Franck Muller Cintrée Curvex’s Timeless Sensuality

The celebrated watchmaker who, with entrepreneur Vartan Sirmakes, founded his eponymous watchmaking house in the 1990s and boldly declared the company to be a “Master of Complications”, may have built a legacy of audaciously complex and theatrically technical timepieces. But back when the brand had just started, Franck Muller also boldly challenged norms in the field of watch design.

The Cintrée Curvex, released at the time of the brand’s founding, introduced Franck Muller to the world by demanding one’s attention. A distinct outlier in a field dominated by round and square watches, it stood out with its tonneau-shaped profile. But not just that—after all, the tonneau shape wasn’t new, surfacing on wristwatches back in 1906. Franck Muller reworked its proportions and perspectives, arriving at a silhouette that looked and felt unlike anything else on the wrist. It was a shape that refused to behave—at once classical, sensuous, and radically dimensional.

Needless to say, it is a laborious undertaking to craft a Cintrée Curvex. But the results are worth it. Not only does the watch add presence to the wrist, but its arched caseback also ensures a snug and comfortable fit. Ultimately, the design serves as an inspiration for Franck Muller to complement its unique silhouette with equally striking technical and aesthetic features.

The impact of the Cintrée Curvex extends far beyond its core collection, even spawning entirely new families in the Franck Muller universe. While the Cintrée Curvex family offers a rich gamut of creations—artisanal skeleton watches, sophisticated chronographs, and highly complex perpetual calendars and tourbillons—its distinctive shape has also been adopted by newer designs.

Another noteworthy offspring is the Curvex CX, introduced in 2022. A dressier take on the Cintrée Curvex, it updates the original with a slimmer case and bezel—and a curved sapphire crystal that extends all the way to the bracelet—giving the dial more visual space. The result is a contemporary interpretation refined with a newly designed guilloché pattern.