Franck Muller: The Art of Making Time Personal
Updated 10 November 2026
There is a difference between buying a watch and being welcomed by the people who make it. For clients of Veltracon Lifestyle, the best way to Franck Muller leads through a friendship of ten years.
Through Gabriele Rossicarri, our clients can visit the manufacture at Watchland, in Genthod just outside Geneva, attend the house’s exclusive VIP events, enjoy priority access to new releases and limited editions, and commission one-of-a-kind timepieces, which can be completed in as little as six months.
Why is Franck Muller personal to Veltracon Lifestyle?
For Veltracon Lifestyle, the connection with Franck Muller carries a human story of its own. Gabriele Rossicarri is part of Veltracon and a brand ambassador for Franck Muller and has a longstanding relationship with the Sirmakes family. He has known Nicholas Rudaz, the house’s chief executive, for ten years, sharing a close friendship and professional relationship.
He is a passionate watch enthusiast and collector. In his view, every brand has its own distinct identity. What he particularly appreciates about Franck Muller is the finishing, the colours and the shapes. The tonneau-shaped case is undoubtedly his favourite.
“With Franck Muller, you are wearing more than a luxury watch. You are wearing a timepiece that reflects who you are, one you will appreciate day after day. Any collector will tell you the same.”
Gabriele Rossicarri
Personal relationships matter because they make an introduction meaningful. They create the opportunity to understand the people, ideas and dedication behind an object. In fine watchmaking, that understanding can transform the way a watch is seen and appreciated.
It is an approach that resonates with Veltracon Lifestyle. Helping a client discover an exceptional timepiece begins with understanding the individual: their curiosity, their tastes and what they hope to enjoy each time they fasten it to their wrist.
Can you visit the Franck Muller manufacture?
Yes, and the best way in is through us. Gabriele Rossicarri can arrange visits to the manufacture for our clients, offering a unique experience that includes private viewings of exceptional timepieces and unforgettable VIP moments.
All our clients who have visited Watchland have fallen in love with the brand and have had the opportunity to meet CEO Nicholas Rudaz.
Which Franck Muller VIP events can our clients attend?
We can invite our clients to exclusive VIP events, including these two dates in the Geneva watch calendar.
April
World Presentation of Haute Horlogerie
The WPHH at the Domaine du Grand Malagny, held during Watches and Wonders. At the 2026 edition, over five days, guests discovered the house’s latest creations in a setting more intimate than the larger international watch fairs, with the opportunity to visit the Watchland manufacture.
September
Franck Muller Masterpieces Days
At Watchland, held during Geneva Watch Days every year in September. At the 2026 edition, guests tried on the timepieces on display, took part in workshops with a master watchmaker, a dial specialist, a diamond setter and a strap artisan, and opened the three days with a dinner in the gardens of Watchland.
How do our clients acquire a Franck Muller?
Our clients enjoy priority access to new releases and limited editions, through our luxury concierge service. We can also commission unique pieces, ranging from complications to grand complications, with all types of precious gemstone settings, including diamonds, rubies, emeralds and sapphires.
Bespoke, one-of-a-kind timepieces can be completed in as little as six months.
We can also personalise any watch, with virtually limitless possibilities and exceptionally fast turnaround and delivery in Switzerland and worldwide.
Nicholas Rudaz described the house’s approach to Europa Star in terms a concierge recognises: “First we learn how to say yes to the customer and bend over backwards to satisfy their request, whatever it may be.”
What is Franck Muller known for?
Technical ingenuity, unmistakable design and a willingness to challenge convention have given Franck Muller a distinctive place in Swiss watchmaking.
Franck Muller is a family-owned Geneva watch manufacture, founded in the early 1990s by the watchmaker Franck Muller and the case maker Vartan Sirmakes and based at Watchland in Genthod, just outside Geneva. It is known for the curved tonneau case of the Cintrée Curvex and for Crazy Hours, a watch from 2003 whose hour hand jumps between numerals placed out of order. Nicholas Rudaz has been chief executive since 2021, and the house presents its novelties at its own event in Genthod rather than at Watches and Wonders.
A fine mechanical watch offers a curious proposition in a world where the hour is displayed on almost every screen. Its appeal lies in the ingenuity of its movement, the proportions of its case and the pleasure of discovering a detail that only its wearer might notice. Choosing one is an expression of taste, often deeply personal.
Few watchmakers have explored that freedom as confidently as Franck Muller. The house brings an exuberant visual language to a discipline built on precision, creating watches that invite both technical appreciation and an emotional response.
Who founded Franck Muller, and who leads the house today?
The story begins with the watchmaker himself. Trained at the Geneva School of Watchmaking, Franck Muller established his reputation restoring timepieces before developing his own complicated wristwatches. That experience provided an intimate understanding of traditional mechanisms and a foundation for exploring what they could become. His first wristwatches appeared in 1983; in 1992, he founded the brand with Vartan Sirmakes, bringing together watchmaking invention and expertise in the production of fine watch cases.
The house’s account of its founders describes how auction houses and collectors sent the watchmaker their rare pieces to restore, and how Sirmakes, trained as a gem-setter, moved into the making of watch cases; by the house’s account, the two met in 1991. The house dates the brand and its workshop to 1992, while Europa Star gives 1991 as the year the company was established. Its list of world premieres begins with a tourbillon with jumping hours in 1986 and includes the Aeternitas Mega of 2007, a wristwatch with 36 complications and 1,483 components.
Franck Muller himself left the company in 2003, remaining at the time a shareholder and a member of the board, as JCK reported. Since 2021 the house has been led by Nicholas Rudaz, who joined in 2007, according to a profile in Luxuo. Europa Star describes Franck Muller as a family-owned house in which a new generation of the Sirmakes family is preparing to take over.
What makes the Cintrée Curvex so recognisable?
That combination of invention and case-making remains central to the house’s appeal. A Franck Muller watch has a strong identity before its movement is even discussed. The Cintrée Curvex, with its elongated, curved case and expressive numerals, established a silhouette that is immediately recognisable. It gives the watch a sculptural presence, making the case itself an essential part of the experience.
The house dates the Cintrée Curvex to 1992 and describes it as a tonneau case curved in three dimensions, a form it says did not exist on the market before. The large, stylised numerals became the other half of that signature: in the house’s words, its watches became instantly recognisable for their numeral design.
How does the Franck Muller Crazy Hours work?
The relationship between invention and enjoyment becomes particularly clear in Crazy Hours. Its numerals appear in an unconventional order, yet the watch keeps time through a mechanism that sends the hour hand jumping to the correct numeral. The minute hand continues its familiar circuit.
Franck Muller introduced Crazy Hours in 2003. In the original model, as the house explains, a jumping-hour module on an automatic movement moves the hour hand to the next correct numeral at the end of every 60 minutes, about 150 degrees across the dial, while the minute hand follows its normal 60-minute cycle.
The result is wonderfully engaging: an ordinary change of hour becomes a small event worth watching. There is serious mechanical thought behind that moment of surprise. Crazy Hours demonstrates how a complication can create pleasure as well as perform a function, giving its wearer a different relationship with the passing day.
What is Watchland?
Behind this expressive character sits Watchland, the house’s headquarters in Genthod, near Geneva. Set around a restored mansion overlooking Lake Geneva, the estate brings together activities including watchmaking, assembly, case manufacturing and engraving. Other group production sites supply elements such as dials and stamped cases for finishing and assembly at Watchland.
According to the official description, the mansion was built in 1905, the village is where Franck Muller began working in 1983, and the house makes all of its own cases and dials. Europa Star places the group’s dial making in Les Bois and its case stamping in La Chaux-de-Fonds, both in the Jura Arc. Visits are by appointment, and Gabriele Rossicarri arranges them for our clients.
This organisation gives physical substance to the brand’s creative independence. A distinctive idea must ultimately become a working object, requiring designers, technicians and craftspeople to resolve its smallest details. Watchland offers a setting in which those disciplines can work closely together.
Which novelties did Franck Muller present in 2026?
Franck Muller does not exhibit at Watches and Wonders. It shows its new models at its own World Presentation of Haute Horlogerie (WPHH) at the Domaine du Grand Malagny in Genthod, which in 2026 took place from 14 to 18 April, the same week as Watches and Wonders Geneva. The house groups eight models as its 2026 novelties; the picture at the top of this article comes from its own banner for them.
The Round Triple Mystery Skeleton and the Vanguard Curvex Cut Flower are among the nominees of the Grand Prix d’Horlogerie de Genève 2026. The house adds limited editions through the year; the most recent, the Vanguard Slim Amador Montes, was announced on 21 October 2026.
Is Franck Muller the right house for you?
Franck Muller offers a compelling answer for those drawn to individuality. Its watches combine the discipline of traditional watchmaking with a confident sense of play. Their lasting fascination is in that balance: the precision required to measure time, and the imagination to make the experience personal.
Explore the world of Franck Muller with Gabriele Rossicarri.
First published on 21 October 2026.
Straight answers.
Can I visit the Franck Muller manufacture at Watchland?
Yes, and the best way in is through Veltracon Lifestyle. Gabriele Rossicarri, who is part of Veltracon and a brand ambassador for Franck Muller, can arrange visits to the manufacture in Genthod, just outside Geneva, including private viewings of exceptional timepieces. All our clients who have visited Watchland have had the opportunity to meet chief executive Nicholas Rudaz.
How can I attend Franck Muller’s VIP events in Geneva?
We can invite our clients to exclusive VIP events, including the World Presentation of Haute Horlogerie at the Domaine du Grand Malagny, held during Watches and Wonders in April, and the Franck Muller Masterpieces Days at Watchland, held during Geneva Watch Days every year in September.
Can Franck Muller make a one-of-a-kind watch?
Yes. Through Veltracon Lifestyle, clients can commission unique pieces, from complications to grand complications, with precious gemstone settings including diamonds, rubies, emeralds and sapphires. Bespoke, one-of-a-kind timepieces can be completed in as little as six months. Any watch can also be personalised, with exceptionally fast turnaround and delivery in Switzerland and worldwide.
Who owns Franck Muller?
Franck Muller is a family-owned company. Its founders, the watchmaker Franck Muller and the case maker Vartan Sirmakes, met in 1991, and the house dates the brand to 1992. Europa Star describes a new generation of the Sirmakes family preparing to take over. Nicholas Rudaz has led the house as chief executive since 2021. Franck Muller himself left the company in 2003.
How does the Franck Muller Crazy Hours work?
The numerals on the dial are placed out of order. In the original Crazy Hours, a jumping-hour module on an automatic movement moves the hour hand to the correct numeral at the end of every hour, about 150 degrees from the previous one, while the minute hand runs its normal 60-minute circuit. Franck Muller introduced Crazy Hours in 2003.
What is the Cintrée Curvex?
The Cintrée Curvex is Franck Muller’s signature case: a tonneau shape curved in three dimensions, which the house introduced in 1992. Together with large, stylised numerals it gives the watches their recognisable silhouette, and it carries many of the house’s complications, Crazy Hours among them.
Where are Franck Muller watches made?
At Watchland in Genthod, just outside Geneva, where the house carries out design, watchmaking, assembly, case making, engraving and after-sales service around a mansion built in 1905. Dials are made in Les Bois and cases stamped in La Chaux-de-Fonds, both in the Jura Arc, before being finished and assembled at Watchland.
Does Franck Muller exhibit at Watches and Wonders?
No. Franck Muller presents its new models at its own World Presentation of Haute Horlogerie at the Domaine du Grand Malagny in Genthod. In 2026 it took place from 14 to 18 April, the same week as Watches and Wonders Geneva. The house groups eight models as its 2026 novelties, among them the Vanguard Aero Revolution 3 Skeleton and the Imperium.
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