Full MonteCarlo

by Jonathan Bues

In early November the Franck Muller brand hosted the World Presentation of Haute Horlogerie, its annual presentation of new products to retailers and the press, in the larger-than-life yet geographically tiny Principality of Monaco. This installment of the WPHH, the first ever held outside of Switzerland, did not disappoint, its highlight being the presentation of the most complicated wristwatch ever made, the Aeternitas Mega 4, a timepiece five years in the making.
In addition to presenting the Aeternitas Mega 4 to Colorado watch collector Michael J. Gould, a client of Naples, Florida, retailer Exquisite Timepieces, the firm unveiled updates and debuts across the Franck Muller brand.
 Predictably, this year’s debuts included an assortment of the complications that have made Franck Muller the highly visible brand it is today. But a number of diamond pieces for ladies with extraordinary colored dials, another Muller specialty, also drew considerable attention. (Throughout the event, retailers and brand representatives alike struck an upbeat note about the future of the watch industry, which has taken a major hit as a result of the global recession. One can only hope that such optimism will continue at the 2010 SIHH and BaselWorld watch fairs.)

Mega
Anticipation has been building since 2005 for the realization of Franck Muller’s Aeternitas Mega 4, the world’s most complicated wristwatch. Its creator, Pierre Michel Golay, holds a special place in the heart of Franck Muller himself. Golay, aged 74, was a mentor and inspirational teacher to Franck Muller as he attended watchmaking school in his teens. Brand co-founders Vartan Sirmakes and Franck Muller drew on Golay’s considerable experience and talents in 2002, making him head of research and development at Franck Muller Watchland.
Five years later, Golay launched his own brand of watches within the Franck Muller Group while continuing his work on the most complicated pieces for the Frank Muller brand itself. Aeternitas Mega 4, the pinnacle achievement within the Aeternitas series, is the culmination of the Franck Muller Aeternitas project.
In all, the Aeternitas Mega 4 claims thirty-six complications, twenty-five of which are visible on the dial or on the back, and comprises 1,483 components. It is by necessity a large watch, at 61 mm x 41 mm, because many of the complications require their own plots of real estate on the sun-stamped, translucent lacquer dial. It is also the most expensive watch ever sold outside of an auction, the first piece, with the pave ruby case version fetching $2.7 million.
The Aeternitas Mega 4 incorporates all of the complications found in previous versions of the Aeternitas series, its basis starting with an in-house automatic tourbillon movement in the firm’s iconic Cintrée Curvex shape and a perpetual calendar designed to remain accurate long after being handed down several generations.
With all of the complications requiring a tremendous power supply, Franck Muller used a slow-beat (18,000 bph) movement and two separate platinum micro rotors to power the main movement and the Westminster carillon. Even with all of calendar displays and almost countless functions, the main movement retains a power reserve of three days. The chiming mechanism of the watch has a respectable 24-hour power reserve.