When Franck Muller unveiled the Crazy Hours around 2004, he not only brought a novel way of time telling but also fun to watch collecting.
The immediate impression is the dial layout... what the???
Yup, the numeral markers are not in a traditional layout... it's all over the shop or so it seems. Hence, the name Crazy Hours. Other than the 1, 4, 7 and 10, the rest of the numbers are not in their traditional position.
So how does one tell time? Well, the Crazy Hour mechanism is ingenious. The hour hand points to the correct hour and the minute hand reads the traditional way. Looking at this display (below), the time is 3.20 or roundabout there...
Housed in the iconic Cintrée Curvex case, it was Franck Muller who made the tonneau shape "his own". While the tonneau shaped case was not invented by Franck Muller, it was he who made it his own, popularising the case shape with the Cintrée Curvex.
The jumpng mechanism when activated at the hour, pushes the hour hands 5 positions forward and in this case from 3 to 4 which is five positions away. By the way, unlike traditional timepieces, the hour hands stays at the hour position but does not advance as the hour passes until exactly at the hour when it will jump to the next position.
You can see that the number 4 is five positions away from 3 and that 5 is also five positions away from 4. Now on to the numerals - the font style is emblematic of Franck Muller (see below). In this example, the numbers are coated with luminous paint unlike other models where the numbers are not coated.
And the lume makes the timepiece that more special... really!
What's also amazing about this timepiece is the dial. Underneath the embossed (coated) numerals lies other numbers beneath the top layer. As I understand it, the black numbers underneath form the first layer and are printed, then laminated with layers of lacquer before finally printing the top layer. Hope that make sense... And that sunburst guilloché dial is very pretty too.
Unfortunately, the timepiece comes with a closed case back which means we are unable to see the movement and the finishing. However, beating inside is an automatic movement with 42 hours power reserve. But with such a caseback (four screws securing the back), I am wondering what the waterproofing rating is.
The Franck Muller range is impressive but when he released the Crazy Hours, that was the only Franck Muller I ever wanted.
Is there a favourite Franck Muller timepiece for you?
No comments:
Post a Comment