The Furlan Marri Disco Volante revives a retro-futuristic case design in a more accessible, adventurous format
Jamie WeissIt’s a bird! It’s a plane! No, it’s the new Furlan Marri Disco Volante! The fan-favourite Swiss independent brand, known for its tasteful homages of classic vintage timepieces, has long been a champion of traditional watch designs. However, their latest creation – a take on a “Disco Volante” – pays homage to one of the most radical watch formats of the 20th century, which despite its roots in the Art Deco movement, remain some of the most striking and forward-thinking watch designs ever devised.
One of the great pleasures I’ve had since joining the Time+Tide team has been the opportunity to get to know some of the watch industry’s most exciting and interesting people. One of those people has been Andrea Furlan of Furlan Marri, as well as the rest of his and Hamad Al Marri’s team. Andrea is an absolute gent: softly spoken but incredibly passionate about watchmaking. Andrea and Hamad’s approach to their namesake brand is deliberate, thoughtful, and fundamentally community-focused. They’re connoisseurs of watch design and history and they have a proven track record of making watches enthusiasts love. But does their latest creation continue the brand’s winning streak?
When Andrea visited us at our Discovery Studio in Melbourne earlier this year in January for our Time+Tide 10th anniversary celebrations, he let us know that he was working on something big – but kept schtum about it. Later in April, when we were in Geneva for the fair season, he quietly showed us a prototype of the watch we’re discussing today – and it was one of the most exciting things we saw that week.
A few months later, Furlan Marri has billboards all around Geneva and even on New York’s Times Square alluding to this watch, boldly teasing “The next Furlan Marri will be…” alongside some very Asimov, pulp fiction-esque graphics. Now, the wait is over. Furlan Marri has finally pulled the covers off their take on the Disco Volante, and I don’t need to keep that secret any more!
The history of the Disco Volante
As I alluded to at the start of this review, this watch doesn’t reference any single timepiece but rather a variety of watches with large stepped or decorated bezels produced throughout the 20th century, many of which featured lugless designs that made their watch heads appear to hover above one’s wrist. ‘Disco Volante’ is Italian for ‘flying saucer’, and refers to the round, futuristic design of these watches. To be clear, “Disco Volante” has never been an official model designation (until now that is, thanks to Furlan Marri) but rather a nickname given to a bunch of different watches.
Some watchmakers who notably produced pieces that have been dubbed “Disco Volantes” include the Holy Trinity of Audemars Piguet, Patek Philippe and Vacheron Constantin, as well as other notable brands like Jaeger-LeCoultre, Longines, Omega, Piaget, and Universal Genève. The archetypal Disco Volante is the Audemars Piguet ref. 5093, designed by Gebhard Duve in 1953 and produced by case maker Eggly & Cie.
The first Disco Volante designs emerged in the late 1930s (it’s pure Art Deco), with Disco Volante-esque designs being produced up until the 80s. However, to my eyes at least, it’s the AP ref. 5093 that has most inspired Furlan Marri’s Disco Volante.
The case
Furlan Marri’s take on a Disco Volante features a curved, stepped bezel, alternating between concave and convex layers, with a flush crown and a lugless design. Most Disco Volante watches back in the day were made from gold, but Furlan Marri’s is made from steel, polished to a brilliant shine that gives it an almost pebbly look on the wrist.
Furlan Marri has explained that they want to “reconcile us with much smaller watch diameters” with their Disco Volante. Vintage Disco Volante watches typically featured case diameters of 36mm or smaller – however, despite their stated intentions, the Furlan Marri Disco Volante measures up at 38mm: average to slightly small by modern standards, but large by vintage standards. It is, however, rather thin at just under 9mm tall. Due to its hidden lug design, it doesn’t really have a lug-to-lug at all, meaning it wears very true to size (a big advantage of this type of design).
The dials
Three dial colourways are available at launch: Havana Disco, which is salmon and brown; Disco Celeste, which is white and blue; and Disco Verde, which is cream and green. These fun colours set the Furlan Marri Disco Volante apart from vintage references already, but turn the lights off and their real point of difference is revealed: thin tracks of lume running around the numerals and small seconds, as well as on the hour and minute hands.
Very few vintage Disco Volante models featured lume of any description, let alone bright modern Super-LumiNova, and certainly not in the format Furlan Marri has opted for. With this whimsical lume, Furlan Marri has really leaned into the sci-fi connotations of the Disco Volante name. These watches look like proper flying saucers, glowing like retro-futuristic alien UFOs.
Putting the visual drama of these unexpected colours and lume tracks aside, these dials are unmistakably Furlan Marri in their design, featuring a subtle sector pattern, the brand’s signature serifed numerals around the minute track and plenty of concentric circle motifs. The Disco Volante has Furlan Marri’s most complex dial yet, with radially-brushed coloured rings for the hour and minute tracks separated by the lume track, all atop a matte central section. It’s very pretty.
The strap
The whole point of the Disco Volante’s invisible lug design is to provide a sumptuous on-wrist experience, so the strap is crucial. Each Furlan Marri Disco Volante comes with two vegetable-tanned Italian leather straps: a caramel strap and a dark brown strap for the Havana Disco; a light grey strap and a dark blue strap for the Disco Celeste; and a beige strap and a green strap for the Disco Verde. All feature pleasant tumbled leather uppers with tone-on-tone stitching, brushed stainless steel pin buckles and curved quick-release spring bars for ease of exchange. While some vintage Disco Volante references featured metal bracelets, the vast majority featured leather straps, making these entirely thematic.
The movement
There’s no warp drive or flux capacitor in this flying saucer. Instead, the Furlan Marri Disco Volante is powered by the manual-winding Peseux 7001, a prolific calibre known for its reliability and relative simplicity. However, in classic Furlan Marri fashion, the brand has significantly overhauled the 7001 for their Disco Volantes. The 7001’s bridges have been redesigned and beautifully finished, with diamond-polished edges, hand-finished bevelling, côtes de Genève and straight-grained flanks.
Other touches like a specular-polished, sunray-brushed crown wheel and bosses for all the jewels demonstrate exceptional delicacy and value-add, all on proud display through an exhibition caseback. At just 2.5mm thick, the Peseux 7001 also allows the Furlan Marri Disco Volante to match the thinness of vintage Disco Volante references, while being exceptionally easier to service (although your average watchmaker’s Peseux 7001 components won’t be finished as nicely as Furlan Marri’s). The only criticism one could level at this choice of movement is its underwhelming 42-hour power reserve, but you’ve got to compromise somewhere.
The verdict
Furlan Marri’s popularity has always been easy to understand: they make beautiful modern watches that reference hard-to-find vintage models with exceptional attention to detail. They’re not one-for-ones, but rather respectful pastiches. They’re no cheap imitations. The Disco Volante is that writ large: the perfect blend of classic and contemporary, it’s a pastiche of multiple eras of design and watchmaking. It’s almost the Platonic ideal of a Disco Volante.
Its case and its dial are quite 30s, but the alien-like lume makes you think of 60s sci-fi – or perhaps 90s designs like Ikepod or the Nike Triax… It conjures up images of crop circles and Roswell Greys as much as it does smoky cocktail bars. It’s dressy, but it’s also funky, and perfectly poised to take advantage of today’s revived interest in shaped watches, like the Cartier Pebble or Baignoire. It’s definitely one for the enthusiasts.
The other thing that makes it interesting is its price. At just under US$3,000, it represents a significant step up in price for a Furlan Marri, but compared to the price of vintage Disco Volante pieces in today’s market, it’s a lot more accessible to the average watch enthusiast. In that sense, it democratises one of the most coveted types of vintage shaped watches, while also setting a high bar for finishing and flair. All I’ve got to say is, “Beam me up, Scotty”.
Furlan Marri Disco Volante pricing & availability
The Furlan Marri Disco Volante is available now for pre-orders from the Time+Tide Shop. Price: US$2,780 (excl. tax), CHF 2,500 (excl. tax)
| Brand | Furlan Marri |
| Model | Disco Volante |
| Case Dimensions | 38mm (D) x 8.95mm (T) x 38mm (LTL) |
| Case Material | 316L stainless steel |
| Water Resistance | 50m |
| Crystal(s) | Sapphire front and back |
| Dial | Havana Disco (salmon), Disco Celeste (blue/white), Disco Verde (green/cream) |
| Strap | Vegetable-tanned Italian leather, steel pin buckle |
| Movement | Peseux 7001, hand-wound |
| Power Reserve | 42 hours |
| Functions | Hours, minutes, seconds |
| Availability | Pre-orders open now |
| Price | US$2,780 (excl. tax), CHF 2,500 (excl. tax) |