Watch Review| Frank Muller

After five years of work on the project , Frank Muller have finally unveiled an amazing timepiece : the Aeternitas Mega 4 . 36 complications, 25 of them visible, 1,483 components, a 1000-year calendar, this is by far the most complicated wristwatch in the world today. In spite of the enormous challenge to embed all the complications found in most timepieces labeled as grand complications , and still be worn, the master watchmakers of Franck Muller proved that they are worthy of the title “Maison de Haute Horlogerie”

With the Aeternitas movement served as a base, while the Mega 4 represents the apotheosis of the art of watchmaking with its grand and small Westminster chime striking-work, the only one available on the market with a tourbillon visible on the dial. Added to this are a minute repeater, a mono-pushpiece split-seconds chronograph, a perpetual calendar secular, and an equation of time which only varies by 6.8 seconds per lunar month, the equivalent of one day every thousand years. The mega sets itself apart thanks to its “Grande Sonnerie” Chime of Westminster striking mechanism sounding on the hours and quarter hours. In the “Petite Sonnerie” version ,the strike on the hours is removed, and it only sounds on the quarter hours. The programming of the large and small striking mechanisms is done through simple pressure on a waterproof push – button placed at the 10:30 mark on the watch case. This push – button programmable function enables the movement of the striking mechanism to be stopped . The minute repeater enables the “Chime of Westminster” to be activated at anytime , and so giving a complete strike of the hours, the Westminster quarters and the minutes. The “Grand Sonnerie” is the only watch in which the Tourbillon is visible on the dial side, which limits the space available for the “Grand Sonnerie” mechanism and thus makes the design even more complicated.
The first piece of this exceptional, limited series was snapped by an American collector at a ceremony in Monaco last November,for the price of $ 2.7 million. The second Frank Muller Aeternitas Mega 4 will be available in the very near future.

The complications :

1. Day-Night display
2. Grand strike
3. Small strike
4. Silence
5. Minute Repeater
6. Westminster Carillon on 4 gong
7. Programming of the Grand strike-Small strike function with a waterproof push-piece and display on the dial
8. Programming of the Strike-Silence function with a waterproof push-piece and display on the dial
9. Lifting-lever mechanism of the strike when in hand-setting position
10. Mechanism which not allow the start of a new strike if the precedent is not to the end
11. Bolting mechanism of the hand-setting during the strike
12. Transmission mechanism to the hammer which permit the adaptation to different shape of the gong
13. Movement power reserve indicator
14. Strike power reserve indicator
15. Silent Centrifugal governor of the rate of the strike
16. Flying Tourbillon on a ball bearing with ceramic balls
17. Balance wheel with adjustment screws in gold, without index
18. Breguet overcoil with Phillips curve
19. Tourbillon carriage, without any bridge, visible in the dial
20. Automatic self-winding-mechanism of the movement with platinum micro rotor
21. Automatic self-winding-mechanism of the Westminster carillon with a platinum micro rotor
22. Perpetual Calendar
23. Display of the days
24. Display of the months
25. Retrograde Date
26. Secular Calendar
27. Display of the year up to 999 years
28. Bissextile year display
29. Indication of the secular years
30. Astronomic moon : deviation of 6.8 seconds for each lunation representing an error of one day every 1000 years)
31. Equation of time
32. Two additional time-zones
33. Chronograph incorporated with tree column-wheels
34. Instantaneous minutes counter
35. Hours counter incorporated in the mechanism of chronograph, retrograde hand display
36. Fly-back hand mechanism