166 Franck Muller Number 1, Extremely Rare, Perpetual Calendar, Tourbillon, Minute-Repeater and Equation of Time Complications Wristwatch, in Yellow Gold

Estimate: €90,000 –⁠ 180,000

Model: Minute-Repeater - Perpetual Calendar - Equation of Time
Reference: RMQPE
Case Material: Yellow Gold
Bracelet Material: Leather Strap
Year: 2000s
Movement: Manual
Caliber: 13
Case N°: N° 1
Dimensions: 36 mm
Signed: Dial, Case and Movement

Franck Muller earned his moniker “Master of Complications” by making masterful complicated watches that had an amazing taste and design. The here offered RMQPE watch is from the early 2000s, with a very low serial number, offers few complications, some of them extremely sought after: equation of time, perpetual calendar, moon phases, and minute repeater. Representing one of the most complex watches ever produced by Muller, if not THE most, it’s truly matched in the complications department by how nice looking it is. The 18k yellow-gold case is round with massive straight rounded lugs with screws that hold the strap, large winding crown with logo, broad smooth bezel and repeater activation slide on the 9 o’clock case side. The two-tone silver dial offers several textures: satin finished, brush finished and guilloché, painted radial Roman numerals on an outer plain reserve. Add to the intricate finishing, the fact that the subdials are sunken, traced in gold, guilloché refined and the result is a beautifully made wristwatch with horological bona fides. The dial shows months and equation of time in the retrograde arc from 11 o’clock to 1 o’clock. Leap year indication in the subdial adjacent to 2 o’clock. Dates in the larger subdial next to 3, moon phase and power reserve at 6 o’clock. Day in subdial at 9 o’clock and 24-hour time in smaller, touching subdial. All hands are blued and the principal timekeeping hands are spade style. With a movement completely hand-engraved, this very watch is also equipped with a tourbillon: intended to solve a problem in timekeeping by the application of physics, it became an engineering challenge which still absorbs watchmakers and over 200 years after its introduction, is one of the most exquisite and complex mechanisms ever conceived.