Cortina Watch celebrated its 50th anniversary this year by releasing eight exceptional limited-edition watches, each created through a collaborative effort between the luxury watch retailer and a long-term brand partner. Franck Muller’s Vanguard Revolution 3 Skeleton Cortina Watch 50th Anniversary Special Edition stands out like a beacon.
Among the eight commemorative watches, it has the highest retail value at more than $1.5 million. It combines the watchmaker’s triple-axis tourbillon with around 30 cts of precious stones in an extraordinary demonstration of the brand’s expertise and knowledge in jewellery design. Five distinct variants are available — one for each glorious decade in Cortina Watch’s distinguished history.
“It was only natural that we picked an exceptional creation like the triple-axis tourbillon and elevated it to another level to celebrate this momentous occasion. Our objective was to infuse the Franck Muller DNA — the tourbillon, colour profusion, and this incredible gem setting — into these watches,” says Nicholas Rudaz, CEO of Franck Muller.
Among the five variations, his favourite is the white gold version set with 225 baguette-cut diamonds. It features a rhodium-plated skeletonised dial punctuated with vibrant colours and makes for a “playful, youthful, elegant, and striking” design, according to Rudaz.
It was also the only one that made it to the September exhibition in Paragon Singapore’s central atrium, which also featured other Franck Muller masterpieces like the Gravity Yachting Skeleton and Round Double Mystery watches. As a result of supply and demand issues in the global diamond market, the other four will only be available in the future.
Despite that, the most precious version, with 225 baguette-cut emeralds and valued at $1.68 million, has already been sold sight unseen. “We used emeralds and rubies because of Cortina. They know the market better than anyone else and they knew their clients preferred these gemstones,” Rudaz explains.
“Short but dynamic” is how he describes the collaboration between Cortina Watch and Franck Muller, referring to the time since it acquired Sincere Watch in March 2021. The sale gives Cortina Watch exclusive distributorship rights to the Franck Muller brand in 13 countries within APAC.
“Most of our meetings were online, and we met only in April this year. It’s been a creative partnership,” Rudaz adds. This is his second visit to Singapore this year; the first was earlier in April during Franck Muller’s World Presentation of Haute Horlogerie (WPHH) launch in Singapore.
“We work as one team. And there’s a lot of creative dynamism from Jeremy, Raymond, Sharon and the rest of the Cortina team. Cortina Watch is a family-run operation, while we are an independent family company, so there is a natural synergy between us.
“We are delighted that Cortina Watch has acquired Sincere and is developing the brand well in South-east Asia. We have a lot of exciting plans in the works together. It’s been a great collaboration over a short period,” says Rudaz.
In just this year alone, Franck Muller released several models exclusive to the region. They include Vanguard Casablanca, Round Rainbow Skeleton, Vanguard Rose Skeleton Black Diamonds Southeast Asia Exclusive, and the most recent Vanguard Skeleton Colour Dreams in 43mm, complete with an elegant alligator strap.
“It’s astonishing that we could produce these limited editions for Cortina in such a short period,” says Rudaz. We’re looking forward to more from this partnership.
