Modern materials fuse with time-honoured craft and a touch of je ne sais quoi resulting in a new limited-edition sport watch from gallic watchmaker March LA.B.
If you’re an obsessive watch enthusiast, the chances are you’ll be familiar with, or at least aware, of idiosyncratic French brand March LA.B, best-known for their ‘shaped watches’ collection, comprising the AM2 and Mansart. What you might not know if that they also offer ‘Surf’ watches, comprising the Bonzer and the Belza. Flying under the radar and being more conventional, they still offer enough distinction and retro chic to be uniquely March LA.B. I’ll be taking a closer look at the latest watch in the Belza collection, the lightweight Belza Titanium.
March LA.B Belza Collection Overview
In a way it’s surprising that the ‘surf ‘watches aren’t a more prominent collection for March LA.B as the link to the brand’s ethos is strongest. The founders are all based in surfing meccas and it was their shared passion for surfing that first united them and their love of watches that drove them to set up March LA.B. Jerome Mage is based in Los Angeles, California, whist Alain Marhic and Joseph Chatel are based in Biarritz, France. And it’s Biarritz that’s the inspiration behind the Belza. Dominating the northern end of Biarritz’s famous La Côte des Basques beach (a haven for surfers) is the majestic and iconic Belza, a neo-medieval style villa built by Parisian businessman Ange Dufresnay in 1882 as an ode to his wife. Sitting high above the ocean, the Belza is now best-known as a cultural landmark and useful beacon for longboarders riding the waves. Californian surfer Peter Viertel was one of first to ride there and in 1959, together with a group of friends, he opened the legendary Waikiki Surf Club.
March LA.B pitch the BELZA (together with sister range, the Bonzer) as a watch built for performance that’s designed by surfers, for surfers. Priced at €2295 the BELZA titanium has a two-year warranty, is limited to just 99 pieces and launches today (20 November 2025). It joins five other watches within the Belza range all designed and assembled in France, measuring 40mm and powered by the La Joux-Perret G100 automatic movement. Besides being the only BELZA to be crafted from grade 2 titanium, the Belza titanium is extra special due to its extremely low production numbers and the strap which is crafted by renowned masters of spinning a yarn, high-end fabric strap maker Julien Faure.
Belza Titanium: The Case
This 40mm watch is made from grade 2 titanium, has a lug-to-lug measurement of 46mm and is 14.5mm thick. The watch weighs a mere 71 grammes, which includes the strap. Compared to most of March LA.B’s watches the BELZA has a relatively simple case profile, but the geometry is bold and modern. The entire case has a striking gunmetal grey sand-blasted finish giving it an industrial, purposeful, tool-watch aesthetic. The mid-case has vertical sides that meet the angular lugs at a sharp crease, making them look quite architectural. The lugs jut out slightly from the main case and the underside is slightly curved to help the watch hug the wrist more. The lugs are well-designed and have clearly been considered from every angle. The top surfaces are straight cut, but slope down towards the outer edge of the case and the narrowing facets to the inner continue through to the squared off ends, a subtle but nice touch.
The lugs are drilled to the nine o’clock side only and the strap is secured by single-sided screw-in bars which feed through hollow tubes that help provide additional strength and structure for the strap. The rear of the case between the lugs is undercut to allow easier strap movement. In typical March LA.B style, the heavily knurled 6.5mm screw-down crown features signature ‘M’ elements taken from the logo and is located at 4 o’clock.
The sandblasted 120-click sloping, divers-style, countdown bezel again features a custom knurling pattern and a glossy scratch-resistant ceramic insert. The insert has deeply engraved Arabic numerals at 15, 30 and 45, a double ‘mirrored’ line at 12 o’clock and single hash marks for every five minutes between, all painted in silver. The bezel is quite shallow, but the knurling makes it very grippy and easy to operate. The double-domed box sapphire crystal rises above the bezel and has three layers of anti-reflective coating applied to the inside, although I had to say I still found the sapphire crystal to be very reflective. It’s a shame that 99% of the time the wearer will never get to see the caseback engraving, as the strap will be covering it even when you take the watch off.
However, if you were to release the strap and flip the watch over, you’re faced with a screw-down caseback with a polished central section that is engraved with a beautiful depiction of Villa Belza (the only part of the entire watch that is polished). Water resistance is a generous 200 metres, more than any surfer would ever need!
The level of comfort on the wrist is very good, but I wouldn’t say the watch is all that versatile due the case’s unnecessary thickness. So, if you’re looking for a GADA watch that spans a day at the beach and a day at the office, the Belza might not be the watch for you, especially if you like wearing tailored shirts. And that’s before you’ve accounted for the extra height of the strap which sits between the watch head and your wrist.
The Julien Faure Strap
It’s very rare, in fact unheard of, for me to create whole sub-section dedicated to the strap of a watch, but the Belza Titanium has a rather special strap that’s worthy of some copy. At a glance, you could be forgiven for thinking that the strap is just a simple NATO-style strap. However, the 20mm khaki green jacquard strap is woven in France by none other than Manufacturer Julien Faure, better known for their collaborations with Tudor in the watch world, as well as endless high-end fashion brands including Louis Vuitton and Christian Lauboutin.
The diagonal cross-hatched design is quite simple with a green-over-black colour theme continuing that found in the watch itself. There is one fixed and one floating keeper, and the floating keeper is stitched with the French flag to the reverse, a nice little easter egg! The tail end is curved and stitched with a brighter green edging detail and the reverse of the strap is softer black fabric. It’s an extremely pliable and thin strap, making it a joy to wear, with one of the nicest titanium pin buckles I’ve seen on a watch at this price point. The thinness of the strap is both a plus and a negative. On the one hand, because it threads through between the watch head and your wrist, you want it to be thin so that it doesn’t add unnecessary height to the watch. However, the flipside is that is does seem a little insubstantial and disproportionate in relation to the chunky case. There is no bracelet option available with this watch, but of course you could always add your own strap. Just bear in mind that if you want to reuse the March LA.B buckle any replacement strap will need to have a 20mm-wide buckle end.
The Movement
I admire that March LA.B has used the Swiss La Joux-Perret G100 movement instead of the more typical Sellita SW200. Machined in Switzerland and assembled in France, this 24-jewelled automatic movement offers more power reserve (68 hours as opposed to 38 hours) and March LA.B claim a precision range between – 4 and + 6 seconds per day. It has a uni-directional tungsten rotor with galvanized palladium coating. The balance is fitted with a KIF anti- shock system and an ETACHRON-style watch regulator system allows fine adjustment. Winding is a little gritty, and the rotor noise is considerable compared to Sellita or ETA, but the crown action is positive and lock-down is good. Long-term reliability is untested as the movement only debuted in 2021, but Citizen own La Joux-Perret, so it’s safe to assume that it should prove to be very reliable.
The Dial and Hands
The matt black dial features a debossed wave pattern which brings some added interest to the dial and is the most obvious nod to its surfing pedigree. Working from the outside in, a white printed minute/seconds track has longer hash marks denoting every full minute/second with smaller hash marks for fractions. Small round lume pips break up the minute track at five-minute intervals, but the one at 3 o’clock is omitted to make room for the date. Silver applied baton-shaped hour markers help bring some depth to the dial and are filled with Super-LumiNova which glows green to aid legibility in low light. The 12 o’clock applied hour marker is omitted in favour of the March LA.B applied logo, and in place of the 6 o’clock marker is the ‘Belza’ inscription and ‘Made in France’, printed in white. A really cool little touch is that italic ‘Belza’ is actually lumed! At three o’clock sits a white-on-black date window surrounded by a bevelled silver frame and, as is common to all March LA.B watches, at the third of every month the colour of the date changes to the brand’s signature green. The polished hour and minute hands are broad but narrowing batons which are bevelled to either side of the central lume strips, whilst the stick seconds hand has a round lume pip that sweeps around the dial just inside the hour markers. I found the lume strength to be ok, but certainly a long way from being class-leading, and it would be better if the bezel was also lumed.
Final Thoughts On The March LA.B Belza Titanium
For me the BELZA Titanium is a tale of two halves. As always, I love the fact that March LA.B does things their own way, with some typically quirky details, signature styles and flourishes on show here such as the lumed model name, 4 o’clock crown and branded knurling. The asking price is punchy, but at least it is a limited edition of just 99, so it’ll be a genuinely rare watch. And let’s not forget the premium materials used. The gunmetal grey sandblasted titanium case is tough, looks great and is incredibly light which is a good thing, because at 14.5mm thick it’s a chunky watch so anything to help keep comfort levels good is a welcome thing! Other negatives include the small font used for the date window, the distinctly average lume and the lack of a bracelet option. Besides these minor practical downsides though, perhaps my biggest issue with this watch is the disconnect between its ‘surf’ designation and the colours of this watch which to me say more ‘murky waters of British lakes’ than it does ‘sunkissed shores of Southern France’. Along with strong contrast and impeccable legibility, you’d expect (or at least I would) a surf watch to have bright colours or at least bright accent colours, but instead the Belza comprises muddy green and dark grey and black. I think this comes from the brands creatively restrictive obsession with using March LA.B green at every possible opportunity. On the flipside, at least the specifications are surf-worthy. The 200 meters of water resistance is more than enough for divers, let alone surfers. The grippy bezel will be appreciated by wet or gloved hands, and the ceramic bezel insert will stand up to knocks and scrapes. The box sapphire adds character (at the expense of legibility), and partnering with Julien Faure for the strap is an admirable decision. Not only is it a lovely strap, but it also shows that March LA.B put their money where their mouth is in regard to living their philosophy of being proudly French wherever they can!
The Belza Titanium is certainly an interesting ‘off the beaten path’ proposition, but are the downsides too much of a compromise for you? We’d love to hear your thoughts below…
