The Legend of Franck Muller - Westime

PART ONE
CRAZY HOURS
THE BIRTH OF THE
EMOTIONAL COMPLICATION
At first glance, the Crazy Hours
watch — with its dial an
incandescent blaze of seemingly
random and scattered numbers, scattered
with the same spontaneity as Jackson
Pollack’s brushstrokes — seems miles
apart from the ordered precision of
Muller’s tourbillon watches. Yet there is a
salient link between these timepieces in
that their primary objective is to provoke
human emotion.
Franck Muller explains, “In many ways,
the Crazy Hours was an extension of a
simple philosophy that was born when I
created my first tourbillon wristwatch. In
1801, when the tourbillon was first made, it
was created as a precision device. It was
made to fight gravity when pocket watches
are in the vertical position. But today, it has
no meaning as a precision device as
wristwatches adopt innumerable positions
throughout the day. Their raison d’être has
become that they are simply beautiful to
look at, a wonder of micro-mechanics and
watchmaking art.”
While Muller was instrumental in the
revival of the tourbillon, he is quick to
underscore the rationale for a tourbillon in
this wristwatch format. He states, “It is
essentially an emotional device. This is why
I decided to put it on the front of the watch.
Later, others realized the emotional value
of the tourbillon and followed me.”
When asked if, in an age filled with
micro-electronic instruments, the primary
purpose for all horological complications is
their emotional value, Muller is quick to
agree. He states, “Similarly, a minute
repeater was born to serve a pragmatic
function. In the days before electricity, it
was an ordeal to get out of bed, light a
candle and read what time it was, so the
minute repeater, a watch that literally
played time, was created. Today, light is
available at the flick of a switch. Time is
displayed on electronic clocks that are
illuminated at night. So today, a minute
repeater has no real pragmatic function. It
is simply a beautiful device, and emotional
art form. A transcendent instrument that
changes time into music!”
While Muller had by 2003 become the
uncontested “Master of Complications”,
ushering in 36 world premieres and patents
in a space of only 20 years, he began to
think of another purpose for his
extraordinary watchmaking skills. He
explains, “Tourbillon, perpetual calendar
and minute repeater — these types of
watches are called complications, because
they are complicated to make and because
they add levels of complication to
timepieces. But I began to think of ideas to
create complications that corresponded to
the needs of modern society.”
One watch that emerged from Muller’s
desire to express the needs of the
contemporary world in his watches was the
Master Banker — a response to the realities
of travel and business conducted over
multiple time zones. But as he thought
deeper about it, he began to visualize an
all-new type of complication, one whose
primacy of purpose had less to do
with calculating minutiae and more
with transforming time into an
emotional language.
Muller explains his rationale, “One thing
which I was thinking about was that all the
information shown on traditional
complications could be read off your
computer. As such, I wanted to create a
type of watch that offered an experience
you could not have with an electronic
device. This watch must evoke emotion, it
must remind you that watches were living
objects and not soulless electronics. In
order to do this, I had to examine the
fundamental concepts behind civil time.”
But Muller’s moment of revelation for his
new watch would only come accompanied
by an unconventional baptism in water.
A WATCH WITH NO RULES
Muller laughs as he recalls the unexpected
birth of the Crazy Hours. It all started
because of his aversion to the cold. He
states, “I don’t like the cold. And so, every
New Year, I seek out warm places to
celebrate with my family. My second wife
and I had a baby born on 21 December
2001. When he was one year old, we
decided to bring him on a vacation for the
New Year. I discussed destinations with my
friend Jean Todt because when traveling
with a one-year-old, you are somewhat
limited in your options. Time passed quickly
and I had to quickly choose a place to go.
The thing is, I never go any place alone. I
love family and so when I travel, I bring my
sister, her husband, her children, my