A Detailed Look at the Franck Muller Vanguard Gravity, an Exceptionally Large, Architectural Tourbillon (with Original Photos & Price)
By Su Jia Xian
Despite pretensions to the contrary, tourbillons are largely aesthetic, rather than functional. That being the case, a tourbillon should be visually impressive, even dramatic, a tiny spectacle on the dial. The Franck Muller Vanguard manages that by sheer dint of size, with a tourbillon bridge that is some 21mm in diameter, completing dominating the dial.
Franck Muller has historically been adept at creating unusual tourbillons, notably the multi-axis Revolution or the ultra-large Gigatourbillon. The newest addition to its stable of tourbillons is the Vanguard Gravity, which boasts an oversized and unusual, ellipse-shaped tourbillon cage. It’s equipped with an in-house movement that has a five day power reserve.
Rising upwards from the opening in the dial, the bridge of the tourbillon, a massive, four-armed structure that looks like it was appropriated from a suspension bridge, measures 21.2mm at its widest, larger than some ladies’ watches (even the Rolex Lady Datejust is only 26mm in diameter).
Six different coloured PVD coatings are available for the bridge, though the plain steel bridge looks the most purposeful. Three screws hold down each arm of the tourbillon bridge, which has a plain, probably too plain, frosted finish. The decoration here, as well as for the rest of the movement, could do with more attention.
Made of black-coated aluminium for lightness, the tourbillon cage makes one rotation a minute. And it’s is shaped like an ellipse because the balance wheel is set off-centre. In most tourbillons the balance wheel shares the same axis of rotation as the tourbillon cage, but in the Gravity it’s slightly eccentric. Its position means the arm of the cage that sits opposite the balance wheel is significantly larger to compensate.
 |
| The counterweight for the balance with the calibre number “CS-03” on its side |
Though small compared with the cage, the balance wheel is an enormous 14mm in diameter, exactly the same size as the balance found on the MB&F Legacy Machine 1. It beats …read more
