Franck Muller

Franck Muller was a skilled tinkerer even as a child

Franck Muller was born Francesco Muller on 11 July 1958 to a Swiss father and Italian mother. He grew up in a multicultural environment and was interested early on in mechanical devices of all types. After several years of study at the Genf watchmaking school, he made a name for himself as a restorer of precious timepieces with collectors and auction houses around the world, and his clients included renowned brands such as Vacheron Constantin, Patk Philippe and Lange & Söhne. He was no longer satisfied with repairing existing devices and instead constructed his own first watch models, aiming to create wristwatches that had the technical level of pocket watches. His acquaintance with the Armenian gem-setter (French: sertisseur) Vartan Sirmakes (born 1956) led to the founding of the company Technowatch SA in Genthod near Geneva in 1991 – with Francesco Muller still only 33 years old. The watch manufacturer was later renamed Franck Muller Watchland SA. 

Complicated mechanisms and unique aesthetics

Franck Muller broke several records with his complex constructions, and in 1992, just one year after the company was founded, he was able to present the most complicated wristwatch in the world at that time. Amongst other things, the model had a perpetual calendar and a thermometer and was later considerably extended in its range of functions by the Zurich watchmaker Paul Gerber (born 1950). Characteristic for Franck Muller’s luxury watches are the tonneau shape of the case and the Art Nouveau style dial, with the company’s best known watch series, the Cintrée Curvex, a curved further development of the tonneau shape that is used today for almost all Franck Muller watches. The history of the company is coined by technical innovations which, with its Watchland watchmaking concept, continues to strive for the development of unique and innovative models to this day. For this, Franck Muller has established new workshops on the company premises where all the necessary steps of production can take place under one roof.

Great popularity at the beginning of the new millennium

In the 2000s in particular, Franck Muller was considered one of the most popular watch brands in the worlds, with the Swiss manufacturer’s watches worn by celebrities such as Arnold Schwarzenegger, Cristiano Ronaldo, David Beckham, Kim Kardashian, Kanye West, Paris Hilton and José Mourinho. In 2020, Franck Muller opened its first boutique in Germany in Frankfurt. During that period, however, the company’s founders, Franck Muller and Vartan Sirmakes, were involved in several years of tension and legal disputes which were finally settled in 2009. Since then, Muller has taken care of the construction of the watches, whilst Sirmakes directs the company’s business affairs. As a result of the dispute, several new brands were purchased to compensate for Muller’s absence. The German watchmaker Martin Braun (born 1964) also worked for a time under the umbrella of the Swiss company, but because he was not able to realise his ideas to the expected or desired extent, he moved on in 2009.