“Staying true doesn’t mean standing still.” That is how Formex frames the new Essence 39 mm Automatic COSC — a watch that looks identical to the brand’s bestseller and behaves like a different machine.
The proportions, architecture and wrist presence that made the 39 mm Essence the cornerstone of modern Formex remain untouched. The evolution is all in the engineering. A new screw-down crown — first proven on the Essence Ceramica Skeleton — has been integrated with Formex’s patented Case Suspension System, preserving the clean silhouette and 100 m water resistance. Beneath the dial sits the latest-generation Sellita SW200-2 Power+, extending the power reserve to 65 hours while keeping the 4 Hz frequency behind the watch’s COSC-certified chronometer rating. And on the wrist, a butterfly clasp borrowed from the Essence 41 Space Ghost allows tool-free micro-adjustment in 3 mm increments, up to 6 mm, without opening the clasp — the kind of fine-tuning you find yourself doing throughout the day without thinking.
“None of these updates changes how the watch looks on the wrist, but together, they make a real difference in how it feels,” says Formex CEO Raphaël Granito. “It’s the kind of difference you appreciate more the longer you wear it.”
The refreshed Essence 39 arrives with three dials: the signature Blue, a new Alpine White with blued hands and indices, and the all-new Radiant Bronze shared with the Reef collection. With its roots in motorsport, Formex has always treated refinement as an engineering discipline; the new Essence 39 gathers years of proven advances into the collection’s best-selling case size — not as isolated upgrades, but as one coherent evolution.
