Gorilla Fastback Legacy Full Carbon Review

About a month ago we reviewed the Drift Mercury Wandering Hours watch from Gorilla Watches. Gorilla was founded by my favorite watch designer Octavio Garcia in 2016 after he spent time at Omega and Audemars Piguet. Since Gorilla is Octavio's brand he is free to follow his true design sense and create pieces that were truly his own.

If you want to read a lot more back story on both Octavio and Gorilla, please read through our review of the Drift Mercury where we cover both in great detail: Gorilla Drift Mercury Wandering Hours Review

Octavio and Gorilla have been nothing but extremely nice to us and put up with my constant pestering for them to send us a watch to review. Much to my surprise Gorilla ended up sending two watches for us to review. One being the Drift Mercury that we previously reviewed and the other being the Fastback Legacy in full carbon. The Fastback Legacy was produced as a special edition to celebrate the 5th anniversary of the Fastback collection.



The watches actually arrived the morning we were leaving for a weekend trip to the beach and I decided to take the Fastback Legacy with me for the trip. Typically I tend to only wear round or barrel shaped (Royal Oak style) watches, so committing to a square shaped watch for a few days made me a bit nervous. The last time I wore a square or tonneau shaped watch was decades ago when I wore the newly released Richard Mille RM05 for a few weeks. Now my memory is a bit hazy at this point in my life, but I do remember the watch never grew on me and I left severely disappointed.

The first part of our trip was the four hour drive to the coast from our house just west of Austin. I remember at first the watch felt a bit weird but after an hour or so I completely forgot about the watch on my wrist. I'm sure a lot had to do with how well the Fastback Legacy fit my wrist but also how lightweight the watch was being crafted fully out of forged carbon and titanium.



The trip was a blast and I wore the Fastback Legacy the entire time, be it at the beach, in the pool, going to dinner or just hanging out. I had always liked the designs Octavio did for Gorilla, but seeing and handling them in person is a huge difference from just seeing static images online. I'd say these watches are masterpieces if you enjoy forward thinking watches that are crafted out of high tech materials like I do.

My first impressions of the Gorilla Fastback Legacy was somewhat rushed since we only had less than an hour before we had to leave for our trip to look over the watch. The thing that really stood out instantly was how nice of an overall package the Fastback Legacy was. The forged carbon just looks stunning in person and has a more structured layered look than typical forged carbon which has a random marbled pattern. The red anodized aluminum layer separating the bezel from the mid case also has an amazing shine to it and really catches your eye. The large crown and crown guards also nicely frame the watch. I think I spent the first 20 minutes of our drive telling my wife how nice the watch was.



The next thing I noticed was how lightweight the watch was. The Fastback Legacy is a big watch and you'd assume that it has a good deal of heft behind it. The watch only weighs 113 grams which isn't feather light, but for its size is super lightweight. If this watch was made out of stainless steel, I feel the watch would be far too heavy. 113 grams is actually around what some much smaller titanium watches we've had in for review recently weigh, so it's super impressive that Gorilla was able to keep the weight down so much on this piece.

Speaking about size, the final thing I noticed about the Gorilla Fastback Legacy was its size. The case diameter of the watch is 44 mm when measured from left to right and the lug to lug is 57.2 mm. The dimensions are a bit misleading though since the Fastback Legacy contours so nicely to your wrist that the watch would actually fit on a smaller wrist. My IWC Big Pilot Perpetual Calendar Top Gun has a 48 mm case diameter and nearly 60 mm lug to lug length and could never be pulled off on a smaller wrist due to the traditional lugs. My Blancpain Fifty Fathoms 500 Fathoms is also 48 mm but only has a 53 mm lug to lug, but would also look out of place on a smaller wrist since the dial and bezel are so prominent making the watch look bigger than it is. It's awesome that Octavio was able to design a watch so large that will work on a variety of wrist sizes. If the Fastback Legacy is just too big for you, Gorilla also offers 39 mm versions with a similar design aesthetic. The current trend has been towards smaller watches, but trends are cyclical and I feel larger watches will make a comeback sooner than later.



Now that we've gone over my initial impressions of the Gorilla Fastback Legacy let's take a look at its technical specifications. The watch is crafted out of forged carbon and titanium and has a case diameter of 44 mm with a lug to lug length of 57.2 mm. We measured the thickest part of the watch at 14 mm and it weighed in at 113 grams on our scale.

The Fastback Legacy has a raised flat sapphire crystal with a double coating of anti-reflective material. The coating does a great job of stopping reflections since I was always able to see the dial even in the brightest sunlight and also underwater. Under the crystal clear sapphire the dial is composed of forged carbon and anodized aluminum. The ring comprising of the Arabic minute markers is done in a marbled forged carbon which contrasts nicely with the layered forged carbon of the bezel. The inner disc of the dial is crafted out of black anodized aluminum and breaks up the carbon of the bezel and outer dial nicely.



The Gorilla Fastback Legacy forgoes using hour markers and instead uses twelve Arabic numerals for every 5 minute increment from 05 through 60. There are also twelve block markers on the inside and outside of the dial that can be used as hour markers. The inner markers as well as the Arabic minutes and hour, minute and seconds hands are covered in Super-Luminova which glow a brilliant green in low light situations. Around the outside of the dial is also a printed minutes ring done in white and red. Finally the Gorilla logo is found at 12 o'clock at the center of the dial.

One big advantage of having printed minute markers is that the Fastback Legacy can be used as a dive watch with the minutes used as a dive scale without needing a dive bezel. The watch is rated for 100 meters of water resistance, which is more than enough for light recreational diving as well. The large red minutes hand even brings back memories of the oversized orange minute hands used on classic divers of the 50s, 60s and 70s. When you start your dive, you would just set your minute hand to 60 (or 0) and a quick glance at the watch would tell you how long your dive has been. You could also use this method for timing any event without the need of a chronograph. The hour hand is also an interesting design with the hand being part of a triangle of hands with the other two being skeletonized and it being covered in white Super-Luminova. The three hands are all contained within a circle which rotates around the bezel and the third of the circle directly opposite the hour hand is covered in white.



Moving on from the dial, next we'll take at look at the bezel. The bezel of the Fastback Legacy is made completely out of layered forged carbon fiber and has alternating rows of black and dark grey carbon in perfectly symmetrical lines. I've never really seen forged carbon look like this on a watch, typically when dealing with carbon you either have the traditional carbon fiber weave or the marble forged carbon pattern seen on the dial. The bezel also shows four exposed bolts which are used to hold the multi-part case together. This is also a nice throwback to Octavio's time at Audemars Piguet where he designed in my opinion the best Royal Oak Offshores ever released with similar bolts on their bezels.

Between the forged carbon bezel and mid-case there is a bright red ring of anodized aluminum. The ring actually does a great job of breaking up all the blacks and greys of the carbon and really focuses your eyes on the stunning bezel and dial. It's not a design element I would have ever thought of, but it really adds a lot to the overall design of the watch.



Turning the watch on its side shows off yet another form of forged carbon. While the dial uses the marbled forged carbon look and the bezel uses layered forged carbon, the mid-case uses matte forged carbon. The carbon while matte in color does have repeating horizontal lines running throughout the case. Once again, I think the additional of these lines breaks up the large areas of black carbon and gives the watch a nice texture to the touch.

The right hand side of the Fastback Legacy features large crown guards as well as an oversized crown. Octavio's first design project at Audemars Piguet was the Royal Oak Offshore Montoya, which I proudly own, that was the first Offshore to feature larger crown guards and crown. Previously Offshore models had smaller crowns and small round pushers. This design element was later used in the entire Offshore collection. On the Fastback Legacy the crown guards are made from forged carbon while the crown is three sided and done in titanium.



The screw-down crown aids in the Fastback Legacy's 100 meters of water resistance and when un-screwed allows you to wind the automatic movement in its resting position. There is no date featured on the watch, so position one doesn't really do anything. Pulling the crown out to position two allows you to set the time and also stops the seconds hand. Pushing the crown back in causes no jump in the minutes hand and screwing the crown back in is simple and requires no additional care to get it to catch.

Flipping the watch over shows off the solid brushed titanium case back engraved with the Gorilla logo. Underneath the case back is the Japanese made Miyota 8215 automatic movement. The Miyota 8215 beats away at 21,600 vph (3Hz) and has a power reserve of 42 hours. Miyota says the accuracy of the 8215 to be -20 to +45 seconds per day, on our timegrapher the movement had an accuracy of +5 seconds per day averaged over several positions. This result is much better than the quoted accuracy from Miyota and even within chronometer specs. A nice thing about the Miyota 8215 is that any local watchmaker should be able to service and repair the movement.



The Fastback Legacy has a lug width of 32 mm and comes on a red and black FKM rubber strap. The strap tapers down to 24 mm at a Gorilla branded titanium pin buckle. The strap is incredibly supple and required zero time to break in and be very comfortable. The red and black color scheme of the strap compliments the black and red of the case and dial nicely. Since the strap is integrated into the case of the watch you are limited to purchasing additional straps from Gorilla. Gorilla does offer a wide range of colors and materials for their straps, so there are a lot of options available if you want to change the look of the Fastback Legacy.

I have spent a lot of time wearing the Gorilla Fastback Legacy and have become very familiar with it. As mentioned before the square case and red coloration initially gave me pause since the shape and color are typically not what I'm used to when it comes to watches. Over my time wearing the Fastback Legacy, I now love the case shape and feel the red and black color scheme goes perfectly with most outfits I wear.



The case back of the Fastback Legacy sits nice and flat on the top of your wrist and the sharply down facing lugs just wraps the watch around your wrist. With the rubber strap being so wide, even with the taper, the watch stays put on your wrist. Being large and only weighing 113 grams, the weight of the watch is nicely distributed over your wrist. This leads to an incredibly comfortable watch that never gave my wrist a second of wrist fatigue. Even on hot and humid days at the coast at the end of summer the Fastback Legacy was nothing but a pleasure to wear. The legibility and 100 meters of water resistance also allowed me to do anything I wanted without fear of damaging the watch. This included hours at the beach and in the pool. Another benefit to forged carbon besides it being lightweight is its toughness, I did bang the Fastback Legacy on a railing once while on vacation and the watch still looks brand new.



While wearing the Gorilla Fastback Legacy out, the watch attracted a ton of attention. Remember now we're living in a time where even laypeople know what a Richard Mille is, so when somebody sees a non-round watch that is made from such materials as forged carbon they stop to take a look. The combination of the watch's size, look of the carbon and red rubber strap really makes the watch stand out. I typically prefer less subtle watches, so this is perfect for me. I ended up showing the watch to a few strangers as well as a few friends and everyone was blown away by the watch. Most people were surprised when holding the watch how lightweight it was and also just loved the different looks of the forged carbon, especially the layered bezel. When I told people the price of the watch, everyone was stunned… like I said earlier Gorilla watches are just insane in hand.



Speaking of price, the Gorilla Fastback Legacy has a retail price of $980. Honestly for that price the watch is a steal. For under a thousand dollars you get a watch designed by one of the most respected designers in the industry and is made of such high end exotic materials as forged carbon fiber and titanium. You also get a very unique design that looks like nothing else on the market. Finally you get 100 meters of water resistance and a rock solid movement. Also remember Gorilla is a small brand and doesn't have the backing of a large watch group that lowers production costs. Octavio has been in the watch industry for a long time and has forged (no pun intended) a relationship with a lot of production facilities allowing him to create such interesting pieces. I feel that now would be a good time to look at some other watches that you could draw comparisons to and see how the Gorilla Fastback Legacy compares.

First up is the Squale T-183 which is a dedicated dive watch measuring 42 mm and is crafted out of forged carbon fiber. Like Gorilla, Squale is also a smaller independent brand that was most well known for crafting cases for dive watches for larger brands in the early days of dive watches. Being a dive watch, the Squale offers much more water resistance at 600 meters. The T-183 runs on a Swiss made Sellita movement with similar specs to the Miyota. The T-183 retails for nearly twice as much as the Fastback Legacy at $1,810.



Next up we have the Tudor Pelagos FXD which is 42 mm and made out of carbon composite. Like the Squale, the Tudor is also a dedicated dive watch with 200 meters of water resistance. As with the Squale, the Tudor has a well known dive watch aesthetic as opposed to the unique design of the Gorilla. The FXD does come with a manufacture movement offering 70 hours of power reserve. The Tudor FXD is also much more expensive than the Fastback Legacy at $3,850.

Moving on we have the Octo Finissimo from Bulgari. The model we're looking at is the forged carbon version with a case diameter of 40 mm. The Octo Finissimo brought Bulgari who is best known for their jewelry to the forefront of the watch world with its unique case design. Much like the Fastback Legacy, the Octo doesn't look like any other watch and is truly its own design. The Octo offers 100 meters of water resistance like the Fastback Legacy and is powered by an in-house Bulgari caliber offering 60 hours of power reserve. The carbon Octo Finissimo does sell for many multiples over the price of the Fastback Legacy at $27,600.



Finally for fun we have another carbon watch in the Richard Mille RM 35-01 Rafael Nadal which is crafted out of Carbon TPT. The RM 35-01 has a case diameter of 50 x 44.5 mm and has its own unique tonneau shaped case. Like the Fastback Legacy and Octo Finissimo, the RM 35-01 can be seen across a room and be identified, which is a testament to design. The RM 35-01 features a manufacture skeletonized caliber and offers 55 hours of power reserve and a splash worthy 50 meters of water resistance. The RM 35-01 starts at about $250,000 on the secondhand market and just goes up.



Looking at the above four watches you start to see how great of a value the Gorilla Fastback Legacy is. Even the least expensive watch in the group is twice as much as the Fastback Legacy and the most expensive is 250 times more. The Bulgari, Tudor and Richard Mille offer in-house or manufacture movements, but at a very large expense. The Sellita found in the Squale is recognized as a superior movement to the Miyota in the Fastback Legacy, but honestly in our testing both movements are pretty similar accuracy wise. Octavio spent the first part of his career at Omega designing some iconic models and then truly honed his skill at Audemars Piguet designing some of my favorite watches of all time. He brought all these years of experience to Gorilla and has released some amazing models at unbeatable prices.



So in the end, is the Gorilla Fastback Legacy for me? Yes it really is for me. I've had the Fastback Legacy for a few months and have spent a lot of time with the watch on wrist. My first experience with it was a solid four days wearing the watch and over that time I really grew to love it. The larger case size combined with lightweight high tech materials is right in line with my personal pieces. Most of my personal pieces have an over 50 mm lug to lug length and are made out of carbon, titanium or ceramic. The look of the watch is just stunning and the combination of materials just go so well together. With how tough the forged carbon is, I can also wear the Fastback Legacy and not stress every time I graze the watch off of something. I can't tell you how many times I've spend hours looking at one of my watches after I bump into something seeing if any damage had occurred, not something I need to worry about with the Fastback Legacy.

Would I recommend the Gorilla Fastback Legacy to somebody else? Naturally if I'd recommend the watch to myself, I'd have no issue giving my blessing to somebody else. At $980, it's pretty hard to go wrong with the Gorilla Fastback Legacy. People could argue about the use of the Miyota, but honestly their movements have only performed well in our testing. The Miyota is also key to keeping the price of the Fastback Legacy under one thousand dollars. The fit and finish of the Fastback Legacy along with the level of materials used in its case are as nice as anything seen in even six figure watches. Some might have an issue with case size, but the watch is able to fit smaller wrists if needed. Also Gorilla does offer 39 mm cases for those concerned with its size.



This is now the second watch we have reviewed from Octavio Garcia's brand Gorilla Watches. Both this Fastback Legacy and the Drift Mercury Wandering Hours have been amazing watches. The Drift Mercury is more of a showpiece for the brand given its wandering hours module and swiss made movement, with the Fastback Legacy being more of an everyday workhorse timepiece. Being such a fan of Octavio's designs put me in the position to be let down by the Gorilla offerings, but after experiencing the watches in the metal I am an even more of a fan.

I would really like to thank Octavio and Gorilla for sending us these two watches to review. They have served as great introductions to the brand and I'm truly excited to see what Gorilla does in the near future.



For more information about the Fastback Legacy please visit : Gorilla Watches

Technical Specifications

Reference Number: Fastback Legacy

Retail Price: $980

Case Size: 44 mm

Lug to Lug: 57.2 mm

Thickness: 14 mm

Weight: 113 Grams

Case Material: Forged Carbon, Titanium, Anodized Aluminum

Bezel: Forged Carbon

Strap: FMK Rubber Strap with a Titanium Pin Buckle

Movement: Miyota 8215 Japanese Automatic Movement

Functions: Hours, Minutes, Seconds

Power Reserve: 42 Hours

Water Resistance: 100 Meters