The Legend of Franck Muller - Westime
The Legend of Franck Muller - Westime
The Legend of Franck Muller - Westime
You also want an ePaper? Increase the reach of your titles
YUMPU automatically turns print PDFs into web optimized ePapers that Google loves.
“To combine the Crazy Hours indication with<br />
the tourbillon, to me, is to double the visual<br />
pleasure <strong>of</strong> the timepiece”<br />
Robert Rauschenberg or Jasper Johns, a<br />
vivid joyous defiance <strong>of</strong> the cold,<br />
emotionless oppression <strong>of</strong> civil time.<br />
Says <strong>Muller</strong>, “In the Crazy Hours, there<br />
appears to be no sense as to what hours<br />
come next, and so, you are compelled to<br />
focus on the moment you are in. In this<br />
way, this watch was the world’s first<br />
emotional complication in that it uses a<br />
mechanical complication to delight and<br />
engage its owners.”<br />
But when asked what use a watch that<br />
cannot tell time has, <strong>Muller</strong> replies, “Ah,<br />
but you see, human beings are logical<br />
and they will always find their way.<br />
Similarly, with the Crazy Hours, the hour<br />
hand on the watch will always jump to<br />
the right time. With the Crazy Hours, I<br />
have found a way to deconstruct and<br />
restructure time.”<br />
<strong>The</strong> Crazy Hours complication finds its<br />
roots in a watch <strong>Muller</strong> created in 1986, the<br />
world’s first free-oscillation tourbillon<br />
wristwatch. What was unique about this<br />
timepiece was that it featured not just a<br />
precision device intended to combat<br />
the erosive force <strong>of</strong> gravity, but also a<br />
jump-hour indication. <strong>The</strong>re are two types<br />
<strong>of</strong> jump-hour watches: watches that<br />
feature an aperture in which the hour is<br />
displayed, and watches with traditional<br />
hands that, instead <strong>of</strong> a sweeping,<br />
leap from one hour index to the next,<br />
jumping precisely at the stroke <strong>of</strong> each new<br />
hour. <strong>The</strong> Crazy Hours is similarly a<br />
jump-hour watch using a traditional hour<br />
hand. <strong>The</strong> distinction is that instead <strong>of</strong><br />
leaping one index at the stroke <strong>of</strong> each<br />
hour, it leaps forward five places. As such,<br />
an examination <strong>of</strong> the seeming disarray on<br />
the Crazy Hours dial sheds light on the fact<br />
that the numeric jumble is actually spaced<br />
such that each subsequent number is not<br />
one but five spaces in progression around<br />
the dial.<br />
Upon the release <strong>of</strong> the Crazy Hours in<br />
2003, the watch-collecting world was<br />
universally stunned. <strong>The</strong> advent <strong>of</strong> the<br />
Crazy Hours, a watch whose sole purpose<br />
was the abstraction, deconstruction and<br />
reconfiguration <strong>of</strong> time with the intent to<br />
shock and delight otherwise emotionally<br />
disengaged owners, has been associated<br />
with the first Impressionist paintings that<br />
divorced themselves from replications <strong>of</strong><br />
reality, focusing instead on the sublimation<br />
and expression <strong>of</strong> emotion as their primary<br />
objective. <strong>The</strong> Crazy Hours is the first work<br />
<strong>of</strong> watchmaking Impressionism.<br />
Today, many brands have laid claim to the<br />
ground <strong>of</strong> emotional complications. But<br />
each <strong>of</strong> these brands owes its very existence<br />
to <strong>Franck</strong> <strong>Muller</strong> and the revelation he<br />
experienced beneath the stars <strong>of</strong> Mauritius,<br />
the determination it created in him to<br />
fabricate a timepiece that would break our<br />
enslavement to time and unearth a purer<br />
form <strong>of</strong> existence, sensuality and<br />
appreciation for life.<br />
TOTALLY CRAZY<br />
Adding the practical advantage <strong>of</strong> a date<br />
indicator, the Totally Crazy watch adds<br />
another startling pinwheel <strong>of</strong> fiery dial-side<br />
animation with a date indicator that echoes<br />
the seemingly random order <strong>of</strong> the legendary<br />
Crazy Hours dial. This time, the secret lies<br />
in the date hand leaping seven indices to<br />
always find the next number in the<br />
progression through the month. Nothing<br />
<strong>of</strong>fers more entertainment than the<br />
sudden and simultaneous jump <strong>of</strong> the<br />
hour and date hand precisely at the stroke<br />
<strong>of</strong> midnight.<br />
CRAZY HOURS TOURBILLON<br />
<strong>The</strong> Crazy Hours Tourbillon combines two<br />
<strong>of</strong> <strong>Franck</strong> <strong>Muller</strong>’s iconic achievements,<br />
the dial-side tourbillon and the Crazy<br />
Hours complication. As with many <strong>of</strong> his<br />
timepieces, the Crazy Hours Tourbillon<br />
was inspired by a friend; in this instance,<br />
Tay Liam Wee, the group executive<br />
chairman <strong>of</strong> Sincere Watch and the head <strong>of</strong><br />
<strong>Franck</strong> <strong>Muller</strong>’s distribution in Asia.<br />
Says <strong>Muller</strong>, “Liam Wee is very innovative<br />
and it was his idea to create a watch with the<br />
ultimate dial-side animation. To combine<br />
the Crazy Hours indication with the<br />
tourbillon, to me, is to double the visual<br />
pleasure <strong>of</strong> the timepiece. On the one hand,<br />
you have the total folly, the seeming wildness<br />
<strong>of</strong> the Crazy Hours indicator, and on the<br />
other hand, you have the world’s most<br />
famous precision device.” But the two<br />
complications work together beautifully,<br />
both combining their technicity and<br />
bravado to create what to many connoisseurs<br />
is THE ultimate <strong>Franck</strong> <strong>Muller</strong> timepiece.<br />
Adding a beautiful touch <strong>of</strong> whimsy, the “8”<br />
index has been divided into two in a King<br />
Solomon-like act <strong>of</strong> horological prowess,<br />
with half <strong>of</strong> the index placed on the dial and<br />
the other half integrated into the<br />
flying tourbillon’s cage. This “8” serves<br />
both as an index and a seconds<br />
indicator, completing a full rotation once<br />
every minute.<br />
Regardless <strong>of</strong> which Crazy Hours<br />
complication you choose, every watch from<br />
this series is intrinsically linked to <strong>Franck</strong><br />
<strong>Muller</strong>’s ultimate act <strong>of</strong> horological<br />
rebellion. To gaze at the dial <strong>of</strong> any <strong>of</strong> these<br />
timepieces, be it the Crazy Hours, Totally<br />
Crazy, or Crazy Hours Tourbillon, is to be<br />
reminded <strong>of</strong> the fact that time itself is the<br />
most precious commodity in life.