Franck Muller is showing glimpses of what the future will look like at SIHH. There’s a musical harmony to be heard, and also a glimpse that is pretty in pink. As the SIHH starts to show over the horizon, we are getting some idea of how 2018 is going to present itself.

For Franck Muller, the brand that has come to know itself as the Master of Complications and in particular as Master of the Tourbillon, the new models herald a level of complexity, of sound judgement, and of a decision to make the ladies’ side of the boutique even more appealing. May 2018 be everything we hoped 2017 wouldn’t be.

The V50 Vanguard Tourbillon Minute Repeater

Franck Muller’s identifying itself as both Master of the Tourbillon and Master of Complications finds a real spokesman in the V50. The V50 Vanguard is a tourbillon movement combined with a minute repeater. This ambitious decision to fuse in a single case both an incredibly complex (and spinning) movement such as a tourbillon and a complicated sound-producing minute repeater cannot be overestimated. The minute repeater uses the case as a sound producing instrument, and everything in that case therefore plays some part in the quality of the sound. With the inclusion of the tourbillon cage, which by definition must never be at rest if it is to achieve the effect it was built for, then we have a multiple intersection of intricacies. Can Franck Muller manage these two masters?

The Vanguard Lady Tourbillon Gravity

The Vanguard Lady Tourbillon Gravity is a complicated and complex mechanical watch that is unremorsefully aimed at the ladies’ market. The pink color palette for this watch’s hour indices, the leather strap, and part of the visible tourbillon assembly all make the Vanguard Lady Tourbillon Gravity a woman’s watch. It’s a timepiece for someone who loves mechanical wristwatches and wants them near her all the time, someone who is feminine and proud of it, complicated and not afraid of it.

Franck Muller’s futuristic Gravity maintains its tourbillon cage with the elliptical structure and the cutting-edge technology. But the Lady Tourbillon Gravity comes in a smaller package, more accommodating to a ladies’ wrist. Although as you can tell by the color choices, that is hardly likely to make it less noticeable.