white collar roles that keep Franck Muller ticking are based at
Watchland. With arguably the most beautiful headquarters in Swiss
watchmaking, Franck Muller makes further good use of the campus
by welcoming retailers and journalists to Watchland for its annual
presentation of watchmaking novelties.
It’s at Watchland that watchmakers painstakingly craft the
many tourbillons for which Franck Muller is famous, earning the
company the sobriquet “Master of Complications.”
Upon arriving, I visited the tourbillon workshop, where a small
yet highly skilled team headed by Patrice Couston assembles and
regulates each of the watches outfitted with this most complex of
escapements. When it comes to the intricate process of poising and
regulating the Thunderbolt tourbillon, which makes one rotation
every five seconds, Patrice and his team use iPhones positioned
above a microscope to record the penetration of the pallet jewel into
the escape wheel.
The Gravity Tourbillon
2016 | WRISTWATCH
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