The third in the series with mysterious gemstone clad Franck Mullers. This latest watch is called the Round Triple Mystery. We handled the watch during a press event in Singapore. Here are our impressions.
Franck Muller Round Triple Mystery
The Franck Muller Round Triple Mystery has a retail price of SGD 138,300 for the models with brilliant cut diamonds on the bezel, and SGD 240,100 for the models with baguette cut diamonds on the bezel. Both prices are inclusive of GST.
A total of 8 new references are released in two families. Four with a bezel encrusted with round cut diamonds, and four more with the bezel inlaid with baguette diamonds.
Each of the four are executed with diamonds with either diamond, emerald, ruby or blue sapphire, the only difference being the diamonds on the bezel. The case is 39mm in diameter, and either in rose gold or white gold.
This third series in the Round Mystery saga is now presented with all three time indicators. The first Round Mystery only had an hour hand mounted on a rotating disc. The second had hour and minute indications on two rotating discs.
And this time, the watch displays the hour and minutes as well as a seconds hand, now using three rotating discs. The seconds hand is skeletonised with a floral motif, but also to ensure that it is very light. The entire structure is just 0.0052g, with the arrow indicator at 0.002g, the diamond at 0.003g, and the skeleton pastille at 0.047g. This three simultaneously rotating disc may not be a high level complication on its own, as instead of three hands, the movement has to just drive three discs. But it becomes a challenge because each disc is gemstone encrusted, and this adds considerable weight, as compared to just hands. And it becomes an engineering feat to power all three discs.
The movement is Franck Muller MVD 2800-TMY. The movement is automatically wound with a full sized rotor winding bi-directionally. Beat rate is 28,800 bph and the power reserve is 42 hours.
On the wrist, the watch feels rather nicely sized…especially on an average male wrist, though the visual impact before picking it up is one which is rather large. The brilliance of the dial and case with the gemstones make time reading to be a bit of a challenge, though truth be told, the contrast between the gems with the diamond background is rather good. With the exception of the two models with diamond markers, which look like an almost psychedelic trance of moving diamond discs.
But one does not buy a watch like this to only tell the time. It is a statement. It carries the story of diafiance and imagination. And they mystery of transforming the hours, minutes and seconds into a ballet of light and motion. Quite mesmerising, if I may say so myself…coming from a guy who generally do not like gemstones on watches.
And finally, the pricing is actually surprisingly low for such a jewellery show piece. Of course the SGD 130k/240k is not inexpensive by any means, but perhaps my senses are numbed by the high pricing that this industry seeks, and I was expecting a higher price tag. Take that in any way you will.
Franck Muller Round Triple Mystery Specifications
MOVEMENT
MVD 2800-TMY * idirectional automatic movement * 217 components * Diameter: Ø 26.2 mm x Thickness: 5.35 mm * Balance wheel frequency set to 28,800 vibrations per hour * POWER RESERVE 42 Hours
CASE Round case * 18k Rose Gold / White Gold case * Diameter: Ø 39 mm x Thickness: 10.05 mm * Brilliant-Cut Variation: Hand-set with 120 brilliant-cut diamonds (3.90 carats) * Baguette-Cut Variation: Hand-set with 80 brilliant-cut diamonds (1.40 carats) and 48 baguette-cut diamonds on the bezel (4.92 carats) * Hand polished * Sapphire crystal * Water resistant up to 30 meters
DIAL Hand set with 237 brilliant-cut diamonds (1.96 carats) * 3 triangle cut indexes (0.07 carats) of diamond / emerald / ruby / blue sapphire
STRAP Hand-sewn alligator strap with rubber underside * 18k Rose Gold / White Gold buckle hand-set with 8 brilliant-cut diamonds (0.06 carats)
