Filippo Loreti review: A fantastic looking, quality built luxury watch you can actually afford

Even though smartwatches and hybrid smartwatches are gaining ground and becoming more popular, there are still plenty of people who prefer a classic analog watch. Our Filippo Loreti review takes a look at their Venice Silver Heritage watch, one in a line of limited edition luxury watches that don’t break the bank.

Specifications

The Filippo Loreti Venice Silver Heritage has the following features and specifications:

• Hour, minutes, seconds in the centre
• Month of the year at 12 o’clock
• Day of the week at 9 o’clock
• Date at 3 o’clock
• Day and night function at 6 o’clock
• Case Diameter: 40mm
• Thickness: 10mm
• Strap Width: 20mm (best fit for 14 – 23cm wrist)
• Case Material: Grade 316L Stainless Steel
• Glass: Sapphire coated crystal with anti-scratch function
• Strap: Black Italian Leather Strap
• Movement: Japan Made VX3F Semi-mechanical Quartz
• Water Resistance: 5ATM (50 Meters)

What’s in the box

• Filippo Loreti Venice Silver Heritage luxury watch
• Instructions & Warranty
• Certificate of Authenticity
• Microfibre cloth

Background

Before we get too much into the Filippo Loreti Venice Silver Heritage watch review, let’s take a quick look at the company itself. After examining the luxury watch industry, the company found that most luxury watches are sold at prices 10 to 40 times higher than the cost to produce. Believing that everyone should be able to enjoy wearing a luxury watch, Danielius and Matas Jakutis founded Filippo Loreti. The brothers had a goal of skipping wholesalers, distributors, and retailers to bring “$1000+ limited edition, handcrafted, Italian luxury timepieces” at prices starting below $250.

To ensure a premium quality standard of your timepiece, we partnered directly with some of the world’s leading timepiece manufacturers, who, for decades, have produced luxury watches for high-end brands that retail for over $1000.

After their first successful Kickstarter campaign (which reached $926,620 in 30 days), the pair got to work and followed it up a year later with another Kickstarter in November 2016 which raised a staggering $5,170,455 from 18,550 backers. Comparing what they do to what companies like Dollar Shave Club are doing to the razor industry or Warby Parker did with glasses industry, Filippo Loreti is looking to “disrupt” the luxury watch industry.

Design

So just what does a $269USD luxury watch look like? While they say a picture is worth a thousand words, this 360º experience video from Filippo Loreti does much more justice to the Venice Silver Heritage.

The Venice Silver Heritage comes in a rectangular black box with the Filippo Loreti name stamped in silver across the top. Opening the box reveals the watch itself, sitting in a black velvet-lined box fastened around a small pillow. The lid of the box features the same velvet lining with a small pouch which contains a microfibre cloth for cleaning your watch.

The watch case itself is constructed from Grade 316L stainless steel — a low carbon version of 316 stainless steel — and is polished for a highly reflective finish. Measuring 40mm across, the case houses the brushed steel watch face which features silver hour markings, thin needle-like minute, hour, and second hands, three dials, a rotating day & night indicator with a rotating sun & moon on it near the bottom, and the Filippo Loreti logo beneath that in black. The left dial displays the day of the week, the top dial displays the month, and the right dial displays the date (only odd numbers are shown).

Flipping the watch over, one is treated to an intricate engraving of Basilica di San Marco (St. Mark’s Basilica) in Venice. On the upper left edge of the bottom are the words “Limited edition” while on the upper right edge is the edition number, in the case of our review sample it reads “0725/1641.” The crown is smooth near the outer edge and has a ridged surface towards the inside edge. If you look at the surface of the crown, you’ll see an F stamped into it, adding an extra nice touch to an already classy looking watch. Around the outer edge of the back are six small screws that require a jewelers screwdriver to open to access the battery when it needs replacing.

The black leather strap is attached to the case with quick release pins, making it easy to swap out the straps at a later date if they need replacing or if you want to go for a different look. The leather straps are 20mm wide and padded in the middle with fine stitching running up and down each edge. The back of the watch strap has a smooth, soft tan leather finish to it. On the shorter strap is where the stainless steel clasp is located with a fixed leather strap loop just above it. The Filippo Loreti name mark is also stamped into the leather on this side of the strap. A second adjustable leather strap loop sits just above this, allowing you to easily tuck the longer strap into place when the watch is being worn.

The longer strap has eight holes in it, which should be plenty for a variety of wrist sizes. Filippo Loreti indicates that the watch will fit those with wrist sizes of 14-23cm. My wrist size is roughly 18cm and when worn, I was able to fasten the watch to the fourth hole from the bottom, leaving three holes for those with larger wrists. When fastened, the watch is extremely comfortable due to the soft leather finish on the inside of the strap. It also has a nice weight to it but doesn’t feel overly heavy.

The glass surface is constructed from Sapphire coated crystal with an anti-scratch finish. During the time I’ve worn it so far, the glass — and the case — still looks like new after a quick cleaning with the included microfibre cloth.

This is definitely a classy looking watch, and if the exact style or colour isn’t for you, there are four other colour variations in the Venice Heritage series, as well as a number of watches available in the Rome, Milano, and Automatic Series. Given the colour and style variation, there’s sure to be a watch or two that suit your tastes.

Setup

Setting up the Venice Silver Heritage luxury watch from Filippo Loreti consists of utilizing the crown’s two clicks. To adjust the time and weekday, pull the crown all the way out (the second click) to get started. Turning the crown clockwise changes the weekday. If the watch is set to Monday and the day you’re currently on is a Sunday, you’d expect that you’d have to do an awful lot of winding to get the proper weekday to show. Fortunately, Filippo Loreti thought of this and you can use an advance setting technique. As soon as the weekday clicks over to the next day (this happens when the time is around 4 am), you can turn the crown counterclockwise back past 11 pm and then turn it clockwise again until the next day clicks.

To adjust the month and date, pull the crown to the first click position. Turning the crown clockwise sets the month hand while turning it counterclockwise sets the date hand. Once set, push the crown back in all the way and you’re good to go. The instructions also mention that if you set to the date between 9 pm and 1 am, the day may not change properly so that is something to keep in mind.

Another thing to keep in mind is that you’ll have to adjust the date on the first day after a 30-day month, as well as the first day of March.

Overall, setup was pretty straightforward and didn’t take long at all.

Performance

There’s really not much to discuss regarding the performance of an analog watch aside from how well it can keep time. Over the course of the past month, the Filippo Loreti Venice Silver Heritage watch has kept perfect time and date as well. Given August had 31 days, there was no need to adjust the date at the beginning of September. In addition to keeping time and date just fine, the day & night indicator adds just the right splash of colour while indicating day or night at a glance.

I did have one issue with the watch, and it could easily go under design or performance but seeing as it’s a feature that people actually use, I’ll speak briefly about it here. As sleek and attractive looking as the Venice Silver Heritage watch is, there is no kind of backlighting or luminescence on the dials or hands to be able to tell what time it is in a dark setting. While it’s not the end of the world, such an added feature would definitely be welcome to an already excellent watch.

Filippo Loreti watches are also water resistant to 5ATM (50m) but the company doesn’t advise showering or swimming with your watch as the water will definitely affect and damage the leather straps. Still, having the water resistance is nice for added protection against splashes, spills, and if you happen to get caught out in the rain.

Price/Value

The Venice Silver Heritage goes for $269USD ($339CAD) on the Filippo Loreti website. In addition to the Venice Silver Heritage, the company also offers a Venice Gold Heritage as well as three other Venice Quartz models in different colour variations.

Other designs in Filippo Loreti’s four different series range in price from $249 to $519 with the Rome series being the most affordable and the Automatic Series being the most expensive. Considering you can easily spend thousands on a luxury watch, and not forgetting the fact that each Filippo Loreti watch is a Limited Edition with only 1641 pieces of each style made, these watches are more than reasonably priced. Each watch also comes with a 10-year warranty, adding even more value.

In addition, if you purchase two or more Filippo Loreti watches, the company will throw in a luxury Collector’s Box (normally $200) at no extra charge.

Wrap-up

If the Venice Silver Heritage luxury watch by Filippo Loreti is any indication of the quality of the other watches offered by the company, and there’s no reason to think otherwise, the company is off to a fantastic start in offering affordable, quality, luxury watches directly to the public. Based on its build quality, materials used, attractive design, and very affordable price point, the Filippo Loreti Venice Silver Heritage luxury watch is well deserving of a Top Pick of 2017 Award here at Techaeris.

*We were sent a sample of the Filippo Loreti Venice Silver Heritage watch for the purposes of this review.

Last Updated on July 11, 2018.