The Legend of Franck Muller - Westime

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