Spoilers are coming in as early in this review as it is humanely possible to do: the watch we are about to study is officially my new favorite collection from the brand. (I know, creating my own hype over here for which I loath my own self a little bit. What’s next? Vloging at watch shows?) So this is somewhat of a special moment for yours truly since I will be riffing on another incredible tool watch, the style timekeeping devices you will often see in my neck of the horological woods, which the brand in question refined and changed in ways that didn’t seem possible looking at where it started from—which itself was a novelty for this independent house of watchmaking and for the industry. What is incredible about watchmaking is the fact that there are brands out there that manage to do the impossible—to continuously reinvent overly-done styles of timekeeping devices—in ways that are subtle and yield actual novelty instead of reheating refried beans, to push a questionable food analogy to dangerous territories. 

The brand in question is the one that churns out one incredible release after another unexpected one, unveils a new technology after announcing a new bespoke manufacturing process, and which constantly delivers impeccably finished timepieces that would make many other brands, big and small, new and old, blush with envy. (For instance, they manage to make all date numerals perfectly centered inside date apertures, all the time, something 90% of brands whose watches I’ve reviewed fail at.) This gem of independent horology is Formex, the Swiss maison—that is how I see its importance in our niche world—many of its collections I have reviewed for Mainspring and other online publications. To date, my all-time favorite of theirs is the Essence 39 we discussed over here a first time, then a second time, and even a third time (the latter being the version that received the biggest upgrade package,), closely followed by the Field V2 and now, both toppled by the brand new AirField in a gorgeous Horizon Blue colorway. 

Specifications 

The aforementioned novelty for Formex and the industry was the introduction of the Field in 2023, visually the simplest of its collections at that moment since time + date was a combo the brand hadn’t done since Raphael Granito took over as CEO in 2016 and relaunched the brand with the Essence 43. And back then, the Essence was already technically more complex than the Field because its case was equipped with Formex’s patented case suspension system and a stainless steel bracelet years ahead of the competition in terms of engineering and finishing. Thus, the first generation of the Field was simple by the brand’s standards even though it was more complex than most field watches were on the market in 2023, as it is still the case today. After the V1 came the V2 which benefited from a few aesthetics changes, keeping the case, movement, and bracelet systems pretty much intact. With the AirField comes a more comprehensive visual revamping that speaks to me intensely, albeit it faithfully preserves the Field’s design DNA.  

When the renown Swiss independent watchmaker announced the Field in 2023, yours truly was on a personal quest for smaller watches, putting any watch with a diameter over 38mm at the back of my watch boxes and deeply hidden inside drawers, so that they would be far from the eyes and further away from the heart, allowing the focus to be put on 32 to 37mm timepieces. With a diameter of 40mm, which I always thought was just too darn big for a field watch, the Field felt unusually large on my wrist and I secretly wished Formex would shrink it down, however not pink it. Should I had it my way, the brand would have made a 37 or 38mm version of it, which it never did because who on earth gives a shit about one person’s opinion, and because Formex knows what kind of brand it is and which kind it isn’t. Read: it doesn’t do what people ask for but instead give people what they didn’t know they needed. Despite all of this, I did fall for the Field for Formex did bring novelty and perfect execution to my favorite genre of watches. 

So, the AirField Horizon Blue is a modern pilot watch and as such was endowed with dimensions we should not be surprised to see being featured for this style of timekeeping device in 2026, cannoning towards 2027: a diameter that clocks in at 40mm, a lug-to-lug of 46.6mm, a total thickness of 10.6mm (the brands often talks about “perceived thickness” which I never understood how it is calculated but which is indicated here as being 8.8mm,) and a universal lug width of 20mm. As it is traditional for the Swiss brand to do, it offers a great variety of fastening systems to pair the AirField with, including genuine leather straps of various colors and nylon-velcro elastic ones of even more colors, and though Formex sent me a couple of each to play with, I was unusually attracted by the Leone leather one, as always equipped with the brand’s proprietary micro-adjustable carbon-fiber deployant clasp. The leather is soft and supple, the clasp light and functional, making for a horological-heaven-like combo in my little book. 

Albeit it is larger than I wish it was in 2023, I’ve now come around with a renewed appreciation for larger (not large) tool watches, especially when their bodies (the case and bezel) are made of grade 2 titanium which provides for a light and robust chassis, which Formex complemented by a hardening treatment increasing the case and bezel’s scratch resistance to 900Hv on Vicker’s Hardening Scale. (Typically, microbrands harden stainless steel chassis to 800-1,200 Hv.) With the help of a 7mm screw-down crown and lovely decorated screw-down case-back, the AirFied boasts the same 150 meters of water resistance the Field V1 and V2 had, which is more than this style of watch should have. The top crystal is a flat piece of sapphire equipped with several layers of inner anti-reflective coating for a clear viewing, and the caliber is the recent Sellita SW200-2 (4Hz/65 hours of power reserve) the Field V2 was already equipped with. Lastly, and as always, Formex didn’t skimp on lume: the hands and hour markers glow with BGW9. 

Design

As we saw, the Formex AirField Horizon Blue is technically wholesome, as much as the Field V2 was, which makes sense since the former is the continuation of the latter. What I came to understand with the Field V2 is that sometimes, it is ok for a brand to create field watches whose cases soar above 37/38mm in diameter, which I selfishly consider to be the maximum circumference this style of watch should have, as long as the dial is adequately proportioned in relations to the case and bezel, and its furniture of the right dimensions, density, and set in the right formation. In other words, Formex is one of the rare brands to have concocted a lovely field watch in the 40mm case diameter category, which was in and of itself a real breakthrough, for in general brands simply enlarge smaller watches without adjusting proportions, or simply leave an obscene amount of empty space on the dial making the markers float like too few cereals in a pool of milk. (How odd are my analogies today.) Another brand that did it right was Zavod. 

From a design perspective then, Formex also innovated with the first two generations of the Field by bringing novelty within the most visually codified member of activity watches, the field watch, which was quite remarkable for the time. From the first to the second generation too few things changed, though both were equally handsome I had a preference for the second, and with the AirField, Formex found a way to make incremental changes aim closer towards perfection. With this release, the Swiss brand replaced the sectorized railroad minute track of the Field with a simpler one, where individual hash-marks mark each minute, and the 5-minute increments are indicated by larger sunken-in markers handfilled with BGW9. The hour markers remain unchanged, shaped in Formex’s bespoke typeface, CNC-machined within the dial and also lumed by hand. And yet again the brand’s iconic beveled date aperture is at the six, made of perfectly centered numerals printed on a color-matched disc, adding subtle functionality to the classic genre. 

However, it is by looking at the new handset that we can once again point out where Formex excels at in the design department (since the Swiss brand knows how to give quintessential genres of timekeeping devices a new raison d’être by way of thoughtful facelifts) as the brand’s own reinterpretation of the timeless syringe hands which equipped the Field’s were replaced by a glorious set of massive broad arrow hour and minute hands. Bead-blasted to match the matte tones of the Horizon Blue textured dial beneath them, these hands constitute the one design element that most noticeably transforms the Field field watch into the AirField pilot watch. By Genta, these hands are glorious and I’m feeling over-fucking-whelmed seeing how Formex transformed one collection into another by adjusting two deceptively simple visual elements: the chapter ring and the handset. And what is even more remarkable is how naturally the brand pivoted from one style of tool watch to another, given that both make for the most legible of timepieces. 

P.S. Did you notice the airplane-shaped counter-balance of the seconds hand and the dots-over-triangle twelve o’clock marker? 

P.S.2. I didn’t speak about the neat case the AirField is endowed with as it hasn’t changed from the Field V2 (so read this review) save for the decoration of the case-back which shows a 9-cylinder engine of fighter jets of old. 

The Heart of the Matter

Formex got into the habit of doing two crucial things extremely well which help us understand what makes it stand out from the Zombie-like-crowd-gunning-for-the-wall world of micro and independent watch brands: first, it concocts its own versions of classic genres of timekeeping devices, and mostly tool watches—for example field, pilot, GMT, divers and chronographs—; second, it releases a first incredible version of each and then continues to improve upon it with each new version, drizzling incremental adjustments to their designs or specifications or both, thus making very good watches into better ones as we saw recently telling the multi-year tale of the Essence 39’s evolution through three generations of Formex’s most iconic collection. Now we know the same is true for another one of its more recent core line-ups: the Field that was good with the first generation, then better with the second one, and which became something different and utterly superior with the AirField: visually more of the good stuff, less of the superfluous, replacing more complex design elements with simpler ones, thus fine-tuning a good recipe to make it even better—a process which only naturally occurs with time and hindsight. 

And that is what explains how the AirField became my new favorite collection from the Swiss brand. Hooray to my bank account! 

Conclusion 

The new Formex AirField collection comes in four dial variants and multiple strap options. For the dials you can choose from there is the handsome Horizon Blue we gushed over today, the classic Jet Black, the compelling Desert Sand (which features blackened lume), or a new outstanding color Formex came up with, Tarmac Grey. On one of the four options for leather straps, as presented here in the Leone version, the AirField will set you back $1,200 USD, and on one of the five options for the nylon-velcro elastic ones the price goes down to $1,060 USD. Note that these prices include all tariffs, duties, and shipping, which is important to know as this information increases the superb value of this new collection. And you should also know that the AirField’s are currently on pre-order with shipping slated to begin later this month. (November 2026.) 

Thanks for reading.