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Promiscuous Wrist Post: Viva the Franck Muller Las Vegas!Posted by Jack Forster
Hello, Revolution-aries!
Well as some of you may have noticed, we've started a new feature in the magazine and on Revo Online, in which we bring you, thanks to the kind assistance of our friends in fine watchmaking, an ongoing series of first-person experiential reports on what it's like to actually wear --not just observe first hand, but actually wear over a period of many days --some of the world's finest timepieces. Our first installment, on the Greubel Forsey Tourbillon Double Technique, can be read on our Greubel Forsey Forum. For our next installment --well, as they used to say on Monty Python's Flying Circus, "and now for something completely different!" Presented for your viewing pleasure: the Franck Muller Las Vegas Roulette Watch, on my wrist in Las Vegas! 
(in the cab on the way to JFK for a few days in the town that Bugsy Siegel built) Franck Muller is a household name in watchmaking, and the man himself is a mixture of many things --genius, rake, horological bad boy are all names that have been applied to him over the years but what you remember ultimately is what an inventive watchmaker Franck Muller really is. There have been ups and downs and ups again in his fortunes and those of the Franck Muller Group which comprises several brands including the eponymous one, as well as Pierre Kunz, Golay, Backes and Strauss, and so on but what I always think of when I think of Franck Muller is the "Master of Complications" who really was responsible for what I like to think of as the beautifully non-essential complication. While he has made incredibly complex watches (the Aeternitas Mega 4 for instance 
as well as watches with useful complications such as the Master Banker I am personally most fascinated by complications like the Crazy Hours, which show his playful side and his ingenuity together. Last week I spent four days in Las Vegas --Sin City, as they say, though we were way too busy for any sinning and anyhow at my age I just don't have the energy or inclination ;-) and I had a chance to take the Franck Muller Las Vegas Roulette watch through its paces in its natural environment! The occasion was the annual watch trade show that takes place in Vegas every year in June: Swiss Watch at JCK, and Couture. (The two shows used to be conveniently located next to each other in the Wynn and Palazzo but for reasons better left unplumbed were this year at the Mandalay Bay and Wynn hotels which are --thanks guys --at the opposite ends of the Strip. It's only a few miles but still. But that's another post!) The Franck Muller Las Vegas watch is housed in the famous Franck Muller Cintrée Curvex case, which not only has a wonderful retro-Deco feel but also happens to be extremely comfortable. As far as wearability is concerned this is one of the most delightful watches I've ever had on my wrist --never having had an FM watch on for an extended period of time before I was pleased (though not surprised) by the pleasurable sensation of the gently curved case. At 34x45mm, it's a large but not over-large watch and it's definitely attention-getting, but not in an objectionably ostentatious way --you feel you're wearing something really different and fun, but not cartoonishly absurd. 
The complication on this particular watch is one of Franck Muller's signature flights of whimsy: a functioning roulette wheel. A roulette wheel usually uses a ball which bounces around the slots in the edge of the wheel until it settles into a black or red number (or green, in which case the house wins) and you either go home with some extra green or, with another hard luck story from Sin City. The implementation of the roulette wheel is a little different on the Vegas watch. Franck Muller realized the obvious: for a roulette game to be fair, the wheel has to be undisturbed by outside movement and perfectly parallel to the ground, otherwise the game isn't truly random. So he adapted the roulette wheel to the environment of a wristwatch. The game on the Vegas watch is played as follows. On the dial a small arrow hand, with a serpentine shank, points to a number on a roulette wheel. When the button that's co-axial to the crown is pushed (it's very much like a monopusher chronograph) the hand starts to spin. Now the trick here is that the arrow spins so fast that it's invisible, and while it will eventually run down it actually spins extremely fast for quite a few seconds. Stopping the hand is done simply by releasing pressure on the button. What makes it random is the user's inability to know where he or she is going to stop the hand when pressure is removed from the button in the crown. 
Amazingly enough, the roulette complication draws no power from the mainspring --it is activated simply by pressure on the crown, which provides all the energy necessary to send it whirring around fast as an airplane propeller (literally.) If you think about it this is something very much in the spirit of watchmaking itself --after all the first precision timekeepers were pendulum clocks but you can't put a pendulum in a wristwatch (nor in a pocket watch, for that matter) so Christian Huygens and Robert Hooke both, towards the end of the 17th century, came up with the balance spring, which is what makes portable mechanical timekeepers possible. In the same way, Franck Muller has adapted a game which is meant for a stable physical environment to an unstable one. 
Not only is the watch very comfortable to wear and very striking, it's extremely legible (a big plus in the dim, confusing lighting of a Vegas casino!) and has just enough of a rakish air to be a perfect fit with slightly unconventional dress (I wore it with my favorite pink jacket) in a slightly unconventional environment. If you're a bit of a rake yourself, if you like to live a little dangerously, and if you think Time is so serious that it's nice to not take it too seriously sometimes, the Franck Muller Vegas watch is for you. 
We had a great time, and behaved ourselves. . . mostly  .
(Reception committee from the Revolution party sponsored by us and Belluso Jewelers, one of the finest retailers for luxury timepieces in Las Vegas.) Until next time, Jack Visit Franck Muller USA's newly revamped website at www.franckmullerusa.com |
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