Every Franck Muller I’ve ever worn has come with a story.
Not my own, necessarily—but stories borrowed, handed down, or won against the odds. One belonged to a painter who wore her Long Island with the quiet defiance of someone who understood contrast better than most. Another was passed along as a retirement gift for a mentor’s mentor. But the most unforgettable? A gambling win turned anniversary gift—where a friend’s mother, after a wildly lucky night, gifted the prize to her husband as a bold, cheeky gesture of love. These weren’t just watches. They were moments. They were stories waiting to be told.
There’s something distinctly Franck Muller about that. A brand rooted in audacity and whimsy, but also emotion—an ingredient many Swiss maisons seem to have lost somewhere between their metiers and margins. My own encounter with the brand began not in Switzerland, but during a summer visit to the Dubai Mall in 2016. As a college student then, I couldn’t afford to step inside, but I would linger by the boutique’s window—captivated by the irreverence on display. Even in that sanitised retail wonderland, Franck Muller’s designs stood out like exclamation points in a sentence full of commas.
Years later, the opening of the DLF Emporio boutique in Delhi brought that magic closer to home. And with it came a noticeable shift. The brand wasn’t just being admired from afar—it was starting to sell. “Today, India is one of our fastest-growing markets,” said Erol Baliyan, Managing Director for the Middle East, Africa and India. “Every year, we’re growing at double-digit rates. The market used to be disorganised, but over the last five years we unified our retailers and gave the brand one clear direction. Now, it’s working.”
The numbers back him up. Franck Muller now has twelve points of sale across India, with demand coming in not just from Mumbai or Delhi, but from malls and high-net-worth outposts in tier-two cities. “We’re not going to be shy about expanding,” Baliyan continued. “There’s unlimited potential. Real estate may be expensive, but Indian retailers are investing in experience—five hundred square metre boutiques, dedicated lounges—it’s happening nowhere else in the world at this scale.”
It’s not just scale, either. It’s taste. According to Baliyan, Indian collectors still gravitate towards spectacle: diamond-set bezels, skeletonised dials, multi-coloured numerals. “Yes, we offer refined and classic models—like the Long Island or the new Monolith—but we also understand that clients here want to showcase their personality. That’s why our jewellery watches, like the Double Mystery and now the Triple Mystery, are doing so well. Our founder himself is an expert in diamond setting.”
This mix of exuberance and mechanical curiosity is key to understanding the brand’s present arc. As Baliyan put it: “The market is saturated with sameness. Look at the big four—same launches, every year. We need new ideas. And we make 400 models a year not because we want to overwhelm, but because each region has its own collector base. The Middle East wants bold and expressive; India wants bling and complication. One size doesn’t fit all.”
That philosophy is perhaps best experienced at the Domaine du Grand Malagny, a lakeside estate just outside Geneva where Franck Muller hosts its annual World Presentation of Haute Horlogerie (WPHH). On my third day away from the sterilised corridors of Palexpo, I found myself at the estate—surrounded not just by watches, but by what felt like a parallel universe of design and experience.
Palexpo, by its very nature, is a 'universal' mecca for watchmaking. It’s precise. Efficient. And undeniably polished—but also a touch too sterile, a little too polished around the edges. WPHH, on the other hand, offers something else entirely. While it may not draw Palexpo’s 55,000-strong crowd during Watches and Wonders, it replaces spectacle with immersion. The estate is steeped in heritage, and the experience of discovering Franck Muller’s novelties here feels more intuitive, more indulgent. You’re not sprinting between booths. You’re breathing it all in.
At one point, I found myself chipping away at a second serving of tiramisu after my interviews—lounging under the vaulted ceilings of this legacy property and surveying a spread of what must’ve been a hundred watches. From sober dress pieces to half a dozen wildly different Crazy Hours variants, each model seemed to carry its own pulse, its own identity. The event also previewed new batches of Franck Muller perfumes—because, of course, in this universe, even scent is part of the storytelling.
I caught up with CEO Nicholas Rudaz towards the end of the event. “It’s like asking me to pick a favourite child,” he joked, when I asked which model he was most excited about. “But what you see here is the core of our strength—capacity. Creativity. We don’t wait for the market to tell us what to do. We try to lead with design.”
And so they do. Let’s take a closer look at the pieces they brought to the stage this year:
Franck Muller's Launches For WPHH 2025
Triple Mystery
Franck Muller’s fascination with the unseen takes a mesmerising new form in the Round Triple Mystery. For the first time, three concentric discs—hours, minutes, and now seconds—rotate independently in a ballet of perpetual motion. The central pastille, skeletonised and adorned with a triangle-cut diamond, is a featherweight marvel engineered from aluminium to conserve power. The result? A kinetic sculpture that tells time by not telling it traditionally.
Housed in a 39 mm rose gold case and encircled by a spiral of diamonds, this watch feels like a celestial instrument, equal parts jewellery and defiance. Every motion reveals a new geometry, a new angle, a new sliver of mystery. It’s not just technically brilliant—it’s poetic.
Grand Central Tourbillon Baguette
The Grand Central Tourbillon Baguette centres the tourbillon—literally—placing it in the middle of the dial with hour and minute hands orbiting around it. To accomplish this, the movement was restructured entirely, allowing for a concentric dance of mechanics and aesthetics. The baguette-cut diamonds set invisibly across the dial and case elevate this already dramatic design into high jewellery territory.
Underneath the sparkle lies the self-winding MVT FM CX 36T-CTR, powered by a micro-rotor and boasting a 4-day power reserve. It’s the kind of movement most brands would show off at the back—but Franck Muller puts it right where it belongs: centre stage.
Grand Central Tourbillon Rainbow
Similar in layout to the Baguette version but infused with colour, the Grand Central Tourbillon Rainbow is an ode to emotion. The case and dial are set with a spectrum of sapphires, rubies, and tsavorites that radiate from the centre tourbillon like sunbeams through a stained-glass window.
At its heart is the same CX 36T-CTR calibre, beating with elegance and quiet confidence. It doesn’t reinvent the wheel—but it spins it in technicolour.
Crazy Hours x Jisbar
Franck Muller’s wildest complication meets pop-street art’s enfant terrible in the Crazy Hours x Jisbar collaboration. With jumping hours scattered in trademark chaos, the dial becomes a kinetic canvas—each numeral rendered in 25 lacquered layers. Each piece is paired with a hand-enhanced artwork fragment by the artist himself.
Offered in five case materials, this limited edition of 250 is both wearable art and mechanical rebellion. “The watch inspires my artwork, and my artwork inspires the watch,” Jisbar says.
Cintrée Curvex Torsade
The Torsade captures time as a spiral. Its dial, crafted with a hypnotic stamped guilloché, creates an optical illusion of movement that shimmers with every tilt of the wrist. It’s a masterclass in kinetic visual design—one that leans into light, texture, and rhythm.
Powered by an automatic movement with 191 components, this Cintrée Curvex creation isn’t just about visuals. It’s about how time feels.
Vanguard Sfumato Slim
Inspired by Renaissance painting and Italian sunsets, the Sfumato Slim dial fades like a twilight sky—soft gradients replacing numerals, shifting between shadow and light. Its 9.1 mm profile and minimalist indexes turn the piece into a meditative space.
The 195-component movement inside brings moonphase functionality and plenty of finish work—Côtes de Genève, beveling, and snailing abound.
Curvex CX Mineral
Earth meets elegance in the Curvex CX Mineral. With dials cut from malachite, jasper, or lapis, each timepiece is a one-off composition of colour and texture. The natural stone surfaces catch light subtly, turning every glance into a moment of depth.
Encased in a 30 mm stainless steel Curvex CX frame, the watch includes a delicately engraved inner bezel that gives structure to its otherwise organic heart.
Vanguard Monolith Slim
Minimalist but muscular, the Monolith Slim redefines the Vanguard silhouette through architectural restraint. Monochrome tones, brushed finishes, and a clean dial with a small seconds subdial at 6 o’clock give the piece its contemporary attitude.
The open caseback reveals a 195-component automatic movement with moonphase, finished to haute horlogerie standards.
Cintrée Curvex Lucky Charm
A love letter to symbolism, the Lucky Charm places four talismanic icons front and centre on a diamond-set dial: a ruby heart, emerald clover, diamond horseshoe, and sapphire moon. They form a protective, playful mandala of personal meaning.
Built into a rose gold Cintrée Curvex case and framed by concentric diamond circles, the piece is both spiritually charged and visually opulent.
Cintrée Curvex Lucky 8
As elegant as it is emblematic, the Lucky 8 plays with the symbolism of the number 8—representing infinity, luck, and prosperity. The dial features an artful distortion of numerals within a sunray guilloché.
Beneath its feminine surface ticks an automatic movement composed of 75 parts. For those who see time as something spiritual, cyclical, and deeply personal, this piece captures that ethos.
Cintree Curvex Majestic 12
Minimalism reigns in the Majestic 12, a Cintrée Curvex offering where the only numeral on the dial is an oversized, hand-stamped 12. The rest is silence—broken only by a soft seconds subdial and the ripple of sun guilloché.
Powered by a 60-component automatic movement, the Majestic 12 offers a study in balance and control.
Curvex CX Boheme
A bohemian flourish from Franck Muller, the Boheme features dials set with natural stones like aventurine, malachite, and jasper—each ringed by delicate hand-painted floral motifs. Inspired by embroidery and poetry, it’s less a watch and more a sentiment.
Built within the curved confines of the Cintrée Curvex case, the Boheme offers a tactile softness uncommon in modern watchmaking.
Vanguard Galion Yachting
Crafted in bronze and styled after 16th-century galleons, the Galion Yachting is Franck Muller’s most rugged novelty this year. Its textured, weathered case pairs beautifully with a map-stamped dial that feels like an antique navigational relic. Inside is a 191-part automatic movement offering moonphase functionality. A watch for storytellers.
Vanguard Sail Yachting
More technical than the Galion, the Sail Yachting revives the marine chronometer spirit in a sleek, rose gold Vanguard case. Its dial acts as a solar compass, drawing on centuries-old seafaring principles. Powered by a 191-component movement and finished to haute standards, it captures the urge to point toward the horizon.
Cintrée Curvex Cut Flower
Delicate and ephemeral, the Cut Flower showcases floral marquetry in full bloom—each dial an intricate dance of petal patterns and vibrant hues. A highly feminine, artistic piece that showcases the brand’s craft capabilities. Less tool, more canvas. It resists the male-coded tropes of haute horlogerie with joy and grace.
Curvex CX Crazy Hours Colors
More restrained than the Jisbar edition but no less joyful, the Crazy Hours Colour breathes new life into the signature jumping-hour complication. Each hour numeral bursts with colour across a crisp dial in delightful chaos.
It remains one of the most watch-nerd-friendly complications around: unexpected, witty, and intuitive once worn.
Vanguard Royal Bauxite
A tribute to aluminium’s heritage, the Vanguard Royal Bauxite is a skeletonised showpiece carved from the ore’s namesake origin: Les Baux. The case is lightweight, sculptural, and tactile, with no dial to speak of—just a network of finely finished bridges and a commanding balance wheel set at 8 o’clock.
The MVT FM 1740-VS movement beats at 18,000 vph, exposed for all to see in deliberate transparency. It’s a defiant display of what haute horlogerie can look like when it doesn’t hide behind a dial.
A Collection That Moves Differently
If WPHH 2024 was about spectacle—tourbillons suspended in air, diamond-studded lighters, and a riot of colour—then WPHH 2025 feels like a deliberate pivot. The energy this year was more introspective, more tactile. It was less about shock and awe, and more about rhythm and resonance.
I found myself lingering over the Crazy Hours lighter from last year, still on display at the estate. It was a marvel then, and remains one now—a playful fusion of horology and design. I had hoped for another similar launch this year, perhaps a new twist on that concept. But what we got instead was a collection that felt more grounded, more emotionally attuned.
As Nicholas Rudaz, CEO of Franck Muller, shared during our conversation, the brand is embracing a more nuanced approach: “We don’t wait for the market to tell us what to do. We try to lead with design.” This philosophy was evident in the 2025 releases, which showcased a harmonious blend of technical mastery and artistic expression.
Notably, this year's collection leaned into femininity with confidence. Models like the Lucky Charm, Boheme, and Lucky 8 weren't just designed for women—they celebrated them (or atleast, feminine design cues). The use of natural stones, floral motifs, and symbolic elements created pieces that were both elegant and empowering. The 2025 collection doesn't just tell time—it tells a story. And in doing so, it invites us to find our own rhythm within it.
