Defying the laws of the calendar and pushing its limits! For its first participation at Only Watch 2023, the young independent watch brand Furlan Marri has teamed up with renowned watchmakers Dominique Renaud and Julien Tixier to create an ultra-simplified, modular secular perpetual calendar. A unique watchmaking achievement that accounts for leap years and secular years.

A single adjustment once every 400 years. Origins of the Secular Calendar! The Only Watch 2023 secular perpetual calendar. What would have happened if Furlan Marri had met those who inspired the legendary designs of the 40s and 50s?

Today, Furlan Marri counts itself fortunate to work hand in hand with the exceptional craftsmen who decided to join the team. That is how the Only Watch adventure began. “I’ve always enjoyed rethinking complications,” explains Dominique Renaud.

Just another challenge, thought Julien Tixier. Two years ago, Andrea and Hamad met Luc Pettavino, the founder of Only Watch. This led to the idea of working with Dominique Renaud, master watchmaker, inventor and co-founder of Renaud & Papi, and Julien Tixier, prototype watchmaker, to create a one-off watch for the charity auction.

Julien Tixier and Dominique Renaud had met in 2016, when Dominique was giving lectures on his DR01 project. Julien regularly attended his lectures, showing great interest in his research. This in turn led to a friendship and the birth of the ‘Tempus Fugit’ project.

If Dominique was quite keen to join Andrea and Hamad’s endeavor, and delighted to again collaborate with Andrea Furlan, it was also because Dominique had previously worked on a perpetual calendar with Giulio Papi. Combining their open minds and decades of experience, they had already found technical solutions to simplify a minute repeater.

You could say it was a particular forte of theirs. “I met Andrea during the DR01 project, when he was involved in the design, technical aspects and 3D rendering. It was the beginning of a wonderful relationship.”

A simplicity that can be summed up in three points, 1: Movement, 2: User-friendliness, 3: Push-button correctors, 4: Legibility. Hand-finishes of genuine artistry and craftsmanship; the case, the lugs are applied to the case, which is hand-turned as would be a piece of jewelry. The movement: The secular module was developed by Dominique Renaud and Julien Tixier, based on La Joux-Perret’s G100 movement. The movement, made in La-Chaux-de-Fonds, Switzerland, has a power reserve of 68 hours.

The oscillating weight: Cut and beveled by hand by Dominique Renaud – a nod to his beginnings as a chamferer. The entire secular perpetual calendar is machined, adjusted and finished by Julien Tixier. The plate is delicately sandblasted, then electroplated with a coat of 18K gold.

The titanium peripheral ring undergoes an anodic oxidation treatment. Finally, the bracelet; it’s off to Le Lignon just outside Geneva, where the watch will be matched with a silver Milanese mesh bracelet, entirely handcrafted by Laurent Jolliet, one of the last chain makers in Europe. No machines are involved in the manufacture of the coils, and assembly and soldering are all by hand.

Finally, the clasp, embellished with the craftsman’s stamp, is filed by hand. The result is astonishing: the Milanese mesh bracelet looks as if it is made of the supplest and smoothest cloth, hence its other name, “fabric bracelet”.

Furlan Marri’s secular perpetual calendar is unique and revolutionary in its simplicity. Yet, as Dominique Renaud so aptly put it, “Sometimes, simplifying something complex can be quite complicated.”

Such wrist with Blue titanium dial with an in-house anodic oxidation treatment. Open worked, diamond-cut, revealing a delicately sand-blasted plate gilded with 18K yellow gold, echoing the 18K yellow gold oscillating weight Counter flanges in titanium. Case: Rhodium-plated silver, Oscillating weight in 18K yellow gold, Milanese mesh bracelet and clasp in rhodium-plated silver, entirely hand-crafted by Laurent Jolliet.