Franck Muller Vintage 7-Days Power Reserve

This is the new Franck Muller Vintage (Curvex) 7-Days Power Reserve.  Entirely designed and manufactured in Geneva, it is available in stainless steel or pink gold with either a white or inked enamel dial.  Overall, a beautiful addition to Franck Muller’s famous Vintage collection, though I do find the power reserve display to be  a bit quirky.

The seconds are displayed at 6 o’clock in the sub-dial (seen above).

To achieve its 7-day power reserve, the movement has been fitted with a second barrel.

The window located at 11 o’clock displays the amount of power left at any given time.   Note the use of a numerical (…5,6,7…) rather than a relative scale (empty…full).  I would prefer something a bit different here, both in terms of the placement and scale of the power reserve.  It feels like it is intruding on the dial, squeezing itself between 10 and 11 o’clock, and (unless there is some specific quantity to the numerical scale), I think a relative scale of some sort could have been more elegantly incorporated here.

Overall, this is a very characteristic watch of the Curvex style for the Franck Muller brand. The retail price of the red gold models seen here is 20’800 CHF, or about $22,500.  Moving down to a stainless steel case in this same collection will cost you about half this amount.  Franck Muller bears the name and represents one of the modern day greatest watchmakers, and I think is a must have for any diversified collection.