It’s almost impossible to mention Franck Muller Cintrée Curvex Crazy Hours Pastels without thinking about its iconic Crazy Hours complication. Introduced in 2003, Crazy Hours has come to be a calling card of sorts for the Genthod Manufacture, which also produces bestsellers like the Vanguard and Skafander collections.
Devised in what was probably a ‘Eureka’ moment for founder Franck Muller while he was holidaying in Mauritius, the Crazy Hours complication features a jumping hour module that snaps the hour hand to seemingly random positions at each hour. Its base automatic movement drives the minute hand in a traditional clockwise manner, so the minutes are read in the usual way.
On one of our visits to the Manufacture, we asked the watchmaker if the numbers on the dial could be arranged in any fashion. The answer, unfortunately, was negative. You see, what looks like a haphazard order of numerals on the dial is actually a deliberate arrangement. Each number is positioned at approximately 150 degrees away from the one preceding it, so the jumping hour mechanism moves the hour hand at roughly the same angle each hour.
This playful spirit was recently invoked in the new Remember watch, which launched this year. Like the Crazy Hours watch, the Remember watch tells time in an unconventional manner with all three hands (hours, minutes, seconds) moving in an anti-clockwise fashion. Again, it reiterates the imaginative spirit of the Manufacture, and continues to tease collectors in its approach to time-telling.
But back to the Franck Muller Cintrée Curvex Crazy Hours Pastels . In an exclusive collection for Asia Pacific, the timepiece comes in an array of pastel hues: purple, beige, blue and orange. Housed in the signature Cintrée Curvex case, each model is available in either 18K rose gold or stainless steel with 66 brilliant-cut diamonds. Hand-painted numbers embellish a sunburst guilloché dial, which is generously coated with 20 layers of lacquer.
Whether or not you’re a fan of pastels, there’s no denying these candy-coloured options sure pop on the wrist, offering a fun touch of colour to liven up your OOTD.
Franck Muller—driving time crazy since 2003—has raided the candy store for a new feminine extension to its Cintrée Curvex Crazy Hours line, and the result couldn’t be more charming.
Available only in Asia, this interpretation offers four different dials with four pastel tones in blue, orange, purple and beige, together with matching straps in alligator leather too. An 18K rose gold or stainless steel bezel set with 66 brilliant-cut diamonds frames each sunburst guilloché dial decorated with a playful mishmash of the iconic Franck Muller indexes.
The signature Franck Muller Cintrée Curvex Crazy Hours Pastels case with its arched back is the watchmaker’s modern interpretation of an iconic shape, the tonneau, and the ideal pairing for women’s wrists, thanks to its svelte, ergonomic proportions.
But as every aficionado knows, the real magic lies in the Crazy Hours complication and its apparently bonkers way of telling the time. The hour numerals are jumbled up on the dial, yet the hour hand still moves in the correct sequential order. In essence, if an unsuspecting passer-by were to ask for the time and attempt to read it as you would on a regular clock face, chances are utter confusion will ensue.
There is, of course, method in the madness. The complication comprises a jumping hour module and an automatic movement. While the hour hand jumps to point to the correct hour numeral, the minute hand revolves round the dial in a traditional 60-minute cycle. Although the hour numerals seem randomly placed, there is a sequence to the ‘crazy’ hours: each number is placed at an approximately 150-degree arc away from its preceding number.
The Cintrée Curvex Crazy Hours is something of an enigma in the horology world—not unlike those who know how to appreciate its sense of irreverence. But veneer of frivolity aside, it serves as a timely reminder of how you could end up missing the fun in life if all you do is obey the rules.