The Legend of Franck Muller - Westime

THE
LEGEND
o f
CHAPTER ONE
Part 1:
Who is Franck Muller?
Part 2:
Franck Muller and the Tourbillon
Part 3:
The Revolutionary Master Banker

ILLUSTRATION PK CHENG

CHAPTER I - PART I
WHO IS
Every genre of art and science has its
era-defining heroes, none more
so than in that unique merger
between mathematics and mayhem
known as mechanical timekeeping. With each
period in horology, one watchmaker has
stepped forward to be the definitive genius of
his time. Each of these men has not just
brought about advancements in watchmaking,
but also shaped our cultural destiny.
Though there have been many watchmakers
who have contributed enormously to the
landscape of the 20th century, there is one
individual whose impact has been extraordinary.
He would be the first great horological icon after
watchmaking faced its greatest threat ever. He
would usher in a new golden era for high
watchmaking that would simultaneously connect
its values to an all-new generation while
completely redefining the significance of the
wristwatch in contemporary culture.
His name is Franck Muller, and this is his story.
In many ways, Franck’s story stretches back
centuries before he was born. It began with the
ancient Sumerians as they first traced the
passage of the day. It has its roots in the mid-
14th century when Giovanni de’ Dondi of Padua
would create one of the most ambitious
instruments to capture the fleeting eternity we
perceive as time. De’ Dondi’s ambition was to
transcend the mere tracking of civil time and
communicate a greater revelation of our planet’s
orbit around the sun. His Astrarium was based
on the writings of the renowned astronomer
Johannes Campanus, and it was, simply
speaking, the most advanced astronomical clock
and planetarium of its time.
Franck’s story is similarly rooted in that of a
Yorkshire cabinetmaker turned horologist, John
Harrison. Determined to give England a clock
accurate enough to provide position at sea,
Harrison’s H4, presented in 1761, represented
31 years of unremitting labor and was the tool
that allowed man to navigate the world beyond
the horizon. Franck’s precursors include
Abraham-Louis Breguet, the consummate
showman and watchmaker whose iconic
inventions include the tourbillon regulator;
Christiaan Huygens, inventor of the hairspring;
Pierre Le Roy, innovator of the detent
escapement; Ferdinand Berthoud, fabricator of
the world’s most revered marine chronometers;
Charles Édouard Guillaume, Nobel Prizewinning
inventor of the thermal-compensating
balance spring material, Elinvar. But while each
of these men labored to bring a new chapter to
the story of high horology, Franck Muller’s
immense challenge would be to keep the story of
mechanical watchmaking itself alive.
The era in which he came to prominence
was when the watch industry attempted to
rebuild itself after suffering its most brutal
and devastating assault in its 300-year-old
history. It would be Franck who would
become its greatest vehicle for rebirth.
Franck would achieve this rebirth based on
three pillars. The first involved his reintroduction
of classical Swiss high watchmaking renewed
through aesthetic innovation and technical
audacity to an all-new audience. A chief example
of this is his introduction of one of watchmaking’s
most famous complications, the tourbillon
regulator, to the wristwatch. The second required
Franck to use his dexterity to meet the needs of
the modern world. A prime example of this is his
creation of the revolutionary Master Banker, a
watch that enables its user to simultaneously
keep track of three time zones. Finally, Franck
also transformed the watch from a precision
instrument into a canvas for the emotional
expression of time. His Crazy Hours watch
would delight and shock by creating a seemingly
random jumble of numbers on the dial, yet the
hands would always find their way to the correct
index as if guided by some divine intervention.
the young prodigy
Who is Franck Muller? He is part showman, part
technical prodigy… part impresario and part
elusive genius. Muller was born in 1958 to an
Italian mother and a Swiss father, and in many
ways, his equal footing in these cultures would
define the watchmaker he would become
because encoded within his DNA were the
design acumen, aesthetic bravado and reverence
for science that typified Italian watchmaking, as
well as the dedication to precision and the
respect for the traditional values that are at
the root of Swiss watch culture.
This concept of duality inhabiting Muller is
fitting indeed, because in many ways, he would
influence both the past and the future of
watchmaking. By reaching back to its historic
roots, he brought an all-new relevance to its
mythical language of complications; and
by transmitting the value of gearwheels,
hairsprings and balances to an all-new
contemporary world, he defined its future.
Franck enacted a rebirth for horology that
continues to be the single biggest influence
on the shape of contemporary horology today.
Says independent watchmaking legend, Philippe
Dufour, “What is clear is that without
Franck Muller, watchmaking would not exist
at the same level of cultural relevance as it
does today.” Michel Parmigiani, another
Swiss horological hero, states: “Franck
may very well be one of the most talented
individuals to take up the craft of watchmaking.”
“What is clear is
that without
franck muller,
watchmaking
would not exist
at the same level
of cultural
relevance as it
does today”
— independent
watchmaking legend,
philippe Dufour

CHAPTER I - PART I
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could see the disappointment in his eyes...
until one day, i came to him and explained
that i wanted to enter watchmaking
school. I said to him, ‘father, i will finish,
and when i graduate, it will be as the top
student” — Franck Muller
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CHAPTER I - PART II
AND THE TOURBILLON
What is particularly
extraordinary about Franck
Muller is that he was the first
great watchmaker to ply his
craft after the onset of the electronic era — a time
when mechanical instruments had been
superseded by electronic ones. Throughout
the ’70s, Swiss watchmaking was devastated
by easily produced, inexpensive, battery-driven
quartz watches which offered up a level of
precision which had heretofore never been
achieved by mechanical watches. It was amid
this period of massive retrenchment throughout
the industry, and uncertainty in the very
sustainability of horological culture, that
Muller would enter L’Ecole d’Horlogerie
deGenève (the Geneva School of Watchmaking).
Says Muller, “If it had not been for Nathan
Schmulowitz, one of the big watch experts at
Antiquorum — an auction house dedicated to
preserving the high arts of watchmaking — I
might have never become a watchmaker. I was 15
years old and had decided to make my career in
mosaic work because I was good with my hands. I
had come to his attention because I loved to work
on mechanical objects. Basically, I would
disassemble anything and try to put it back
together. Amused by me, Schmulowitz suggested
that I try my hand at watchmaking. I asked him,
‘But what if I don’t do well?’ You have to remember
that at that time, the watch industry was in peril,
the Swiss had retrenched 80,000 people,
factories were closing each day and major houses
were selling movements by the kilo. He jokingly
said, ‘Well, don’t worry if you fail — by the time
you graduate, there probably wouldn’t be any jobs
anyway!’ Of course, he was joking, because he
was still deeply passionate about horology. What
he wanted to see was whether I would become
infected with the same passion.” What is clear is
that even at this early age, Schmulowitz saw raw
talent in Muller. Says Franck, “Schmulowitz
believed that with so many people turning their
backs on watchmaking, there was a real threat
that there would be no one to take care of
the vast horological riches of the past.”
But such was Franck’s capacity to absorb
information that he soon proved himself to be a
prodigy. He explains, “I began watchmaking
school and finished in the accelerated program
in three years. I’d just turned 16 when I entered.
I took all of the top Swiss first prizes for student
watchmakers during this period. However, I
should point out that I was not always a good
student. In fact, previous to becoming a
watchmaker, I was a terrible student who was
consistently at the bottom of my class. It was
only when I became a watchmaker that I
discovered what I was talented at, what God
had put me on earth to do. And from the day
I stepped into watchmaking school, I never
scored anything less than a perfect mark.”
But delving deeper, Franck reveals a more
important emotionally resonant motivation for
his perfectionism. He states, “When I was young,
in the classroom, I always tried to stay focused on
the book in front of me, but my eyes were always
drawn to the birds outside. I have a brother
and he was always the top student in our class
and I was always the worst. At the end of each
semester, my father would look at our grades and
I could see the disappointment in his eyes.
This lasted all the way until one day, I came to him
and explained that I wanted to enter
watchmaking school. He asked me, ‘Are you sure
you will finish?’ I said to him, ‘Father, I will finish,
and when I graduate, it will be as the top student.’
When I did, I could see that finally, he was proud.
Unfortunately, he died not long after, and so, he
never really saw what I became and what
I ultimately achieved in watchmaking.”
Passion was what drove Franck, and the more
he plunged into horology, the more he began to
understand its cultural significance. “It would
have been impossible to do well in watchmaking
school if I wasn’t passionate, if watches had not
resonated for me on an emotional level. It was as
if using my hands and mind, I could understand a
universal language that God had bestowed on
man. It was a language that transcended all
cultures. Time was a language that was understood
in every civilized corner of earth and the fact
that we could create these extraordinary
machines was, to me, something extraordinary…
I have often said that if you break a watch
down to its basic components — wheels, springs…
just pieces of metal — it is a miracle that it
works at all. That it must work constantly, that
it is the sole device ever created by man that
is asked to function flawlessly, 24 hours a day,
365 days a year… is something truly incredible.”
As he neared completion of his studies, the
seeds of a dream began to germinate. But he kept
his desire hidden from even his closest friends for
several years. He explains, “I had the idea to
create a brand almost immediately after I left
watchmaking school. I could already see clearly
in my mind what I wanted to do, which was to
elevate this language of watchmaking to an even
higher level of expression. I wanted to create an
evolution that would unveil hidden truths about
the way human beings express time. I wanted to
connect the values of traditional Swiss horology
to the contemporary world. But of course, I had
no money to start my own brand. Fortunately, the
beginning of my brand came about thanks
to another Swiss brand called Rolex.”
Franck explains, “One of the prizes I won for
being the top student in Switzerland was a watch
from Rolex. I have gone on record stating that
from the perspective of value and function,
Rolexes are probably the best watches in the
world. But when I wore this watch, I felt it was too
simple. So, I decided to transform it into a
perpetual calendar with retrograde indications.
The idea was to do this without making
the movement any bigger. So, I removed
the Datejust mechanism and, in the same space,
created this retrograde perpetual calendar.
You must bear in mind that I did this in 1978, and
at the time, there was no such thing as
a retrograde perpetual calendar wristwatch.”

Franck Muller's very first wristwatch tourbillon incorporated
a jump-hour complication with hands; this model, the Franck
Muller Cintrée Curvex Jumping Hour Tourbillon replaced the
hour hand with a jump-hour aperture
Today, Watchland carries all the pioneering
values of Franck Muller that are expressed in
every one of its timepieces

CHAPTER I - PART II
Franck continues, “The watch they had given
me was signed Rolex and had my name on it
because I had won the top prize. So when I created
a new dial for the watch, I signed it ‘Rolex and
Franck Muller’ out of respect for the brand.
Then I took the watch to Rolex and I showed it to
them because it was my idea to produce it for
the brand. I remember that I met with an
enormous office of Rolex engineers. They tested it
for several days, but decided finally not to produce
it. They explained that the philosophy of
Rolex was to produce the simplest but most
reliable watch possible. They said reliability
and simplicity was their religion.”
But as it happened, collectors had already
caught wind of the unique timepiece which the
young upstart watchmaker had created. Franck
immediately capitalized on this, “I sold this watch
to pay for all my watchmaking instruments. At that
time, it was the only way for me to raise the capital.
Incredibly, this watch ended up setting a record
for a steel watch two years after I sold it. I sold
the watch for 10,000 Swiss francs to a
gentleman named Francis Meyer. His father was
an extraordinary pocket watch collector and they
are a very well-known family in horology. He sold
it to an Italian distributor of watches, who then
sold it to a collector in Monaco for 400,000
Swiss francs. And so, I had the record for the
most expensive steel wristwatch ever sold.
This record stood for five years. Years later, I
tracked down the current owner of the watch, a
Japanese collector residing in New York.
I made him a generous offer to buy the timepiece
back, but he turned me down."
Before Franck Muller embarked on his solo
career, he realized that he still needed to plunge
into the world of practical watchmaking as well as
that of watch and clock restoration. He found the
ideal teacher in Svend Anderson, who was, in
many ways, a throwback who preferred to work
using the time-honored methods of high
watchmaking. Franck benefited greatly from this.
He explains, “The beginning of my story in
watchmaking coincided precisely with the end of
traditional high watchmaking. Previous to the
modern age, watches were made almost entirely
by hand. The designs for watches began entirely
within the minds of watchmakers. There were no
computer programs to perform simulated testing
on complicated mechanisms. So with each
watch, you ran an enormous risk, because in
the end, you never knew if it would work or not.”
This was the way high watchmaking worked for
several hundred years. Then came the Quartz
Crisis in the ’70s. In the ’80s, as the watch
industry rebuilt itself, it did so using a fantastically
powerful tool called the computer. The computer
could assist machines to create complex parts,
and it enabled technicians and micro-engineers
to enter horology using their ability in threedimensional
rendering. It also allowed rapid
prototyping. In short, the computer changed the
watch industry forever. But in so doing, it also
took something from watchmaking: it took a bit of
that ineffable human spirit and diminished in
some way the measure of soul that went into each
watch; it unraveled the time-honored equation of
Franck muller
understood that
if the emotional
impact of the
tourbillon was the
main criterion, then
the mechanism had
to be placed where
it was most readily
visible
the watchmaker pitting his intellect, creativity,
manual dexterity and internal fortitude against
the laws of physics. It was no longer a matter of
man literally trying to bend time to his will — it
became an age of automation. Franck Muller was
the rare watchmaker with equal abilities in
both traditional and modern watchmaking.
Though, as he describes it, the path to knowledge
in traditional watchmaking was akin to the
cruel tutelage of ancient kung fu masters.
Franck explains, “Because everything was made
by hand, the world of watchmaking was an
immense world of secrets. Every great watchmaker
had his secrets, his method to make time obey
him, to activate the heartbeat inside the watch.
Watchmakers were paid for the movements they
made. A big brand would approach us and say,
‘Make me 10 movements with these specifications,’
but they wouldn’t tell you how to make it, because
they didn’t know. So, each watchmaker was
responsible for delivering the best movements
he could, but in a way that was most efficient for
him. As a result, watchmakers developed their
own techniques. They made their own tools to
solve certain problems, and when they were done
with their job, they would lock all the tools away
inside a drawer or box and keep all their techniques
buried in the recesses of their own minds.”
When asked how a student would learn the
secrets of his master, Franck laughs and replies,
“There was one way to gain the secrets of these
old masters, but it was a hard path to follow. You
would have to become their apprentice and labor
for them in any capacity they wished. Then if they
trusted you, they would allow you to watch them.
But they would never explain anything, so you
had to unravel the secrets as they worked.
You had to memorize each move and
comprehend the underlying logic of their
technique without ever uttering a word or
receiving one iota of instruction. This was the
ancient way in which secrets were passed from
master to pupil for centuries, and it guaranteed
that these secrets would only be passed to
watchmakers skilled enough to receive them. In
many ways, it was a form of natural selection.”
Franck soon proved himself an extraordinarily
fast learner: “My secret was that I could repeat
what I saw quite easily from memory. After Svend
Anderson demonstrated something, I would
immediately sit down at my bench and repeat it.
Anderson was very strict. He would examine what
I did with a 3x loupe. If there was even the smallest
imperfection, he would simply throw the part
away. I always worked without a loupe — I’ve
never worn one as I have a very good eye.
But when it came time for Anderson to check
the part that I had made, I would always preexamine
it with a 10x loupe. My rationale was that
if I cannot find any flaw at a magnification of 10,
he won’t find any at a magnification of three.”
Throughout his days with Svend Anderson,
Muller labored incessantly, soaking up
information and plunging into the past to see how
old masters solved the age-old riddles of
measuring time. It was during his immersion in
the restoration of some of history’s most
extraordinary timepieces that a vision for his first

The tourbillon
was invented by
A. L. Breguet to
improve precision
in watchmaking, but
Franck Muller has
turned it into a device
that captures
and expresses emotion
FRANCK MULLER'S
1986 WORLD PREMIÈRE
Franck Muller’s 1986 World Première — a
tourbillon with jump hour and regulatortype
dial
Franck Muller realized
that the pocket watches
with the most commercial
potential were those
featuring Breguet’s famous
tourbillon regulator (shown
here in the Breguet No.
1188). This gave him the
inspiration to transport the
tourbillon to the wristwatch
with one major change —
the tourbillon would be
featured dial-side
wristwatch coalesced in his mind. And when
he finally did launch his brand, Franck would
reach into horology’s past and transport one
of its most iconic technical innovations into
his first wristwatches.
Says Franck, “I was the first to put a tourbillon
inside of a wristwatch. The idea came to me during
the time I spent restoring antique pocket watches.
This was a fantastic period. I was restoring some
of the most famous watches and clocks ever made
for Antiquorum, and later, for the famous
museums as well. [It is well known that Muller
and Svend Anderson restored the watches in the
Patek Philippe Museum.] Watches would arrive
and they would be missing key components, so we
had to remake these but at the same time find
historical documentation for the missing pieces,
as well as interpret the horological language of
the master who had fabricated them. I noticed
around this time that the watches most
avidly collected were the tourbillons.”
Muller was quick to understand the attraction
of the tourbillon. Patented in 1801, the device
placed all the regulating components of the watch
— essentially the parts that comprised its heart:
the hairspring, balance and escapement — inside
a cage that rotated on its own axis. This cage
averaged out the positional errors (such as those
caused by the non-concentric “breathing” of the
hairspring) due to gravity, which are the most
exaggerated when a watch is in the vertical
positions. But Franck began to look beyond
the simple pragmatic benefits of the tourbillon.
He explains, “When the tourbillon was first
created, it was invented out of the need for
precision, because of the negative impact of
gravity on watches in the vertical position.
But today, the rationale for a tourbillon is
very different. If you want a truly precise watch,
then you’ll get a quartz watch or you can use
your mobile phone. But precision is no longer
the goal. Today, these watches are more like
works of art which demonstrate what is
possible through human craftsmanship, and
engage the user on the emotional level.”
But Franck also understood that if the emotional
impact of the tourbillon was the main criterion,
then the mechanism had to be placed where it
was most readily visible. He explains, “When I
made my wristwatch tourbillon, I decided to do
one thing very differently than what you would
find in the pocket watches. I decided to put
the tourbillon on the front of the dial, because,
after all, this was what the customer was paying
for. This was the technical marvel, so why not
make it the star? This way, someone who
bought my watch could immediately show
his friends that his watch contained a tourbillon.”
Look at any Franck Muller tourbillon
wristwatch today and you’d be magnetically
drawn into its magnificent microcosm: the
constantly rotating cage and oscillating balance
wheel that are reinforcements of the living persona
of the mechanical watch. Says Franck, “We were
living in a new era, a time when people
were enjoying life. They were living life to the
fullest and they wanted new symbols of success,
and the tourbillon was it. As such, it was introduced
into the lexicon of mainstream luxury.”

FRANCK MULLER'S
LONG ISLAND TOURBILLON
The Franck Muller Long Island Tourbillon Minute
Repeater showcases Franck Muller's talent for
combining various complications in one timepiece

CHAPTER I - PART II
the franck muller world premiÈres
1987 World Première
Tourbillon with minute repeater and partially
skeletonized dial exposing movement components
decorated in Empire style
1989 World Première
Inverted tourbillon with minute repeater and
perpetual calendar
1990 World Première
Split-seconds chronograph with tourbillon on the
back of the movement
1990 World Première
Minute repeater with world time read off a rotating
bezel on which the principal cities of the world
are marked
1991 World Première
Monopusher chronograph with world time
and pulsometric reading on the back
1992 World Première
Grande and petite sonnerie, minute repeater,
perpetual calendar, 24-hour moonphase indicator
and indicator for the internal temperature of
the mechanism
THE DREAM OF A BRAND
Muller’s announcement of his brand came soon
after he and several other watchmakers decided
to revive a famous Geneva watchmaking guild.
He explains, “At that time, the three independent
watchmakers who were working in Geneva were
me, Svend Anderson and Roger Dubuis.
The three of us decided to get together and
recreate the famous guild known as the
Cabinotiers de Genève, which was a group
that comprised various artisans needed to make
a complete watch: enamelers, casemakers,
dialmakers, engravers and watchmakers. Michel
Parmigiani and Philippe Dufour were the two
other famous watchmakers at the time; however,
as they lived in Fleurier and Le Sentier respectively,
they were not eligible for membership. We did,
of course, grant them honorary status because
of their extraordinary abilities.”
But amusingly, Muller’s declaration that he
would start his own brand was met with collective
puzzlement: “One day, I said to the committee, ‘I
am going to stop working on pocket watches.’
They asked, ‘What are you going to make then?’
At that time, I saw that there were two groups of
watch collectors: the very traditional collectors of
high complications who were primarily interested
in complicated pocket watches, and a new
contemporary audience that was increasingly
interested in wristwatches. However, this was
before the era of complicated wristwatches. So I
told them, ‘I would like to take the traditional
Swiss high complications and bring them into the
wristwatch world. I have been analyzing the
market and the pocket watch that brings the
highest premium is the tourbillon. So, I will create
a wristwatch tourbillon.’ They, of course, replied,
‘You’re crazy. Who are you to make a watch? You
are not a brand, who will buy your watch?’ You
see, at that time, watchmakers were not stars —
they generally worked behind the scenes.
They labored at the behest of big-name brands,
as this had traditionally been the relationship
for centuries. My response was naïve, but also, I
like to think, realistic. I said, ‘Before
Patek decided to start his company, he was
just an individual.’ My point was that
everyone has to begin somewhere!”
Franck knew that without the communication
budget of a major brand, the watch he created had
to generate enormous attention. He began
rethinking his ideas for it, “I was not satisfied
with a simple tourbillon. I wanted the watch to
have a jump-hour indication — not an analog
indication, but one that used hands to remain
classic-looking because at that time, the analog
indication was too reminiscent of quartz. The

the franck muller world premiÈres
1992 World Première
Tourbillon with split-seconds chronograph
and perpetual calendar
1992 World Première
Double-face chronograph with time, split-seconds
and tachometric scale on first dial, and telemetric,
pulsometric and tachometric readings on
second dial
1993 World Première
Split-seconds chronograph, minute repeater,
perpetual calendar, 24-hour moonphase indicator
and indicator for the internal temperature of
the mechanism
1993 World Première
Minute repeater with striking indicator
1994 World Première
Double jump hour and calendar with independent
second time zone
1994 World Première
Chronograph with perpetual calendar and
monthly retrograde equation
idea was to have the maximum dial-side animation
possible so the drama of a jump-hour hand would
elevate the kinetic energy of the watch significantly.
What was nice about the watch was that you had
the contrast of the tourbillon cage rotating once
ever 60 seconds, and at the beginning of each
hour, the hands would jump with this explosion of
energy. The tension between these two movements
was very exciting. Also, I knew that in order to
make a name for myself, I had to create something
that the world had never seen before, something
that was daring yet which even the most refined
collector would recognize as being horologically
legitimate. In 1984, I completed this watch
and presented it to the public. I sold it right
away. The following year, I created a regulatordial
version of the tourbillon.”
At the same time, Muller and his friends at the
guild were bestowed a large honor which helped
them gain even greater visibility. He recalls, “Our
group was contracted to make a 10-piece
production run of timepieces to celebrate the
anniversary of the watch museum in Geneva. This
really irritated some of the bigger brands — or
rather, it made them nervous, I think, because
they did not want the public to be aware that we
were the people who were behind some of their
most famous timepieces. This was not really our
intention, but we wanted to be given a voice. As
such, in 1985, we decided to create the AHCI
[Académie Horlogère des Créateurs
Indépendants], which today consists of 35 of the
world’s greatest independent watchmakers, to
celebrate and clearly put the spotlight on the work
of independent watchmakers. Now that we were
gaining momentum, I knew I had to submit
something extraordinary. I was determined to
create the world’s first-ever tourbillon minuterepeater
wristwatch. At that time, the tourbillon
for this watch was still at the back of the
movement. Later in 1989, I wanted to make it
even more complicated, so I created a tourbillon
minute repeater with perpetual calendar, and
with the tourbillon on the dial-side of the watch.
This was very difficult because you had to move
the minute repeater mechanism and also the
perpetual calendar just so the tourbillon could
turn on the front of the dial. It took years of
work, and in the end, until the watch started
beating, you had no idea whether it would
work because no one had ever done it before!”
With each successive watch, Franck Muller’s
fame grew. Soon, some of the world’s most famous
watch collectors were tracking him down in his
small Geneva atelier, but his work continued,
unimpeded by the success: “After I created the
tourbillon minute repeater, I went after an even

FRANCK MULLER'S
IMPERIAL TOURBILLON
Not only is the visibility of the Imperial Tourbillon
enhanced by bringing it up to the level of the dial, it is
also finished by hand

Every Franck Muller tourbillon cage is
finished using either engraving as seen
on the opposite page or spéculaire (a
polish so perfect it reflects no light) as
seen on this page

CHAPTER I - PART II
more elusive goal, which was to create the world’s
first tourbillon with split-seconds chronograph.
Not many people realize that a chronograph
is actually one of the most difficult mechanisms
to create, and a split-seconds chronograph
that enables the user to measure split times is
even more crazy. I did not use an isolator
mechanism for the split-seconds mechanism;
instead, I used a big gold balance wheel with
enormous inertia, so much so that the split
function could be left on for up to three minutes
without the balance’s amplitude being affected.”
Muller’s thirst for ever- mounting
complications was insatiable, and time after time,
he dazzled watch enthusiasts. He recalls, “After
this, I made a split-seconds chronograph
tourbillon with perpetual calendar. The issue with
this kind of watch is that, say, it is midnight at the
end of the year — when the movement is causing
all the perpetual calendar functions to instantly
jump forward — and if you activate the splitseconds
chronograph function, the balance wheel
must continue to oscillate without a significant
drop in amplitude. This was the challenge for this
watch, because it is not enough to simply combine
complications — you had to understand how
they have a profound effect on one another.
This is a watch that costs 350,000 Swiss francs,
so of course, it must function perfectly.
In addition, at that time, I was still working on
my own, making every part of the watch by hand.”
THE CREATION OF A BRAND
From 1984, throughout the 1990s, and well
into the new millennium, Franck Muller would
dominate watchmaking, introducing new
mind-blowing complicated world premieres,
including the world’s most complicated
wristwatch in 1992 which featured complications
such as a grande and petite sonnerie, retrograde
perpetual calendar, and even a thermometer.
But there was one limitation to all of these
watches, which was that Muller alone was
responsible for each movement. He knew that
if he wanted to reach a wider audience, he
would have to evolve his vision.
Franck tells us, “I started to receive many watch
enthusiasts, but because I was working on watches
in the old way, making each piece by hand and by
myself, I couldn’t satisfy many of them. At the time
when I was doing this, I recognized that people
were excited by complicated watches again, and
there was a gap in the market for accessible
complications. So, based on the Valjoux 7750
chronograph movement — one of the most
reliable movements around, and more importantly,
one of the few available chronographs at the time
— I patented the first rattrapante [split-seconds
chronograph movement] that could be industrially
produced. I took out the calendar mechanism,
and in its place, I put in the split-seconds
mechanism, which had to occupy a very small
space. This became the first series of watches I
produced on an industrial level. Later, there
would be 17 brands that would end up using this
patent. I ended up licensing this mechanism to
these brands, and today, there are still brands
that use it. People kept asking me to make this
movement for them, but I told them, ‘No, I have
to focus on my own work.’ But the more I
thought about it, the more I thought I would
like to communicate my particular perception of
high watchmaking to a wider audience.”
At this point, Franck met the individual who
would allow him to realize his dream. He explains,
“It was at this time that my associate Vartan
Sirmakes arrived with the idea to transform my
vision for watchmaking into an international
brand with a profound global presence. He was,
at that time, a casemaker fabricating some of the
most complex cases in the industry, such as the
Daniel Roth ellipse-shaped model. At first, he
sent others, then finally, he came himself. I
remember that he came to my garden in the month
of August. He said, ‘Look, I make some of the
most complicated cases in the world. Together, we
can create a brand.’ I thought about it. At that
time, I made movements, but I would buy the
cases from a friend, because my production was
so small — it was only three or four cases per year.
This was an excellent supplier who, at that time,
also made cases for Patek Philippe and Blancpain.
But because it was such a small production, I was
a low priority. So I replied, ‘Why don’t you keep
your case business and I will keep my grande
complication business, but at the same time, we
can create an association to produce watches in
series that correspond to what I feel the world
needs in terms of horology? Something with
exquisite movements, something that reintroduces
traditional Swiss high watchmaking, but with a
fresh, contemporary perspective.’ You see, I was
already thinking that for the Swiss industry to
come back, we had to do it in a way that made our
traditions relevant to an all-new generation.”
Says Franck of his vision for his brand,
“I was always mindful to retain complete creative
control over every timepiece. Every Franck Muller
watch is born out of pleasure and never as a
commercial necessity. Every timepiece we’ve
made has tried to bring something new and
innovative to horology, to help in the evolution of
its continuous story. By 1992 we were showing
our watches at the SIHH. We were incredibly
successful, particularly in Italy. I had already
developed a following there because in those days,
the center of watch collecting was based in Italy.
Everyone considered this market as the most
sophisticated in the world — it was the first to
produce beautiful watch magazines and it was the
home to some of the world’s most important
collectors. Perhaps it was the Latin flair of the
nation combined with their deep roots in science
and culture, but they were the first to completely
embrace my vision of combining true authentic
high watchmaking with a certain contemporary
spirit. Many of the unique pieces I created ended
up being worn by famous Italian industrialists.
They did not want to show up at a board meeting
and see someone else wearing the same watch
on their wrist. From there, the brand began to
take off. Some early adopters including
Gianni Versace, and later, Elton John, which
helped the brand become well known in the
United States; others like Jackie Chan helped
make Franck Muller a recognized brand
internationally. However, I’ve always had one
objective in mind, which is to ensure
that our watches are emotionally impactful — that
they delight their owners while representing
the finest quality in the Swiss industry.”
One major boon to Franck’s obsession with
quality has been Watchland’s extraordinary
manufacturing depth. It is the only brand that
manufactures 100 percent of its own cases
and dials. Every movement is fabricated and
assembled on premises in Genthod, and
subjected to the strictest levels of quality control
and internal testing; only in this way would
they resonate as true Franck Muller timepieces.

FRANCK MULLER
CINTRÉE CURVEX TOURBILLON
The Franck Muller Cintrée Curvex Tourbillon features
a flying tourbillon displayed through a beautiful
sunburst guilloché dial

FRANCK MULLER
CINTRÉE CURVEX
TOURBILLON
Franck Muller’s tourbillons are characterized
by their incredible visibility, as the tourbillon is
brought up to the level of the dial

FRANCK MULLER
CINTRÉE CURVEX
JUMPING HOUR TOURBILLON
The carefully decorated tourbillon cage and guilloché
dial shows Franck Muller’s decorative skill and as well
as the technical brillance of the company

THE COLOSSUS OF GENTHOUD
BY WEI KOH
Alexander the Great had conquered most of the
known world when he was prematurely felled by
fever. Following his death, his three greatest
generals Ptolemy, Seleucus and Antigous warred
for control of his kingdom. The city of Rhodes,
one of the world’s most important ports situated
where the Mediterranean Sea meets the Aegean,
sided with Ptolemy. Enraged, Antigous dispatched
his son Demetrius with an army numbering
40,000 and a metal armada of war machines
unlike any the world had ever seen. Their mission:
bring Rhodes to its knees. Demetrius attacked
using vast towers 150-feet high which were
supported by six ships and could be rolled onto
land by virtue of their enormous iron wheels. Yet
for over one year, he could not conquer Rhodes.
When he left, the citizens of Rhodes gathered up
his discarded siege engines to create a statue
honoring their patron god, Helios. The resulting
statue was 110-feet high and stood on a 50-foot
pedestal and towered over the harbor of Rhodes
as a testament to the city’s resilience and courage.
Dubbed “The Colossus of Rhodes”, the statue
was so vast that it was said to have blocked out the
sun and was considered one of the Seven Wonders
of the Ancient World.
In the 11th year of the third millennium, Franck
Muller Watchland has unveiled what is destined
to become known as the “The Colossus of
Genthod”, a watch that is a living testament to the
courage, daring and technical might of the
contemporary’s world’s foremost and most
successful independent watchmaker.
That Franck Muller Watchland should write
this new chapter in the history and evolution of
the tourbillon is fitting, considering the
manufacture’s pioneering role in reintroducing
Abraham-Louis Breguet’s signature complication
to watch lovers worldwide. Add to this that, in
2003, through the collaboration of two of haute
horlogerie’s brightest minds, Pierre-Michel
Golay and Franck Muller, the world’s most
revolutionary timepiece — the first commercially
produced, multiple-axis tourbillon known as
Revolution 2 — was brought into the world, and
the creation of new Giga Tourbillon seems nothing
less than the brand’s manifest destiny.
Says Vartan Sirmakes, Watchland’s co-founder
and the man who created the underlying industrial
might, “Franck Muller Watchland was the first to
offer wristwatch tourbillons to the modern
consumer. We also created an entre new era for
the tourbillon when we introduced Revolution 2,
Revolution 3 and Evolution 3-1, the world’s first
dual- and triple-axis tourbillons. In each
instance, the resulting watch came from our
ambition to bring meaningful evolution to the
tourbillon. As such, I very much feel as if the
tourbillon complication is a fundamental part of
our DNA. This year, you will see two totally
groundbreaking tourbillons from Franck Muller
Watchland that will assert our position as the
‘King of Tourbillons’.”
What exactly is the big news related to the Giga
Tourbillon? The answer to this question becomes
stridently obvious when you strap the watch’s
substantial but totally ergonomic case, measuring
59.2mm × 43.7mm, to your wrist. The entire
bottom half of the watch is dominated by a
tourbillon regulator so vast that the arms of its
cage threaten to block out the rays of the sun.
Says Sirmakes, “Every time I looked at a
tourbillon, the one thing I wished was that I could
see more of the mechanism. It was for this reason
that we invented the Revolution 1 Tourbillon
where the regulator literally rose up out of the
dial. But this time, when I posed the challenge to
my team, our technical director Jean-Pierre
Golay came back to me with the response,
‘We have an idea for a tourbillon with
unparallel visibility, with a cage and tourbillon
so vast that they should belong in an
ancient marine chronometer.’”
You can literally imagine gravity, which the
tourbillon was created to defeat, whimpering like
a scared dog in deference to the sheer
monumentality of the Giga Tourbillon’s 20mmdiameter
cage. Oscillating within this cage is a
golden behemoth of a balance wheel measuring
16mm in diameter.
Says the brilliant Jean-Pierre Golay, cousin to
the legendary Pierre-Michel Golay and
Watchland’s all-round technical guru, “This
balance wheel was optimized to have the maximum
inertia but with the minimum weight, so that it
would not consume too much power, which
means that the majority of its weight was poised to
the outside of the wheel.”
Golay continues, “We made great efforts to
lighten everything very substantially. The entire
cage is made from titanium. The balance wheel
is made from bronze barium, but it is very, very
thin. We are really at the limit of what we are
capable of creating, even with the most
advanced technology possible.”
If you wish to be impressed by how every hint
of excess material has been pared from the cage,
simply let your eyes be drawn to the points of
the skeletonized “M” integrated into its design.
These points are so sharp, they appear as if
in an act of Euclidean magic to extend
infinitely into space.
What has made the critical difference in Franck
Muller Watchland and its ability to produce
groundbreaking timepieces such as the Giga
Tourbillon is Vartan Sirmakes’ insistence on
pouring huge investments into the creation of
some of the most sophisticated in-house
manufacturing facilities in all of horology. For
example, the balance wheel and tourbillon cage of
the Giga Tourbillon are created at FHH
[Fondation de la Haute Horlogerie] in Meyrin, a
subsidiary of Watchland, and overseen by none
other than the peerless Jean-Pierre Golay.
Jean-Pierre explains, “These tiny parts are
created using wire erosion. But because we are
dealing with unknowns, there is always a learning
curve for the watchmakers during assembly. For
example, because of how thin the balance wheel

FRANCK MULLER
CINTRÉE CURVEX
GIGA TOURBILLON
What defines the Giga Tourbillon is the
immense 20mm tourbillon cage within
which a 16mm balance wheel resides

The spiral hairspring of the Giga Tourbillon
is made within the Franck Muller Group

“We made great efforts to lighten everything very substantially.
The entire cage is made from titanium. The balance wheel is made
from bronze barium, but it is very, very thin. We are really at the
limit of what we are capable of creating, even with the most
advanced technology possible”
— jean-pierre golay, technical director
is, it is very elastic and it takes enormous skill
to poise and regulate it properly. This is a
great deal more difficult.”
His cousin Pierre-Michel Golay adds,
“The spiral that you see in the Giga Tourbillon is
made within the [Franck Muller] Group. The fact
that we have this ability to create our own spirals
was absolutely fundamental in making this
watch possible. Because, suddenly, you have a
balance wheel with four times the inertia as
a regular wheel, so you must have a spiral that
corresponds to this.”
As you revel in the microcosm of the regulator,
one component that is destined to draw attention
is the large but beautifully skeletonized gold
escapement wheel fixed to the cage. Golay
explains, “The escapement wheel is developed
in-house, but manufactured for us by Mimotec.
It is created using the LIGA process, which allows
us to create extremely light, complex and precise
parts. You can see that this escapement wheel is
very light; it is totally skeletonized, which is
possible when you make things using LIGA.
The material of the balance wheel is nickel
phosphorous, which is then coated with a
thin layer of gold. All the new tourbillons
have escapements that are designed and
produced in-house.”
When asked of the possibilities new technology
has allowed him, Golay explains, “Mimotec is
incredible because it gives us the possibility to
make parts that would otherwise be impossible to
make, for example, wheels on two levels. Also, in
the mysterious tourbillon rattrapante movement
we created for Pierre-Michel Golay and for
CVSTOS, the drive wheel uses teeth with a special
elastic profile that allows traditional lateral
engagement with no displacement of the
chronograph hand when the teeth of the
chronograph wheel and the drive wheel mesh.”
However, Golay is quick to dispel the notion
that LIGA is a universal cure for all technical
issues. He explains, “For certain applications,
though, in general, I prefer steel. With spark
erosion, we can produce springs with a diameter
thinner than the human hair, so for the majority of
applications, this is already fine. The other thing
is that the material properties of nickel parts made
with LIGA are not as good as the steel parts made
with wire erosion. The problem with nickel parts
is that they do not slide easily — they grip.”
Look closely at the mounting point of the
escapement wheel on the cage. Notice anything
different here? In most tourbillons, the
escapement wheel pinion is fixed directly to the
cage. Here, the escapement wheel pinion rides on
a special jewel to reduce friction even further.
Says Golay, “This is really the optimum!”
Powering this mighty behemoth are no less than
four spring barrels arrayed in two stacked pairs.
Each of these individual barrels are already larger
than the traditional barrel found in a normal
watch; together, they provide 10 days of
uncompromised power to the Herculean
regulator. Like the escapement wheel, these
barrels are mounted on rubies to aid in smoothness
of winding while harnessing their massive torque.
A tiny power reserve indicator appears at 12
o’clock to tell you how much gas is in the tank.
Finally, the Giga Tourbillon is really an
uncompromised haut de gamme tourbillon in
the very strictest sense of the term: to begin with,
while other Franck Muller tourbillons are
powered by a pinion that engages the toothed
perimeter of the cage, here, a traditional tourbillon
design has been used where the third wheel
directly engages the pinion of the massive cage.
In addition, the tourbillon is of the flying variety,
where there is absolutely no upper bridge to
obscure what is the most unadulterated
viewing pleasure in all of horlogerie.
The Giga Tourbillon is available in several
different variations, though, to us, the one and
only version has to be the fully skeletonized model
that allows you to witness the dazzling power flow
in this watch, which is an incredible testament to
the in-house manufacturing capabilities and the
tradition of technical innovation that is at the
epicenter of Franck Muller Watchland. In
conclusion, we can only state that the Colossus of
Genthod is destined to soar above Franck Muller
Watchland — a shining beacon to its creative
capacity and revolutionary daring. H

FRANCK MULLER
CINTRÉE CURVEX
GIGA TOURBILLON
Set within a full pavé diamond case, the
Giga Tourbillon stands out even more