ince its introduction in 2018, the Essence has remained the cornerstone of modern Formex. Its defining architecture and identity have remained deliberately unchanged because, time and again, they have proved themselves. The story began with the 43 mm Essence, brought to life through crowdfunding. In 2020, the collection welcomed its smaller 39 mm sibling. The all-black Essence Leggera followed in 2022, combining carbon fiber and ceramic in a lighter, more technical 41 mm expression. In 2025, the family expanded again with the Essence Ceramica, followed later that year by the stainless steel Essence 41.

Each new chapter introduced different proportions, materials, and technical advances without altering the defining architecture or identity of the Essence. The collection’s success could have been an invitation to stand still. Instead, it reinforced Formex’s resolve to bring every meaningful advance developed across the family to its best-selling case size.

With its roots in motorsport, Formex sees refinement as an engineering discipline in its own right. Good engineering is not measured by how often a product changes, but by the purpose behind each evolution. As in performance engineering, the most meaningful improvements are often the ones you do not notice at first glance: a screw-down crown engineered to work with the floating case, a bracelet clasp that allows quick adjustments directly on the wrist without visible gaps or added bulk, and a movement that runs more efficiently while delivering a longer power reserve.

“As each of these advances proved itself elsewhere within the Essence family, we knew it was time to bring them together in the Essence 39. None of these updates changes how the watch looks on the wrist, but together, they make a real difference in how it feels. It’s the kind of difference you appreciate more the longer you wear it,” says Raphaël Granito, CEO of Formex.

The screw-down crown adds another layer of security without altering the case’s silhouette. First proven on the Essence Ceramica Skeleton COSC 41 mm, its integration into the 39 mm case required Formex’s engineers to reconcile the screw-down mechanism with the Essence’s defining Case Suspension System, patented by Formex in 2000. The result preserves both the clean profile of the case and the 100 m water resistance expected of the Essence.

Beneath the dial, the new Sellita SW200-2 Power Plus caliber—launched earlier this year and initially installed in the Essence 39 mm Black Pearl—extends the power reserve to 65 hours while improving winding efficiency and shock resistance over its predecessor. Importantly, Sellita kept the frequency at 4 Hz (28,800 vph), preserving the rate stability behind the Essence’s COSC-certified chronometer performance rather than extracting additional autonomy by simply lowering the beat rate.

And on the wrist, a new butterfly clasp—first introduced on the Essence 41 mm Space Ghost Automatic COSC in 2025—allows the bracelet to extend or retract in 3 mm increments, for up to 6 mm of adjustment, without opening the clasp or removing the watch. Over the course of a day, temperature, activity and simple movement can all nudge a bracelet’s fit away from perfect — tighter after a workout, looser by evening. Building a bracelet that can correct for that is one engineering challenge; making the correction effortless enough that it doesn’t register as a task is another. Developed in collaboration with Dexel, a company under the same family ownership as Formex and a trusted maker of cases, bracelets and clasps for some of the most respected names in the Swiss watch industry, the new clasp’s micro-adjustment system turns what once required a tool and a steady hand into a flick of the finger that barely warrants a thought.

Three developments, now integrated into the Essence 39 as though they had always belonged there.

Each of the three dial options gives the Essence 39 a distinct character while preserving the design language that has defined the collection from the beginning.

Formex’s signature Blue dial returns unchanged, retaining the cool, technical character that has made it a mainstay of the collection. The new White dial eschews the previous gunmetal hands and indices for markers with blue accents, using the same rich blue already seen on the hands and indices of the Essence 39 Space Ghost. The result is a crisper contrast that gives the familiar white dial a noticeably different, distinctive presence. The new Bronze dial, shared with the Reef collection, brings a warmer and richer tone to the Essence line-up, shifting subtly between deeper and brighter shades as it catches the light.

Across all three variants, the construction remains unmistakably Essence. The signature horizontal grooves are individually CNC-milled directly into each dial, creating precise lines that add depth and reveal changing reflections as the wrist moves. The hand-applied indices are paired with faceted hands, both featuring brushed surfaces and mirror-polished edges. The contrast between the finishes allows the hands and markers to remain clearly defined while introducing flashes of light from different angles.

Both the hands and indices are deep-filled with BGW9 Super-LumiNova for clear readability in low light. At 6 o’clock, the beveled date window, a design detail found throughout the Formex collection, is more than it appears: milling a crisp, consistent bevel around the aperture without disturbing the dial’s surrounding geometry demands true precision, and the result is a window that reads cleanly from varied angles, without casting a shadow on the date numerals. The date wheel itself is color-matched to the dial, letting the date display sit naturally within the overall composition.

Each dial combines CNC machining, contrasting surface treatments and layered finishing. The result is not simply a choice between three colors, but three distinct expressions of the same watch, familiar in architecture, individual in character and subtly changing with the light.

The three upgrades reinforce what the Essence has stood for since its introduction: a watch designed, engineered, and built to move effortlessly between settings without compromise, from office to travel to sport, and from casual to formal. In short, the essence of a go-anywhere, do-anything watch.

“The Essence was always meant to be a watch you put on and simply know feels right, all day, wherever you are and whatever you’re doing. It distills everything that makes a Formex a Formex: engineering, precision, design, and attention to the smallest detail. Bringing the most meaningful advances from across our collections to the Essence 39 makes it more capable and more comfortable, without changing the character that has made it our most popuar size,” says Raphaël Granito, CEO of Formex.

The Essence remains the only current Formex collection to feature the Case Suspension System and—more than the brand’s bestseller—has become the clearest expression of its engineering philosophy. It was the first watch developed after Raphaël Granito took over Formex in 2016, setting the direction for the modern brand: engineering made tangible, ergonomics treated as a performance criterion, and technical solutions developed not for their own sake, but for what they contribute to the experience of wearing the watch.

It is a mindset with roots in motorsport, where a successful machine is not automatically a finished one. Progress comes from testing, learning and continuously refining what already works—not from change for change’s sake.

CEO Raphael Granito sums it up like this: “The Essence 39 was already our best-selling watch. We could have left it exactly as it was. But as the crown, movement and clasp evolved and proved themselves across the Essence family, bringing them together in the 39 became the logical next step. This isn’t about replacing what came before. It’s about applying everything we’ve learned while preserving what made the watch successful in the first place. Staying true to your essence doesn’t mean standing still.”

TECHNICAL SPECIFICATIONS

Collection & SKU:

• 0339.1.6631: Formex Essence Automatic COSC 39 mm - Blue
• 0339.1.6613: Formex Essence Automatic COSC 39 mm - Alpine White
• 0339.1.6681: Formex Essence Automatic COSC 39 mm - Radiant Bronze

• .101 on stainless steel bracelet
• .710 on green leather strap incl. deployant clasp
• .711 on black leather strap incl. deployant clasp
• .715 on black leather strap/gold stitching incl. deployant clasp
• .722 on brown leather strap incl. deployant clasp
• .744 on blue leather strap incl. deployant clasp
• .800 on off-white nylon strap incl. deployant clasp
• .810 on black nylon strap/white stitching incl. deployant clasp
• .811 on black nylon strap incl. deployant clasp
• .815 on black nylon strap/gold stitching incl. deployant clasp
• .831 on white nylon strap/black stitching incl. deployant clasp
• .833 on blue nylon strap incl. deployant clasp
• .866 on red nylon strap incl. deployant clasp
• .910 on black rubber strap incl. deployant clasp

• Dimensions: 39 mm diameter, 10.5 mm height, 20 mm lug width, 45.5 mm lug-to-lug

• Weight: 66 grams case only 139 grams on stainless steel bracelet

• Water Resistance: Waterproof to 100 meters / 330 feet

• Case: Stainless steel 316L with titanium grade 2 container

• Glass: Scratch-resistant sapphire crystal with anti-reflective coating on the inside

• Case back: Stainless steel 316L and scratch-resistant sapphire crystal with anti-reflective coating

• Dial: Available in signature Blue, Alpine White with blued hands and indices, and Radiant Bronze with gunmetal-finished hands and indices, each dial features individually CNC-milled horizontal grooves, a beveled date window at 6 o’clock and a color-matched date wheel.

• Hands: Hands, applied indices, and applied Formex logo, vertically brushed and mirror-polished bevels. Indices and hands are deep-filled with Super-LumiNova® BGW9.

• Movement: Swiss Made Sellita SW200-2 Power+ (self-winding) Automatic (Chronometer grade), officially certified by COSC. 26 jewels and glucydur balance wheel. Date display. Custom-built skeleton rotor with blued screws. 65 hours power reserve.

• Bracelet/Strap Clasps: Nylon, leather & rubber straps with curved quick-release spring bars, carbon fiber deployant clasp with patented on-the-fly gradual Micro-Adjustment System, offering 7 mm of adjustment across six micro-steps. Solid-link stainless steel bracelet with built-in quick release and patented on-the-fly Micro-Adjustment System with 0, 3 and 6 mm adjustment positions. All Essence straps and the bracelet taper to 18 mm and can be changed by hand without the use of tools. The carbon fiber deployant clasp can be changed without tools and can be used with all Essence 39 mm nylon, leather and rubber straps.

• Price: On nylon/leather/rubber strap incl. deployant clasp: CHF 1,470.00 / On stainless steel bracelet: CHF 1,570.00

• International shipping, free 30-day returns and a three-year international warranty are included. Prices include duties and tariffs for deliveries to the United States, and all duties and taxes for deliveries to the UK, Australia, New Zealand, Switzerland and the European Union.

• Availability: Available for order beginning August 27th 2026 at 9AM Swiss time (CEST, UTC+2). Shipments are expected to commence in October 2026.

• Available on the Formex Online Boutique and at select local partners.