FACES OF CHANGE

These days, it's not unusual for watch brands to have exclusive boutiques.

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But just a few decades ago, the landscape was dominated by multi-brand retailers, where brands shared the spotlight with their contemporaries, offering shoppers greater convenience and variety.

In 1992, however, Sincere Fine Watches broke tradition by opening its first monobrand boutique for Franck Muller, which had only been established for a year.

Both companies can wax lyrical about how their partnership grew from shared values as independent, familystyle businesses. However, a more fitting explanation may be that Sincere Fine Watches was captivated by the sheer audacity of the brand's now-iconic Cintree Curvex collection.

Notes Franck Muller CEO Nicholas Rudaz, "Sincere was looking for something different, something new. And in Franck Muller, they certainly found new creativity and new complications. And I think they did very well in backing the right horse." It soon became apparent that offering something different was the Swiss manufacture's greatest strength. The self-professed "Master of Complications" gave the world its playful Crazy Hours complication and enough variations on the tourbillon to make Abraham-Louis Breguet's head spin.

UNPARALLELED MASTERY

Among Sincere's many 70th anniversary editions released last year was a Franck Muller Vanguard Damascus Steel Sincere Platinum Jubilee Edition, with a case and movement crafted from the beautiful yet challenging metal alloy.