It is said that time waits for no man, but Franck Muller has made a career out of bending it to its will. The independent Swiss watchmaker is renowned for defying convention. The Giga Tourbillon and Grand Central Tourbillon, for instance, take precision to dramatic extremes, while Crazy Hours reorders the numerals entirely even as it keeps perfect time.
With the Mystery, introduced in the early 1990s, Franck Muller simplified time display to a single rotating disc as a subtle act of horological rebellion. It was a quiet tribute to the fluid rhythms of time and, above all, to its enduring mystery.
In the Mystery concept, time is experienced at one’s own rhythm based on a cross-cultural encounter shaped by co-founder Franck Muller. With cultures approaching time differently, some embracing it rather than chasing it, and others allowing it to unfold at its own pace, he sought to encapsulate this philosophy in his timepieces.
The first Mystery watch replaced traditional hands with a single disc to indicate the hour. Then, a minute disc was added to the Double Mystery two years later. In 2025, the new Round Triple Mystery further extended the idea, transforming seconds into visual performances.
At first glance, the Round Triple Mystery seems almost untethered from the machinery beneath it. A 39-mm dial paved with diamonds appears to float, its spiralling pattern attracting the eye to three rotating triangular indicators. With each disc moving independently—hours, minutes, and seconds for the first time—the display is mesmerising. Offered in a rose or white gold case, with an optional baguette-cut diamond bezel, the watch catches light from every angle, making time sparkle and dance across the wrist.
A technical achievement of the Round Triple Mystery is its ability to maintain precision while operating three fully independent discs. Although adding a second disc might seem straightforward, its rapid rotation significantly increases energy demands. If the disc were even marginally too heavy, it would consume more power, impair accuracy, or simply stop the mechanism.
Franck Muller’s engineers therefore faced a deceptively complex challenge: how to create a visually substantial component that weighs hardly anything? The final seconds disc—a skeletonised central plate—weighs only 0.052g. Its arrow indicator weighs 0.002g, the diamond, 0.003g, and the openwork pastille that forms the disc’s structure weighs just 0.047g.
This level of lightness was achieved through extensive material experimentation. The team tried multiple metals before deciding on aluminium, which offered the best balance of rigidity and weight. With the bridges only 0.3mm wide, machining the disc to such delicate proportions required extraordinary precision.
Additional mass would have compromised the movement; structural weaknesses could have resulted in distortion or failure. The result is a component that rotates smoothly, maintaining the watch’s accuracy while seemingly defying gravity.
Geometry enhances the effect of the design. The central plate is engraved with a spirograph like motif, a subtle reminder of perpetual rotation. On the dial, the triangular indicators on the three discs that trace paths seem to weave in and out of the diamond-set spiral. Every rotation reveals a new angle and moment, telling a story about the relationship between motion and light.
Its philosophy, however, is what truly sets the Round Triple Mystery apart. You see the smallest units of time as fleeting, luminous moments, and you experience time in an entirely different way. The ordinary becomes something quietly entrancing when Franck Muller masterfully turns it into a captivating dance.
