09/07/2026
The 38mm Furlan Marri Nero Sabbia is the epitome of elegance, with its classic proportions, sand and black dial, mixture of brushed and mirror-polished stainless steel and glorious domed sapphire crystal (swipe left for pics).
The lug-to-lug is 46mm, which ergonomically and stylistically is perfect, ensuring the watch wears true to size. The lugs are long enough to look elegant and feel planted on the wrist, but not so long that the watch becomes unwearable for those with slimmer wrists (cough, cough Nomos!). The overall thickness surprisingly is 12mm (11.5mm without glass), although this is one area where the on-paper spec doesn’t match the on-the-wrist experience, or indeed the visual mass. It wears much thinner, more like an 11mm.
The Seiko VK64 mecha-quartz movement has a mechanical module giving a smooth sweep to the seconds hand. The chronograph starts and stops by pressing the 2 o’clock pusher and is reset by the 4 o’clock pusher.
The lusciously rich, piano-black gloss dial contrasts beautifully against the warmth of the sand-coloured printed dial markings and 60-minute subdial. And a pulsometer scale runs around the perimeter, should you want to check your heart rate! The dial always looks crystal clear and the lack of unwanted reflections is unreal. It’s like you’re wearing HD glasses!
The more you look at this watch, the more impressive details reveal themselves. The hour and minute hands are domed and curved to follow the dial/crystal. I love the signature ‘Tasti Tondi’ chronograph pushers, and the supplied straps aren’t an afterthought, being of lovely quality and having custom buckles to match the case. And it’s not just the bits you see that receive attention. Like all Furlan Marri watches, the interior of the caseback even has a perlage finish!
The Nero Sabbia is priced at CHF 585 (approx $730 USD/ £545 GBP / €625), which includes two leather straps. Whilst it’s not cheap, given the level of attention to detail on display here, I’m struggling to think of any similarly style quartz/mecha-quartz watches that can hold a candle to this. It really is that stunning. What do you think?
