Stop & Stare

Some timepieces offer plenty of style over substance, others plenty of substance over style. Augustman asks: why not both?

- Jonathan Ho

Set in the middle of an exceptional galvanised brass guilloché dial painstakingly coated with 20 layers of translucent lacquer, the Franck Muller Grand Central Tourbillon is the world’s first centre tourbillon in a tonneau-shaped Cintrée Curvex case.

The result of over a year of painstaking research and development, central tourbillons are rarely practiced by watchmakers. The world’s first was patented by Omega S.A., encompassing a tourbillon escapement visible on the dial side without any obstruction and the use of a fixed wheel with radial toothing to drive hour and minute discs. Under the protection of this patent, Omega has been producing a limited number of its central tourbillons in a special high-end workshop in Bienne. Hence, Franck Muller had to find its own solution.