Franck Muller Long Island Grand Date Automatic: Style That Made the Twenties Roar
- The Franck Muller Long Island Grand Date Automatic is a Tribute to Art Deco style.
- This 18K white gold watch recalls the glamour of 1920s gold coast Long Island.
- The case says “Art Deco,” but the stylized guilloche dial screams “Jazz.”
- Jay Gatsby style on a Nick Carraway budget.
Franck Muller is an exception among watchmakers. While the industry prefers round watches, Muller avoids them. Among manufacturers graced with the names of long-dead figureheads, Mueller is very much alive. And while Swiss watchmakers from Jean Richard to Hublot pursue an endless love affair with watches named for New York City icons, Franck Mueller devotes an entire model line to neighboring Long Island.
And why not? The Franck Muller Long Island Grand Date Automatic is an 18-karat white gold tribute to the Prohibition-era playground of NYC’s rich, famous, and infamous.
Anyone who has read the Great Gatsby or seen the film adaptations knows the score; raucous parties, sprawling “gold coast” estates, jazz-age big bands, and above all, Art Deco grandeur as a omnipresent backdrop. Or at least that’s how we prefer to imagine it.
Franck Muller, for one, is happy to don his rose-colored T.J. Eckleburg spectacles. Muller’s Long Island Grand Date stand’s as a romantic’s nod to the past. The Long Island‘s 33mm x 45mm white gold case captures the rectilinear aesthetic that debuted in the 1925 L’Exposition internationale des arts décoratifs et industriels modernes in Paris and became the signature style of its era.
This watch’s bold vertical and horizontal expanses recall the layered base of the Empire State Building and the sweeping lines of Miami Beach’s neon strip. Art Deco didn’t begin to blend right angles with compound curves until the 1930s, but artists are permitted to play fast and loose with their history.
And Franck Muller is an artist. Closer inspection of his Long Island Grand Date reveals a playful break with Art Deco orthodoxy; the case forms a gentle arch when viewed in profile. Far from a solid brick of unyielding metal, the Long Island is a delicate companion designed to trace the natural curvature of the wrist and sit lightly in spite of case proportions rooted firmly in the 21st century.
As a companion to the curved case, Muller includes a unique cambered sapphire crystal that follows the case through its graceful undulation. The crystal maintains a flush fit to the case, and the standard of precision between these two complex craft components is a marvel of traditional craft savoir-faire.
Luxury is not a matter of excess but a function of expectations surpassed. The substantial heft of the sprawling white gold case is a mark of substance, but it dissipates thanks to a large caseback that conforms to the wrist and spreads the mass evenly; there are no pressure points. Franck Muller fits an exceptionally supple alligator leather strap with minimal bolstering that allows the watch to be secured with ease even on a petite wrist.
Muller thoughtfully fits the Long Island Grand Date with a set of quick-release spring pins. These devices features a small tab that can be retracted with pressure from a fingernail to permit easy do-it-yourself strap changes without a trip to the jeweler or need for tools. Simply pull the tabs, pop the quick-release pins into a new strap, and the swap is complete.
Comfort and a precise fit are assured by the curved case and outstanding short lugs that permit the strap to be pulled flush to the wrist at 90 degree angles from horizontal if necessary.
While many large watches feature stiff leather straps or case-hugging strap lugs that resist conforming to smaller wrists (leading to the dreaded “hula hoop” sensation), the Long Island Grand Date clearly was designed to fit easily to wrists no larger than the span of its tall case. Collectors who have reservations about 45mm cases can proceed with confidence when considering the Long Island.
While the Long Island’s impressive white gold case is the leader of this jazz act, the whimsical silver dial is a worthy second trumpet. It’s standout features are the caricatured arabic numerals that blend Art Deco linear mid sections with pronounced curvature at their extremes. Embodying rigid elements of Deco and its organic Art Nouveau predecessor, these numerals are playful and iconoclastic.
Clearly modernist in their irreverence for any particular mode of fashion, the massive black figures represent Franck Muller‘s ironic humor at play. The style of this watch is as liberated and insouciant as a flapper in a Stutz Bearcat.
Distinctive guilloche etchings add texture and visual interest to the dial of this imposing Franck Muller Long Island. As large as the watch is, additional measure of detail are employed to animate the empty expanses of the dial. Muller incorporates a traditional 19th-century “train track” ring at the dial’s center, and a second miniaturized version of this motif encloses the small seconds sub-dial at six o’clock. Large blued hands and a charming grand date complication at 12 o’clock complete Franck Muller‘s retro-modernist hybrid vision.
While the exterior of this watch exudes the energy and optimism of the early interwar years, Franck Muller‘s treatment of the automatic mechanical caliber is no less thoughtful. Though it is obscured by a solid gold caseback, the movement is based on the ETA 2892 and personalized with Muller’s distinctive finish. Geneva waves decorate the bridges and 95% platinum winding rotor. Perlage patterning removes the scars of fabrication from the base plate.
Finally, diamond paste is used to polish the entire assembly to a rich luster. Although only your watchmaker will be able to admire this handiwork, it’s satisfying to imagine the quality that lies within the Frank Muller Long Island.
This Franck Muller Long Island Grand Date Automatic is available from watchuwant.com with all original Franck Muller factory boxes, manuals, and documents of provenance. In outstanding condition, this gold watch presents as new. Its rich blue alligator strap is in outstanding condition, and the matching 18-k white gold pin buckle is present and correct.
It’s been written that we beat on, boats against the current, borne back ceaselessly into the past. But thanks to luxury watches like the Franck Muller Long Island, the past has never looked this good.
