In the midst of a global pandemic that brought much of the world to a standstill, two individuals seized the opportunity to breathe life into a new venture.
Andrea Furlan and Hamad Al Marri, driven by a shared passion for horology, founded Furlan Marri, a watch brand that quickly captured the attention of enthusiasts and collectors alike.
Their story is one of friendship, meticulous craftsmanship, and a deep appreciation for the art of watchmaking.
Andrea Furlan, a Swiss designer, boasts an impressive background. Educated at the prestigious ECAL (École cantonale d’art de Lausanne), Furlan honed his skills in various disciplines, including photography, art history, cinema, and industrial design.
His fascination with watches began at a young age, inspired by his grandfather’s Rolex. This early connection instilled in him a love for vintage designs and the emotional resonance that timepieces can hold.
His professional journey has seen him working with renowned brands such as Chopard, Hublot, Sarcar, and HD3. Perhaps most notably, he contributed to the design of Dominique Renaud’s DR01, a highly complex timepiece that further refined his expertise in intricate watch design.
“At 15, I started doing internships in the watch industry,” Furlan explains. “I wrote to Hublot but they turned me down, so I found Jean-Claude Biver’s email address and wrote directly to him. He replied to me at 3am one morning and agreed to take me on. He opened so many doors for me, as he has done for other young passionate people. I also interned with Dominique Renaud for nine months and then he employed me for four years. It was very high-end watchmaking it was a brilliant learning ground for movement development and technical finishing and, again, it opened me a lot of doors for the future.”
Hamad Al Marri, on the other hand, brings a different but equally valuable perspective to the partnership. A passionate watch collector and artist from the Middle East, Al Marri’s extensive experience in the auction circuit and his interactions with iconic watchmakers have provided him with a rich understanding of classic watch designs and their historical significance.
His artistic sensibility complements Furlan’s technical prowess, ensuring that Furlan Marri watches are not only mechanically sound but also visually captivating.
The paths of Furlan and Al Marri crossed around 2014, while Furlan was working with Dominique Renaud. At that time, Al Marri was studying project management and creative process, and their shared interests in watchmaking and design laid the foundation for a strong friendship and, later, a business partnership.
Despite being based in different countries – Furlan in Switzerland and Al Marri in the Middle East – they maintained daily communication, working tirelessly to bring their vision to life.
This cross-continental collaboration proved advantageous in establishing the brand’s presence in different regions.
As the world began to shut down in 2020, Furlan and Al Marri began to put their business strategy together, creating their idea of the perfect everyday watch for enthusiasts.
“We studied ecommerce and tried to find the biggest differences between mass production and really high-end watchmaking, and worked on ways to bridge these gaps. Our suppliers said it wasn’t practical to create the finishes we wanted or to decorate the inside of a case with perlage on a watch that costs less than CHF 600, but we kept pushing because those details were what we wanted and what we knew our future customers would want,” says Al Marri.
“Being a collector, I have an eye for finer details that you only really find with independent watchmakers. We worked on proportions and with every prototype we pushed the limits of what we could do. We need to be confident – if we cannot feel it, our clients won’t either. And if that means our launches take a longer than expected, then so be it. We strive for perfection, but we accept that we will never fully achieve this.”
In March 2021, Furlan Marri was officially launched through a multifaceted Kickstarter campaign that required careful planning, effective communication, and strategic execution. Furlan and Al Marri faced numerous challenges, from building a community of supporters to managing production logistics and maintaining brand engagement.
And one of the key strategies that contributed to their success was their focus on building a strong pre-launch buzz.
From September 2020, months before the official Kickstarter launch, Furlan and Al Marri had been actively engaging with potential customers and industry influencers.
They showcased their watches to interested parties in Switzerland, Los Angeles, New York, the Middle East and Singapore, among other locations.
This proactive approach allowed them to gather valuable feedback and build a sense of anticipation around their brand.
By the time they launched, they had already cultivated a community of supporters who were eager to back their project. Through their efforts, they not only launched a successful watch brand but also created a model for how to navigate the complexities of crowdfunding and brand building in the modern era.
The campaign’s success was overwhelming, achieving its funding goal within 35 seconds and ultimately surpassing it by 1,450%, with around 3,550 orders.
This remarkable achievement was the result of extensive reviews and feedback from journalists, bloggers, and watch enthusiasts, all of whom were captivated by the brand’s promise to deliver watches that pay homage to classic chronographs from the 1940s and 1950s, with particular influence drawn from the works of casemaker François Borgel, who supplied brands like Patek Philippe, Movado, IWC, Longines and Mido.
This dedication to vintage aesthetics combined with modern functionality has resonated strongly with collectors, leading to rapid sell-outs and high demand on resale markets.
“It happened organically,” says Furlan. “People sometimes think we are exaggerating the Kickstarter success but in fact, we just made an honest project and communicated with real collectors. We started talking to the community six months before we started with Instagram. We combined this with email marketing and then when we launched on Kickstarter, we had already 3,000 people interested. The New York Times wrote about us and then Revolution – it took time for the Swiss market to pick up on us, though. And then came the GPHG nomination and award just six months after we launched. That was a huge surprise that sent us on an upwards trajectory but it also put a lot of pressure on us.”
The rapid rise of Furlan Marri can be partly attributed to the brand’s faithful homages to historic chronographs, which offer a blend of vintage appeal and modern affordability.
The original Mechaquartz Line was a 38mm bicompax chronograph collection, which featured five dial options and used a VK64 mechaquartz movement.
The brand’s ethos, encapsulated in the phrase: “Crafted with care, designed for details”, resonated deeply with collectors and enthusiasts, underscoring the founders’ dedication to quality and craftsmanship. The early releases were highly sought after, often selling out quickly and appearing on resale sites at significantly higher prices.
This success paved the way for the introduction of a further permanent Mechanical Line of dress watches with distinctive design elements in 2022. The brand’s first fully mechanical watch showcased a three-handed sector dial.
Known as the Black Sector, this 37.5mm steel timepiece featured a classic dial with silver applied Breguet-style numerals and leaf-shaped hands.
Powered by the automatic G101 movement from Swiss manufacturer La Joux Perret, this model marked a significant step forward for the brand.
A year later, in a move that surprised many in the watch industry, Furlan Marri collaborated with Dominique Renaud and Julien Tixier to create a unique Secular Perpetual Calendar for the Only Watch 2023 charity auction (pictured top).
This innovative timepiece featured a perpetual calendar module atop a La-Joux-Perret G100 movement, housed in a 39mm silver case.
More than a one-off, this watch represented the start of a Technical Line for Furlan Marri, with the brand intending to offer complications at more accessible prices in the future.
“We are now kind of 360 degrees in terms of price point,” Furlan says. “For example, the Mechanical Line is more about the movement and the finish. And then you have the Technical Line, which is all about accessible complications – for example the production perpetual calendar will be under CHF 10,000. We didn’t make it all about price, but we wanted to be smart so we have created the perpetual calendar with just 25 components instead of hundreds and this will allow us to keep the price low.”
Most recently, Furlan Marri has expanded the Mechanical Line with a Disco Volante collection, paying tribute to the iconic “flying saucer” designs of the late 1930s.
This series features 38mm cases, slightly larger than their vintage counterparts, and introduces three captivating two-tone dial variations: Disco Havana, Disco Celeste and Disco Verde. Powered by the manually wound ETA/Peseux 7001 movement, these timepieces blend retro allure with modern sophistication.
While Furlan Marri’s commitment to accessibility and high-quality craftsmanship is evident in their use of components sourced from various countries, with assembly taking place in Switzerland and Hong Kong, the design philosophy is a reflection of the founders’ backgrounds and their collaborative synergy.
Furlan’s comprehensive design education and professional experience, combined with Al Marri’s collector’s passion and artistic sensibility, have shaped the brand into a unique entity that honours vintage watchmaking traditions while making them accessible to a modern audience. Their watches tell stories, blending historical homage with contemporary craftsmanship, and embodying the founders’ shared vision of democratising high-quality watchmaking.
“It was important for us to start online because of our prices and margins,” says Al Marri.
“With brands that began in traditional retail and then moved online, it is difficult for them to stay competitive. A lot of people don’t want to pay CHF 6,000-7000 online, in this segment they need to see the watch first. Our approach is to stay more accessible. We saw a difference between our Mechaquartz Line where the watches sold very quickly and the Mechanical collection where people went back a few times and researched the watches before ordering. So with the Technical Line, I think we will need to open up to retail a little more, or think about expanding our private showrooms.”
As Furlan Marri continues to evolve, its founders maintain their commitment to quality and accessibility. The brand’s expansion into more complex timepieces, positions it to compete with established luxury brands whilst offering innovative designs at more attainable price points. This approach is likely to attract both seasoned collectors and newcomers to horology, further cementing Furlan Marri’s place in the competitive landscape of high-end watchmaking.
And it seems that for now, at least, the independence that dictates Furlan Marri’s unique direction is set to continue with Furlan saying: “We are currently working on 10 to 12 new projects that will be coming soon. We want to pursue the development of the Technical Line and we are working on a brand-new complication, plus next year we will have some interesting collaborations. We are also trying to find a way to open up to special orders because we have a lot of demand to make unique pieces. We sell in more than 100 countries, and we have more than 20,000 customers worldwide.
“I don’t think bigger brands and companies paid that much attention to us in the beginning, but the Secular Perpetual Calendar has forced them to notice us. At the moment it is only the two of us that own the company – we don’t have shareholders to answer to and we know that we can still build the brand and the name. But there may come a time where we feel we need some help or some new ideas. We have to be open to that, but currently we like the way things are and we have already turned down some pretty big offers for the company.”