The most iconoclastic complication of Franck Muller, the Crazy Hours, will be soon highlighted in a Vanguard case with sporty curves and colorful numbers applied by hand. The material is into the spotlight, with the brushed stainless steel case and dial. An aesthetic that lives up to the eccentricity of the complication, with the iconic numbers of the Vanguard collection in blue, red, green or orange, that seem to stand out from the brushed stainless steel dial.
The luminescent hands match the color of the audacious applied numerals, and the lines of the box have been worked to give it a sporty and modern character.
The collection is designed to express the concept of time as an abstract construct – that time is ultimately what one makes of it.
The Vanguard Crazy Hours collection, combines boldness and creativity, giving people who wear this exceptional timepiece a new way to read the time.
Indeed, since the earliest sun dials, the watch hands have always moved in chronological order from 1 to 12 and the association of the zenith with noon is so strong that nobody needs to recognise the numeral 12 in order to know what time it is. The Crazy Hours offers a new reading of time, showing hour numerals in the most unconventional order.
Thanks to a patented house mechanism, the central hour hand literally jumps from one hour to the next, respectfully following the randomly numbers on the dial. Thereby, after every 60 minutes, the hour hand would jump to the next correct number. Meanwhile, the minute hand follows a conventional 60-minute cycle revolving around the dial. Time becomes a value that is personal, individual, and unique. You find yourself eagerly waiting at each 59th minute to observe the Crazy Hours’ mesmerizing jump.
Although the hour numerals seem randomly placed, there is a sequence to the ‘crazy’ hours – each subsequent number is placed at an approximately 120-degree arc away from the preceding number.
Launched in 2003, the Crazy Hours complication has attracted watch aficionados for more than fifteen years in its famous Cintrée Curvex case. It will be presented for the first time in a Vanguard case during the must-see watchmaking fair of the House, the WPHH (the World Presentation of Haute Horlogerie), at the heart of Frank Muller manufacture in Geneva, from Monday, January 14th to Friday, January 18th, 2019.
Franck Muller Vanguard Crazy Hours
Reference number: V 45 CH BR
Case: Stainless steel (Width: 44 mm, Length: 53.7 mm, Height: 13.70 mm)
Water resistant: up to 30 meters
Functions: Central jumping hour hand. Central minutes and seconds
Movement: Self-winding mechanical movement FM 2800 CH (Diamètre 25.60 mm, Height 5.60 mm, 28’800 vibrations/hour, 42 hours power reserve, 203 components, 27 jewels)
Movement decoration: Côtes de Genève and sunray brushing on the bridges and oscillating weight. Circular graining of bothside of the bottom plate. Diamond polishing on the bridges. 24k gold bath and rhodium treatment. 24k gold finish on the engravings. Blued screws. Sunray brushing on the rolling barrel and ratchet.
Dial: Brushed dial and applied Arabic numerals.
Strap: Hand-sewn alligator strap and folding buckle.
