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Driven by a remarkable passion and curiosity for mechanical devices, Franck Muller embarked upon his career of creating highly complicated watches after completing his studies at the Geneva School of Watchmaking. To counter the market invasion by quartz watches, Muller devoted his exceptional technical talent to create unique timepieces that match the engineering finesse of pocket watches.
After months of rigorous research, Muller presented his first wristwatches in 1983. Equipped with complicated movements that he created himself, Muller’s watches soon created a demand in the market. Finally, in 1991, Franck Muller met Vartan Sirmakes, co-founder and CEO of the Franck Muller Group and the person instrumental behind turning Muller’s small volume productions into the celebrated brand it is today.
The duo’s combined passion has taken Franck Muller to new heights of Haute Horlogerie. While the company has various production sites in the Swiss Jura Arc, the ultimate assembly and finishing of each timepiece take place at the Frank Muller Watchland at Genthod, Switzerland.
Franck Muller timepieces have a reputation for exceptional design and impeccable finishing. At a time when Haute Horlogerie had reservations against innovative designs and remained restricted to mostly circular and rectangular watches, Franck Muller challenged conventions to create the signature Franck Muller’s Curvex. Introduced in 1992, the never-seen-before tonneau silhouette became synonymous with the name of the Franck Muller brand and was quite a bold move considering the significant manufacturing difficulties involved.
Franck Muller timepieces also became distinguishable for their unusual and aesthetic numeral design. Like the Curvex, the production of the intricate dials involves many complications since they have to align with the curved outline of the case while still maintaining the highest standards of precision, printing quality, and guilloche. Dials sporting vivacious and dazzling colours like royal blue are also one of Franck Muller’s classic hallmarks.
Franck Muller’s prodigious craftsmanship is dedicated to Haute Horlogerie with simultaneous attention to innovative complications and traditional Swiss watchmaking expertise. The dials are manufactured in-house at the Les Bois factory in Swiss Jura. With 20 layers of lacquer that require thorough drying, the dial-making finally ends with the hand-painted Luminova numerals. Likewise, Franck Muller’s cases are produced in-house at the La-Chaux-de-Fonds factory with meticulous hand-polish finishing. The making of Franck Muller’s movements, Tourbillon Perpetual Calendar, also takes place in-house. It involves considerable dexterity and hundreds of technical sheets for every delicately decorated and perfected component.
Franck Muller watches maintain the highest standards of aesthetics and the final decorations and finishing is crucial to set a standard.
The open-back watches get engravings of delicate motifs to personalize the watch. The Geneva stripes finish is applied on Franck Muller watches, a distinguishing feature which appears as parallel waves on the metal surface. A decoration of overlapping circles are hand-imprinted by skilled craftsmen on the bearing surfaces of the plates of watch movements. From sunray brushing and snailing, to mirror polishing and rhodium plating, Franck Muller watches take care to ensure that they are a class apart.
The incredible watchmaking legacy of Franck Muller began when its founder recreated the famous tourbillon. Contrary to other tourbillons visible from the back, Muller’s tourbillon was visible from the front. This revolutionary design and successive complications earned Franck Muller the epithet “Master of Complications.”
Thus, the Grand Central Tourbillon came, a spectacular collection with the tourbillon placed at the centre of the timepiece and the minute and the hour hands around the tourbillon cage. Honouring the Swiss flag’s intense red and sublime white is the Vanguard Skeleton Swiss Limited Edition with the titanium case overlaid with white enamel and the movement anodised in red. Taking innovation and technical flair a scale higher is the Aeternitas Mega. Claimed to be the most complicated wristwatch in the world, it has 36 complications, 1,483 components, and an eternal calendar with a 1000-year cycle renewable to infinity. New models launched in 2021 include some more spectacular designs, such as the Vanguard Revolution 3 Skeleton, Galet Moonphase, and the Cielo, to name a few.
Frank Muller’s craftsmanship combines modern design with traditional Swiss watch manufacturing techniques, producing timepieces characterised by avant-garde designs and complicated movements. Every year, the manufacturer launches at least one exclusive line of timepieces at the World Premiers, featuring something unprecedented in the watchmaking industry.