World's Most Expensive Watch by Franck Muller

The Most Expensive Wristwatches in the World

[UPDATE : Franck Muller has been displaced as the most expensive watchmaker! The most expensive watch ever sold in the world is now officially - November 2014 - the Patek Philippe "Henry Graves Supercomplication", a fine hand-crafted timepiece named after its original owner, a banker from New York who ordered it in 1925. It has just been sold at auction by Sothebys for $21 million + $3 million commission. The watch is a pocket watch not a wristwatch as it weighs over 1 pound and comprises 900 separate parts. The winning bidder, preferred to remain anonymous.

The most expensive wristwatch in the world is still the wristwatch made by Franck Muller and described in this hubpage!]

Got lots of money burning holes in your designer pockets? Want to impress impressionable loonies and gangstas? Then you need a watch, timepiece, chronographs or chronometer, whatever you prefer to call it, that the really really really rich buy. In this case what you need is not a flashy and tacky Rolex, but a far more exclusive Franck Muller complication (Franck Muller likes to call his watches Masters of Complications). How do we know that the super rich buy Franck Muller watches ? Because Robert Frank says so in his book Richistan, where he also says the super-rich don't buy BMWs either, they go for Maybachs.

How expensive is a Franck Muller watch ? And indeed, you might ask, which is the most expensive watch in the world ? Well on Saturday 7th November 2009, the first Franck Muller Aeternitas Mega 4™ Grande Sonnerie Westminster Carillon was delivered in the prestigious setting of the salon 'Empire' in the Hotel de Paris in Monte Carlo. Price : $2.7 million. This makes it the most expensive watch ever sold outside of an auction. This article was first published here - most expensive watches

Franck Muller Aeternitas Mega 4™ Grande Sonnerie Westminster Carillon

The Franck Muller Aeternitas Mega 4™ Grande Sonnerie Westminster Carillon is the culmination of a project that began in 2004. The Aeternitas Mega 4™ is the world’s most complicated wrist-watch. It features 36 complications, 25 of which are visible on the dial and on the back, comprising 1,483 individual components.

Who bought the most expensive watch in the world? A gentleman called Michael J. Gould, a passionate watch collector who traveled to Monte Carlo in his private jet to take delivery of the first Aeternitas Mega 4™ personally from Mr. Franck Muller and Mr. Vartan Sirmakes, co-founders of the Franck Muller Manufacture.

The event was witnessed by 400 guests, including representatives of the government of Monaco.

Between the 6th and 8th November, the Conquistador Grand Prix collection with the automatic Chronograph and Tourbillon models were presented to distributors and retailers. The Infinity collection features Reka Diamonds and Reka Safari Diamonds and "brings a sensual design to the already strong ladies collection".

So who is Franck Muller?

Franck Muller was born in Switzerland (La Chaux-de-Fonds) in July 1958. His father was Swiss and mother was Italian, his passion is creating obsessively complicated, unique and revolutionary timepieces, greatly appreciated by watch connoisseurs and celebrities such as including Robin Williams, Demi Moore and Elton John amongst others.

Franck Muller's timepieces are famous a combination of understated style and traditional Swiss excellence. It is worth nothing that the president of the company designs the mechanism of every watch himself.

Franck Muller started his career by restoring mechanical timepieces for collectors, auction houses and museums and gained a reputation as one of the best restorers of antique timepieces.

By 1992 Franck Muller had moved on and had four patents and twenty-one world premieres to his name. His watches are renowned for their highly sophisticated features and the extraordinary precision of their operations. His designs continue to be revolutionary and unique.

He created the House of Franck Muller in 1992 and his watches achieved an instant reputation throughout the US and Europe. Today Franck Muller creates limited numbers of watches for private clients.

As he realized early on that the design of a watch is the first thing that catches the eye he created the well-known and instantly recognizable Curvex Tonneau case.

In the early 1990s, the watchmaking industry in Switzerland was in the middle of a crisis, and a lot of manufacturers gave up after the emergence of the quartz movement. It was therefore a bold move to go against the trend and concentrate exclusively on manufacturing mechanical watches with complications.

At the time it was seen as highly audacious to try to gain credibility among the large watchmaking houses that have existed for several centuries. The watchmaking industry is bound by tradition and not very open to innovation, in particular in the area of design. So it was a brave idea to introduce the case shape known as the Cintrée Curvex™, something which previously had existed in the watch market: a curved body with three dimensions which involved great technical difficulties in production. The introduction of dials in bright colors such as royal blue was a further revolutionary step in the Fine Watchmaking segment.

In less than 20 years, the Franck Muller brand's spectacular growth has gained it worldwide recognition, enviable financial solidity and the creation of over 40,000 watches a year. Today the brand has six production sites in Switzerland, and over 500 employees in Switzerland. Worldwide there are forty-eight exclusive Franck Muller watch stores and 600 points of sale in over 100 countries.

Its success is down to its exceptional collections: such as the Crazy Hours or Vegas models with fun complications, and the Aeternitas Mega - which is the most complicated wristwatch ever made, featuring thirty-six complications and over 1,480 components. This latest watch reinforces the label of the Franck Muller watches as 'Master of Complications'.

Current collections include: Chronograph, Color Dreams, Giga Tourbillon, Dubail, Black Croco, Grace Curvex and Infinity Ronde.

Each year Franck Muller launches a world premiere i.e. a new line of timepieces that contains something exclusive.

Notable watches include the Endurance, Revolution2, and the Curvex Minute Repeater Tourbillon, with production limited to 25 pieces.

The Franck Muller website is a very interesting place and is a work of art in itself, as you would expect from someone who pays such great attention to detail.

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