Franck Muller rejected the pink-it-and-shrink-it approach, and Time+Tide calls him an early advocate of “real” watches for women. His ladies’ Cintrée Curvex Tourbillon holds one of the smallest flying tourbillons made, 11.6mm across, in a case curved to wrap the wrist. The Mystery watches replace hands with turning discs, and the Round Triple Mystery of 2025 reached the finals of the Grand Prix d’Horlogerie de Genève for women’s complications. Many of his other women’s watches use quartz movements in gem-set cases.
I can source any watch, new or used, even very hard-to-get. I chose these examples to guide you.
Vanguard Lady · 35 × 46.3mm · Automatic · V 35 CH JSR LTD AC (BC)
Price on request
French pop artist Jisbar redrew every numeral for this Crazy Hours, spelling out ONE and writing 5 as the square root of 25. The numerals appear out of sequence, and at each new hour the hour hand jumps to the correct numeral.
Round · 39mm · Automatic · 7039 TM D 1R CD
About $96,000 at launch in 2025
Three turning discs show the hours, minutes, and seconds, with no hands at all. Franck Muller added the seconds disc in 2025, and the Grand Prix d’Horlogerie de Genève nominated it for that year’s ladies’ complication prize.
Round · 42mm · Automatic · 42 DM D 2R CD
From about $58,000
Two discs replace the hands: an arrow on the center disc points to the hour, and one on the outer disc points to the minute. Franck Muller patented the display in 1998.
Round · 42mm · Automatic · 42 DM D CD PEO RG
From about $58,000
Franck Muller sets the dial and case by hand with 662 diamonds and precious stones that form peonies, 4.87 carats in all. Two turning discs show the time instead of hands.
Cintrée Curvex · 31 × 43mm · Automatic · 1750 SC AT DT FO ED D 1R CRD LTD
From about $15,000
An Edelweiss, the Alpine flower of Switzerland, takes the place of the 12, on a sunburst dial in a curved rose gold case. The red strap echoes the Swiss flag.
Franck Muller, a Geneva-trained watchmaker, made his name in the 1980s with complicated watches. In 1991 he founded the company with the case maker Vartan Sirmakes. It works from Watchland, a mansion in Genthod, outside Geneva.
In 1992 the company announced a watch it called the most complicated wristwatch in the world, and it later made the Aeternitas Mega 4, with 36 complications. Its Cintrée Curvex case curves in three directions. The Crazy Hours of 2003 scrambles the hour numerals, and a jumping hour hand still shows the right time. The company remains independent.