The Grand Prix d’Horlogerie de Genève (GPHG) has unveiled the nominees for its 2024 edition, naming the Franck Muller Long Island Evolution Master Jumper as one of six finalists in the prestigious category of Men’s Complications.
The Long Island Evolution Master Jumper was first debuted by Franck Muller in April, as part of a series of three revolutionary timepieces featuring a modern evolution of the brand’s signature Long Island case. The House held a gala dinner to mark the launch of the Asia Pacific Exclusive collection at Chateau d’Allaman just outside of Geneva, where the Long Island Evolution Master Jumper was worn by Thai actor and celebrity Nine Naphat.
Franck Muller’s track record at the GPHG is a testament to its place in Haute Horlogerie. The brand won the Men’s Watch Prize for the timeless elegance of the Cintrée Curvex Grand Guichet. The very innovative Crazy Hours later earned the Design Watch Prize. The manufacture also took home the Public Prize for the Cintrée Curvex Color Dreams and for a unique mechanical marvel, the Cintrée Curvex Tourbillon Minute Repeater Perpetual Calendar. These achievements demonstrate the brand’s constant ability to fascinate experts and collectors with bold mechanisms and designs.
Triple Jumping Complication
The Long Island Evolution Master Jumper showcases a showstopping triple jumping complication with numerical displays for the hours, minutes, and date. While triple jumping displays are not new in high watchmaking, they typically relate only to calendar functions in perpetual calendars.
There has not been a watch with three numerical indications for the time and date functions combined until now.
With a new vertical and equidistant jumping display, the timepiece features three windows arranged in a column down the middle of the watch case, with the hours at the top, the minutes in the middle, and the date at the 6 o’clock position. The minutes and date windows each use two separate discs for the tens and ones, both jumping at each decimal number. The hour window, on the other hand, employs one single disc to indicate the hours from ‘1’ to ‘12’. The Long Island Evolution Master Jumper’s five discs as well as the wheels that drive their motion are all visible from the front of the watch, through a supporting bridge with machined cutouts.
Delivering an instantaneous jump for the hours and minutes requires significant amounts of energy, especially at the hour jump, and even more so at the end of the day when the date jumps as well. To achieve sufficient torque for this, Franck Muller employs an innovative double barrel system with the first barrel, located at 12 o’clock, engaging the hours and minutes discs, and the second barrel, located at 6 o’clock, powering the movement and the two discs associated with the date indication.
The Long Island Evolution Master Jumper also boasts an inner sapphire crystal dial at the level of the inner bezel, adding three-dimensional depth to the timepiece. This is where useful text elements highlighting the movement’s technical indications are printed, as well as where the three apertures’ frames are directly incorporated, outlined in a striking pine green tone.
On the sapphire crystal dial, details of the Calibre FM 3100 designed just for this timepiece are printed to express the technical prowess of this movement in a creative manner. The result of four years of development, it is hand-finished with the numerous techniques practiced in the Franck Muller manufacture, for a movement that is both beautifully and technically breathtaking.
A New, Complex Construction
The Long Island Evolution series retains the silhouette of the original Long Island design, while injecting a new dynamic into an updated case. It incorporates an additional inner case that secures and protects the shaped in-house movement within. This multi-layered construction offers an additional benefit – it enables the sapphire crystal protecting the display of the watch to be attached to the flange without any visible fixing screws.
Complementing the three central apertures on the watch face, the aluminium inner case is anodised in a pine green colour, while the titanium outer case has a black PVD treatment with satin-brushing. Luxurious alligator leather straps in matte black featuring contrast stitching and edges in the same pine green hue are paired with the new Long Island cases, creating a continuous green line that encircles the entire watch on both sides.
Asia Pacific Exclusive Limited Edition
The Long Island Evolution Master Jumper is exclusive to the Asia Pacific region, with just 100 pieces of the Long Island Evolution Master Jumper.
As part of the global GPHG Exhibition, the Long Island Evolution Master Jumper will be displayed at the Saigon Opera House in Ho Chi Minh City on 9 and 10 October 2024.
Discover more exciting creations from Franck Muller at our boutiques, or online.
