An Effusive Affair

Franck Muller helped pioneer the rise of independent watchmaking. Decades later, the brand remains one of its most expressive and uncompromising voices.

- Words: Haziq Yusof

Whether it's Steve Jobs with the iPhone or Henry Ford with the Model T, every field has its luminaries—the pioneers who pave the way for the ones who come after. In the world of contemporary independent watchmaking, Franck Muller ranks among those who dared to challenge the status quo.

The legendary watchmaker, after founding his eponymous brand in 1991, brought an expressive and avant-garde approach to watchmaking, releasing a collection of coveted and complicated mechanical watches that were unlike anything on the market at the time. While many brands were still licking their wounds from the quartz crisis—a disruption that nearly erased mechanical watchmaking—Franck Muller was intent on celebrating the art of traditional watchmaking with exuberance.

From creating mechanically demanding timepieces in the 1990s—including multi-complication tourbillons with minute repeaters, perpetual calendars, and split-seconds chronographs—to introducing the whimsical Crazy Hours complication in 2003, the brand has been breaking all the rules from its inception deliberately and with glee.