Written by: Matt Black
There’s something fitting about a brand born from motorsport building its second life around suspension.
Not just the patented case suspension system that once defined its technical edge – but the emotional suspension required to resurrect a long-lost name in one of the most crowded, competitive industries on earth.
When two Swiss brothers founded Formex Watches more than twenty years ago, they fused watchmaking with the high-octane world of motorsport. The early 2000s were louder then – bigger cases, bolder designs, bravado dialed high. Formex thrived in that era, peaking around 2005 before eventually falling silent.
Years later, Raphael Granito would be handed the opportunity to write its next chapter.
From the inside out
Raphael doesn’t speak like a marketer. He speaks like a builder.
You can hear it in the way he answers questions – measured, almost mechanical, but never rehearsed. His thoughts seem to tick forward with quiet precision. It’s the cadence of someone who grew up inside the industry, not adjacent to it.
Before he ever touched the customer-facing side of a brand, Raphael learned watchmaking from the inside out. He worked within his father’s watch component company – a supplier and development partner to brands large and small. He saw how components were engineered, how tolerances were refined and how ideas became objects.
What he hadn’t seen was what happened after the watch left the factory.
So, when one of Formex’s original founders approached him about taking over the dormant brand, the appeal wasn’t simply commercial. It was creative.
“It was the perspective of being able to completely create something from scratch,” he tells me. “Not just work on a certain component for another brand – but to start with a blank slate.”
For the first time, he would build not only the watch – but the voice behind it.
Crickets in the online store
The relaunch wasn’t glamorous. It was deliberate.
In 2018, Formex re-emerged through Kickstarter with the Essence 43mm – a model that would become the backbone of the modern brand. The name was intentional. This wasn’t about excess. It was about distillation.
And yet, Raphael is candid about what he underestimated.
“I thought it was going to be a little bit easier,” he admits. “Just put out the best watch we could possibly come up with – and that would be enough.”
It wasn’t.
In the luxury space – especially at this price point – specs alone don’t close sales.
Trust does. Word of mouth does. Visibility does. And those things take time.
Formex had an old customer list, but dormant brands don’t retain warm audiences. Trust had to be rebuilt. Without deep marketing budgets or outside investment, Raphael and his small team chose a slower path: community.
It meant answering questions directly, listening closely and above all else, showing up consistently.
And it meant living through silence.
“Lack of sales is the hardest thing,” Raphael says. “You put your heart and soul into a product – and then it’s just crickets in the online store. You don’t know how you’re going to make payroll at the end of the month. But you have to believe in what you’re building. And at the same time, you have to be realistic enough to know when something truly isn’t working.”
That tension – between conviction and pragmatism – defines much of Formex’s story.
Cash equals freedom
Going direct-to-consumer was initially born of necessity. Raphael lacked the traditional retail connections that established Swiss brands rely on. But what began as constraint became advantage.
Direct sales created an unusually tight feedback loop.
When a new model ships, Raphael still logs into the customer service platform the next morning. There’s pride there, sure – but also apprehension.
“There’s such a direct customer feedback loop for us,” he says. “We’re the first ones to know if something goes wrong – or if someone feels something is off.”
That proximity sharpens a brand.
But it also requires thicker skin.
As Formex has grown – now a 15-person team – the stakes have shifted. Cash flow has stabilized. Roles are defined. The brand no longer lives and dies by a single week of sales.
“Cash equals freedom,” Raphael says plainly. “Freedom to develop new products. Freedom to grow the team. Freedom to structure the company properly.”
Early on, he wore every hat. But today, he hands off more responsibility. His leadership style remains hands-off by nature – trusting the close-knit team he has built – but experience has taught him the importance of decisiveness.
There’s loyalty in the way he speaks about his team. About Markus, his longtime friend and now global brand manager. About his father, still a mentor in matters of running a business. Relationships matter here. They always have.
Engineering, not hyperbole
Heritage, too, is handled with care.
From the original Formex era, Raphael preserved what was structurally meaningful: the patented case suspension system, the motorsport DNA, the underlying robustness. But he filtered it through a more refined lens.
The early 2000s favored 45mm cases and overt aggression. Today’s collector gravitates toward proportion and wearability. Case sizes were reduced. Finishing became more nuanced – polished bevels placed sparingly against brushed surfaces, reflections controlled rather than exaggerated.
Comfort, above all, became non-negotiable.
“You’re wearing your watch on your most expressive limb,” Raphael explains. “It moves all day. If something feels off, you’ll notice it on the first or second day.”
That’s why prototypes are worn for weeks before validation – during sport, daily life, everything. Engineering isn’t theoretical. It’s lived.
And despite the inevitable hyperbole that surrounds luxury, Formex avoids excess narrative.
“There’s no blah blah around the brand,” Raphael says with a slight smile in his voice. “You get what we advertise. No hyperbole. You either like it – or you don’t.”
It’s a surprisingly radical stance in an industry built on mythmaking.
Suspension, reimagined
In many ways, Raphael Granito represents a different archetype in modern Swiss watchmaking.
Not the flamboyant visionary. Not the marketing showman. But the builder-operator. The one who understands tolerances and margins equally. Who reads customer comments personally. Who knows that heritage is a foundation – not a crutch.
Formex’s motorsport roots still matter. But today, the brand’s real suspension system may be something subtler: the balance between engineering and emotion. Between humility and ambition. Between community and scale.
Resurrecting a watch brand isn’t about making noise.
It’s about making something worth listening to.
And as Formex continues to grow – steadily, deliberately – you get the sense that Raphael is still doing what he’s always done.
Designing with conviction. Listening carefully.
And letting the product speak for itself.
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