PART THREE THE REVOLUTIONARY MASTER BANKER As his brand continued to grow, one <strong>of</strong> <strong>Franck</strong>’s greatest challenges was to use his watchmaking ability to suit the needs <strong>of</strong> the contemporary consumer. <strong>The</strong> greatest reality for the modern businessman relates to constant travel. <strong>The</strong> majority <strong>of</strong> us spend our days on a perennial transglobal trek from one head <strong>of</strong>fice to the next. <strong>The</strong> miasmic haze <strong>of</strong> being lost amid differing time zones can at times become overwhelming, and in this context, it is the watch that becomes a veritable Prometheus, bringing light to darkness, and order to chaos. It was precisely with the objective <strong>of</strong> illuminating the world <strong>of</strong> the constant traveler that <strong>Franck</strong> created one <strong>of</strong> his most legendary timepieces, the Master Banker. Amazingly, this watch was actually created in tandem with an actual banker friend. <strong>Franck</strong> recalls, “One <strong>of</strong> my close friends is Paul Tange, the son <strong>of</strong> Kenzo Tange, the father <strong>of</strong> contemporary Japanese architecture and one <strong>of</strong> the key proponents <strong>of</strong> structuralism. At Institut Le Rosey, the oldest private boarding school in Switzerland, he befriended an Iranian boy who became a huge banker in London. I got to know them both as they spent a lot <strong>of</strong> time in Geneva. One day, we got together for lunch and this banker mentioned that he was curious about Watchland, so I brought him on a tour. As we walked through the grounds, he told me, ‘<strong>Franck</strong>, I want to buy a watch from you, but the watch I want has not yet been invented.’ This intrigued me immediately. He first explained his idea in 1995, but it wasn’t until 1998 that I introduced the watch. Why? Because the way I work is to put ideas in my head and then work on solving their problems in a natural way. It’s how I’ve always worked. I love to talk to people <strong>of</strong> all the different nationalities to learn about their cultures and their perceptions <strong>of</strong> time, and in this way, I am always receiving inspiration. Of course, afterwards, you must figure out technically how to resolve the problems. What he told me was this. ‘<strong>The</strong> world has changed forever. I spend almost no time in my actual <strong>of</strong>fice. One day I am in London, the next day in New York, the next day in Tokyo. What is important to me is speed, how quickly I can reach a new destination, how quickly I can react to the opening <strong>of</strong> the stock market there. When I wake up and I look at my watch, I want to immediately know when the market opens. Because in the time it takes me to figure out the time, I could have made or lost a fortune. So what I really need is a watch that is actually three watches, to simultaneously tell the time <strong>of</strong> three different cities where I am doing business. But I want to have all three time indications controlled by a single movement, and I want complete hour and minute indicators for each time zone… I may need to speak to my wife, who may be in Los Angeles; at the same time, I need to make a business call to Paris; yet I must also keep track <strong>of</strong> my meetings where I am. In addition, this watch must be incredibly simple to use.’” Understanding that this was a vital opportunity to bridge the gap between traditional watchmaking and the needs <strong>of</strong> a rapidly modernizing culture, <strong>Franck</strong> leapt at the challenge. He recalls, “I said to him, ‘Look, what you are asking for is extremely complicated, because it is as if you are placing three clutches in a single movement. It is as if you are putting three clutches into a single car motor. I can make just one watch like this for you, but it will cost a fortune. If I can make several watches with this invention, it will be very affordable because I can amortize the cost <strong>of</strong> research and development over an entire series.’ He agreed.
<strong>The</strong> <strong>Franck</strong> <strong>Muller</strong> Cintrée Curvex Master Banker is one <strong>of</strong> <strong>Franck</strong> <strong>Muller</strong>'s most iconic achievements