Franck Muller vs. Richard Mille: Which is the Better Luxury Watch Brand?

Franck Muller vs Richard Mille luxury watch brand

Both Franck Muller and Richard Mille have come up with numerous watchmaking inventions and innovations. This article will go through multiple aspects of each brand and put them both under comparison.

History: Franck Muller Watches vs. Richard Mille Watches

One of the best and most complicated watches in the world is Franck Muller. Franck Muller founded the manufacturing company in Geneva and Vartan Sirmakes hoping to establish distinctive timepieces with complex movements and innovative models.

Thanks to its powerful in-house competence in many aspects of Haute Horlogerie, this growing company soon became one of the best Swiss watchmaking brands. Today, we agree that we have managed with extraordinary High Horlogerie know-how to mix boldness and ingenuity.

Moreover, luxury watch companies have a tradition of scientific success and fashion breakthroughs, so Richard Mille watches are no different. The company has been making headlines in the luxury timepiece industry since establishing it twenty years ago.

Craftsmanship: Franck Muller vs. Richard Mille

Franck Muller is proud to announce its craft campaign highlighting the techniques to create a watch. With its impressive in-house capability, this brand has pushed watchmaking boundaries even higher. The independent watchmaker Richard Mille is at the forefront of this emerging community, producing revolutionary watches seen in many quarters as the supreme symbol of wealth.

Movement: Franck Muller vs. Richard Mille

Richard Mille has created the analytical complication of the Tourbillon Perpetual Calendar in-house. They have delicately designed and polished all of the components before integrating them into this outstanding movement.

Richard Mille timepieces have a tourbillon, which rotates and gives the escapement a new degree of inventiveness. The movements have designs with a titanium hybrid using a variety of different materials.

Muller made his first tourbillon movement, which counterbalances the influence of gravity. He placed the escapement and the spinning wheel in a moving cage to negate the force of gravity, and he invented this function in 1795.

Unique Design: Franck Muller vs. Richard Mille

With their Cintrée Curvex shape, which is the most significant shape of the brand, Franck Muller watches are readily recognizable. It soon became a remarkable achievement for the company and a means of projecting its distinct identity.

As for Richard Mille watches, they are easy to detect: you have found one if it is like a junction between a Formula One car and a high-end watch. This unusual look led to the creation of the Brand Richard Mille.

Luxury watch companies like Richard Mille have a tradition of scientific success and fashion breakthroughs. The company has been making headlines in the luxury timepiece industry since establishing it twenty years ago.

Materials: Franck Muller vs. Richard Mille

Richard Mille is famous for using unusual materials, such as carbon nanotubes, carbon fused to gold, and toughened ceramics. The components have a blend of durability. Richard Mille watch size and form are identifiable clearly, even from a distance. Inspired by car design, the design is unapologetically bold.

Richard Mille made a name for himself using cutting-edge materials, sometimes adapted from the car and aerospace industries. In the watchmaking industry, the company has promoted its use of carbon fiber. No exception is made to RM 70-01 Alain Prost. Carbon TPT® is the unique tripartite case formed in tonneaux. 

The procedure of manufacturing requires layering hundreds of carbon fiber sheets. It is an automatic mechanism that adjusts the direction of the weft between layers. They heat it to 120 °C in an autoclave related to those used for aeronautical parts.

Then, Richard Mille machines the stainless steel. This method produces random variations in carbon layers. That implies that no two cases appear precisely the same. The outcome is a super lightweight, super heavy tonneau-shaped case that is both rectangular and asymmetrical at the same time.

According to Richard Mille, TPT® carbon is indestructible. It makes it easier to build a lighter case that also provides perfect shock protection for the delicate movement inside.

Each type of dial needs a particular finish with attached numerals or design. They install the numbers one by one, fit the number appliques with pins, and secure them through rivets. The last number of the precious numerals in diamonds would be eight, as a lucky charm.

In Chinese numerology, the number eight is good luck. However, the explanation of why they have last fitted this number has little to do with superstitious beliefs.

Franck Muller dials are made entirely in-house in Les Bois, in the Swiss Jura. The creativity and talent behind the Franck Muller dial are unbelievable.

Each dial requires 20 coats of lacquer and a drying time of one hour for each coating. Eventually, the beautifully hand-painted Luminova numerals complete the work of design.

Both cases are handmade and polished. Also, diamond cases take an unbelievable time and expertise to execute, especially with the Cintrée Curvex, which makes the hand-picking of the diamonds along its curves very difficult.

Reputation: Franck Muller vs. Richard Mille

More than creating unique designs and complications, Franck Muller has appreciated the importance of Tourbillon’s creation. Given his inclination to create outstanding watches, when Muller incorporated the Tourbillon into his wristwatches, he did so in an ingenious way.

For the first time, you can see the Tourbillon from the front of the watch on the dial, protected behind glass. Franck Muller created different Grand Complications on this model, and each reinforces the brand’s luxury reputation.

Franck Muller is very much a Swiss brand. Established and faithfully remaining in the serene Swiss land, under the loving supervision of its founders.

It is hard to assess how much significance is attached to a brand because of its popularity. People pay a premium for Richard Mille because of its brand name. The company has built its reputation on producing exceptionally luxurious, avant-garde timepieces. 

There is no denying that it is a complicated business model to balance, but Richard Mille has done a remarkable job.  All Richard Mille watch items are completely outstanding. They make the cases only with gold and titanium and blend them with carbon and quartz infusions to give the fortunate owner another degree of consistency and durability.

Richard Mille watches show a creative style using the engineering of Formula One cars and aeronautical programs. The brand still works to push its bounds with micrometer accuracy using curved edge surfaces. Richard Mille also observes pioneer mechanics from the 21st century to transform timekeeping into genuine art.

Prices: Franck Muller vs. Richard Mille

Richard Mille prices begin at approximately $80,000 and go up to several million dollars for their more exotic watches. With the Richard Mille collection setting a higher benchmark for premium watchmaking, it is no wonder that they would demand these big price tags.

The catalog of Franck Muller is massive, with a wide variety of prices. You may buy a two-hand ladies’ watch for only USD 3,000, with a gold stainless steel case. Modest men’s timepieces in stainless steel come with automatic in-house movements and value between USD 5,700 and USD 7,500.

A watch that incorporates a tourbillon with a perpetual calendar will cost you at least around USD 55,000 and USD 70,000. The same timepiece with diamonds or other fine jewelry will comfortably demand more than USD 110,000. However, this is also far below the top end of Franck Muller’s price index. Highly complicated classics such as the Aeternitas Mega 4 routinely demand over USD 2 million.

Models: Franck Muller vs. Richard Mille

Both brands have a wide variety of items available. Both companies still have legendary and significant versions that they have perfected and developed over the years by the brands. The most emblematic timepieces are the RM 60-01 Regatta Flyback Chronograph and RM 027 Rafael Nadal Tourbillon by Richard Mille and the Vanguard Crazy Hours 2019 by Franck Muller.

When you wear these watches, whatever the brand, you are wearing a piece of art on your wrist. In terms of prestige, Franck Muller cannot measure itself against Richard Mille. Richard Mille is the single recognized brand worldwide and offers the wearer a sense of elegance to associate it with success.

Franck Muller is also recognized, but it does not reach the prestige and recognition levels of Richard Mille. So, Richard Mille is a clear winner.

Overall, Richard Mille is the better brand, but only by a little bit. Both Richard Mille and Franck Muller have their advantages and limitations, but they are both prestigious, reliable, and respected watchmakers worldwide.