CHAPTER I - PART II AND THE TOURBILLON What is particularly extraordinary about <strong>Franck</strong> <strong>Muller</strong> is that he was the first great watchmaker to ply his craft after the onset <strong>of</strong> the electronic era — a time when mechanical instruments had been superseded by electronic ones.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 <strong>of</strong>fered up a level <strong>of</strong> precision which had heret<strong>of</strong>ore never been achieved by mechanical watches. It was amid this period <strong>of</strong> massive retrenchment throughout the industry, and uncertainty in the very sustainability <strong>of</strong> horological culture, that <strong>Muller</strong> would enter L’Ecole d’Horlogerie deGenève (the Geneva School <strong>of</strong> Watchmaking). Says <strong>Muller</strong>, “If it had not been for Nathan Schmulowitz, one <strong>of</strong> the big watch experts at Antiquorum — an auction house dedicated to preserving the high arts <strong>of</strong> 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 <strong>Muller</strong>. Says <strong>Franck</strong>, “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 <strong>of</strong> the vast horological riches <strong>of</strong> the past.” But such was <strong>Franck</strong>’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 <strong>of</strong> 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 <strong>of</strong> 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, <strong>Franck</strong> 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 <strong>of</strong> 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 <strong>of</strong> 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 <strong>Franck</strong>, 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 <strong>of</strong> earth and the fact that we could create these extraordinary machines was, to me, something extraordinary… I have <strong>of</strong>ten said that if you break a watch down to its basic components — wheels, springs… just pieces <strong>of</strong> 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 <strong>of</strong> his studies, the seeds <strong>of</strong> 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 <strong>of</strong> watchmaking to an even higher level <strong>of</strong> 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 <strong>of</strong> traditional Swiss horology to the contemporary world. But <strong>of</strong> course, I had no money to start my own brand. Fortunately, the beginning <strong>of</strong> my brand came about thanks to another Swiss brand called Rolex.” <strong>Franck</strong> explains, “One <strong>of</strong> 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 <strong>of</strong> 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. <strong>The</strong> 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.”
<strong>Franck</strong> <strong>Muller</strong>'s very first wristwatch tourbillon incorporated a jump-hour complication with hands; this model, the <strong>Franck</strong> <strong>Muller</strong> Cintrée Curvex Jumping Hour Tourbillon replaced the hour hand with a jump-hour aperture Today, Watchland carries all the pioneering values <strong>of</strong> <strong>Franck</strong> <strong>Muller</strong> that are expressed in every one <strong>of</strong> its timepieces
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