Franck Muller

From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia

Franck Muller (born July 1958) is a noted watchmaker known for creating complicated, unique and revolutionary timepieces. His brand of watches carries the title, "Master of Complications".

Franck Muller is a Swiss watchmaker that is considered to be "the Master of Complications". Its ultra complicated timepieces are highly appreciated by watch enthusiasts and other manufacturers. Franck Muller watches are worn by various celebrities, among them: Demi Moore, Robin Williams and Elton John.

Franck Muller timepieces are famous for their fusion of modern style and traditional Swiss watch manufacturing. The president of the company that holds its name is a watchmaker himself. He designs the mechanism of every watch by himself.

Contents

[edit] Brief Biography

The year of birth of the genius watchmaker is 1958. He spent his childhood in La Chaux-de-Fonds with his mother, who was Italian and his father who is originally Swiss. When he was 15 he enrolled into watchmaking school.

In 1980s he graduated the Swiss school of watchmaking (French: Ecole Horlogerie de Genève). Afterwards he began repairing top-quality pocket watches. Being close to an independent watchmaker by the name Svend Andersen, Franck Muller became responsible for watches from the collection of Patek Philippe.

Most of his clientele were private individuals and museums. While he was working with complicated timepieces he became passionate about their mechanisms and thus thought of creating his own workshop.

[edit] Business

Frank Muller Watches
Enlarge
Frank Muller Watches

Very soon, in 1984, Franck Muller designed his own tourbillon wristwatch. In the period of 1980s only a few watchmakers were able to created complicated watches. Among them there were Patek Philippe and Vacheron Constantin. The private clients of Franck Muller continued to come for new timepieces and thus his business started growing.

The House of Franck Muller was opened in 1992 and his ultra complicated timepieces instantly became famous in Europe and United States. Today his factory which is also the headquarters of Franck Muller produces a limited number of watches for private clientele. The collections of Franck Muller include timepieces of various designs and different price range.

He thought of creating his factory in the heart of Genthod, which is a village situated outside of Geneva. Being surrounded by a vineyard-covered hill and Lake Geneva he is continuously inspired to create new original, complicated and exclusive watches.

He knows that the first thing that catches the eye of the client is the design of a watch. This is why he created a well-known Curvex Tonneau case which can be easily recognized on any wrist. Today collections of watches from Franck Muller include: Chronograph, Color Dreams, Tourbillon and Conquistador Cortez King.

[edit] World Premieres

Franck Muller is also known for its "World Premiers". Each year the manufacturer launches at least one new line of timepieces within which there one that has something special and exclusive, that was never seen before in the watchmaking industry. The first world premiere was launched in 1993. It had split seconds chronograph minute repeater as well as perpetual calendar. In addition it included an indicator showing the internal temperature.

Many of the world premieres from Franck Muller are patented. It is important to know that all Franck Muller watches are mechanical having whether a manual or self-winding movements.

Notable timepieces include Revolution2, Revolution3, Crazy Hours and Colour Dreams. Further examples of Franck Muller's watches include the Endurance, which is a simple chronograph, the Master Banker, which is a tonneau-shaped watch capable of multiple time zone indication, and the Curvex Minute Repeater Tourbillon, whose production is limited to a 25 pieces.

[edit] Notable timepieces

  • Revolution2
  • Revolution3
  • Crazy Hours
  • Colour Dreams

[edit] External links

In other languages