Are the sun and sea calling? Don’t leave home without the new Franck Muller Vanguard Beach
Wait, it’s already November? We don’t know about you, but our minds are getting increasingly preoccupied with the impending vacation season. Or more specifically, manifesting that well-deserved beach getaway where we finally get to shut down our laptops, kick back and take time to unwind from another exhilarating year.
And as far as enablers go, Franck Muller is the perfect partner-in-crime. Having enticed us with chic, neon-hued tourbillons and sleek, curvaceous creations in previous months, the capricious independent Swiss watchmaking house is back to court us—and our holiday ambitions—with the tantalisingly monikered Vanguard Beach.
As the name advertises, the Vanguard Beach collection is an open invitation for watch lovers to head out and get some sand and sun. Comprising three models sheathed in fiery red, ocean blue and summer green, these watches make no apologies for their flamboyance. The trio are the newest inductees of a collection that is billed as Franck Muller’s sportiest and most youthful. Introduced in 2014, the Vanguard looks familiar and fresh in equal measure. The watch’s tonneau-shaped case, while hefty and muscular, is actually derived from Franck Muller’s elegant and iconic Cintrée Curvex silhouette.
Like the case on the Cintrée Curvex watch, the Vanguard case adopts a curvilinear profile that is contoured from all angles. On the Vanguard watches, the curvaceous case not only exudes a more dynamic disposition, it is complemented by a lug-less construction that makes them sit on the wrist with greater comfort.
The watches also feel light and robust, belying their imposing 41mm by 49.95mm dimensions. This is thanks to the cases’ glass fibre composite construction, a material commonly associated with sporting products. Making the case is a painstaking process that involves melting, stretching and rolling molten glass at specific temperatures, dyeing it in colour baths, and compressing treated glass sheets into blocks to be machined and shaped with extreme precision. The result is a hardy case that weighs next to nothing, is smooth to the touch and imbued with a wood grain-like texture that evokes the look of waves rushing to shore.
A time-and-date-only model, the Vanguard Beach is driven by a high-performance automatic movement with 42 hours of power reserve. Eschewing additional technical complications—for now, because you can never know what comes next with Franck Muller—the Vanguard Beach is fun, fuss-free and reliable. Which is all you can ask for in a travel companion, really.
