THE COLOSSUS OF GENTHOUD BY WEI KOH Alexander the Great had conquered most <strong>of</strong> the known world when he was prematurely felled by fever. Following his death, his three greatest generals Ptolemy, Seleucus and Antigous warred for control <strong>of</strong> his kingdom. <strong>The</strong> city <strong>of</strong> Rhodes, one <strong>of</strong> 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 <strong>of</strong> war machines unlike any the world had ever seen. <strong>The</strong>ir 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 <strong>of</strong> their enormous iron wheels. Yet for over one year, he could not conquer Rhodes. When he left, the citizens <strong>of</strong> Rhodes gathered up his discarded siege engines to create a statue honoring their patron god, Helios. <strong>The</strong> resulting statue was 110-feet high and stood on a 50-foot pedestal and towered over the harbor <strong>of</strong> Rhodes as a testament to the city’s resilience and courage. Dubbed “<strong>The</strong> Colossus <strong>of</strong> Rhodes”, the statue was so vast that it was said to have blocked out the sun and was considered one <strong>of</strong> the Seven Wonders <strong>of</strong> the Ancient World. In the 11th year <strong>of</strong> the third millennium, <strong>Franck</strong> <strong>Muller</strong> Watchland has unveiled what is destined to become known as the “<strong>The</strong> Colossus <strong>of</strong> Genthod”, a watch that is a living testament to the courage, daring and technical might <strong>of</strong> the contemporary’s world’s foremost and most successful independent watchmaker. That <strong>Franck</strong> <strong>Muller</strong> Watchland should write this new chapter in the history and evolution <strong>of</strong> 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 <strong>of</strong> two <strong>of</strong> haute horlogerie’s brightest minds, Pierre-Michel Golay and <strong>Franck</strong> <strong>Muller</strong>, 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 <strong>of</strong> 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, “<strong>Franck</strong> <strong>Muller</strong> Watchland was the first to <strong>of</strong>fer 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 <strong>of</strong> our DNA. This year, you will see two totally groundbreaking tourbillons from <strong>Franck</strong> <strong>Muller</strong> Watchland that will assert our position as the ‘King <strong>of</strong> Tourbillons’.” What exactly is the big news related to the Giga Tourbillon? <strong>The</strong> 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. <strong>The</strong> entire bottom half <strong>of</strong> the watch is dominated by a tourbillon regulator so vast that the arms <strong>of</strong> its cage threaten to block out the rays <strong>of</strong> the sun. Says Sirmakes, “Every time I looked at a tourbillon, the one thing I wished was that I could see more <strong>of</strong> the mechanism. It was for this reason that we invented the Revolution 1 Tourbillon where the regulator literally rose up out <strong>of</strong> 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 <strong>of</strong> the Giga Tourbillon’s 20mmdiameter cage. Oscillating within this cage is a golden behemoth <strong>of</strong> 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 <strong>of</strong> its weight was poised to the outside <strong>of</strong> the wheel.” Golay continues, “We made great efforts to lighten everything very substantially. <strong>The</strong> entire cage is made from titanium. <strong>The</strong> balance wheel is made from bronze barium, but it is very, very thin. We are really at the limit <strong>of</strong> what we are capable <strong>of</strong> creating, even with the most advanced technology possible.” If you wish to be impressed by how every hint <strong>of</strong> excess material has been pared from the cage, simply let your eyes be drawn to the points <strong>of</strong> the skeletonized “M” integrated into its design. <strong>The</strong>se points are so sharp, they appear as if in an act <strong>of</strong> Euclidean magic to extend infinitely into space. What has made the critical difference in <strong>Franck</strong> <strong>Muller</strong> Watchland and its ability to produce groundbreaking timepieces such as the Giga Tourbillon is Vartan Sirmakes’ insistence on pouring huge investments into the creation <strong>of</strong> some <strong>of</strong> the most sophisticated in-house manufacturing facilities in all <strong>of</strong> horology. For example, the balance wheel and tourbillon cage <strong>of</strong> the Giga Tourbillon are created at FHH [Fondation de la Haute Horlogerie] in Meyrin, a subsidiary <strong>of</strong> Watchland, and overseen by none other than the peerless Jean-Pierre Golay. Jean-Pierre explains, “<strong>The</strong>se 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 <strong>of</strong> 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
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