The Asian region has long been an important market for Franck Muller. Just how important? We got an inclination when we made our stop at Watchland earlier this year for WPHH. Every year during the Watches & Wonders Geneva week in April, Franck Muller runs an independent fair in tandem, inviting retailers, customers and the media to Genthod, Switzerland where there is a large enough space on the grounds of their manufacture to host a mini-exhibition of their own. There, we were introduced to the most important novelty of the year, for us in the Asia Pacific region at least, the Long Island Evolution.

This new collection, dubbed Long Island Evolution, will be a regional exclusive for the next two years. The Long Island collection was first debuted in 2000 and today it returns with a case construction reimagined by the cofounder of the brand Vartan Simarkes. This new Long Island adds an inner case to the design giving the watch a new level of complexity.

Long Island Evolution Master Jumper

Three complications have been launched with the debut of the Long Island Evolution. The first and of course, most impressive is the new Long Island Evolution Master Jumper which comes with a movement capable of a triple jumping display. This unique take on time indication offers the wearer a jumping hour and minutes along with a jumping date complication. And because it is housed in a rectangular case, the engineers could fit all three display apertures vertically in a straight line.

What Franck Muller collection would be complete without a tourbillon and for this purpose, they chose the biggest one they have, the Giga Tourbillon. At a diameter of 20mm, this thing dominates the lower half of the Long Island Evolution case and creates drama all on its own as it just casually goes about its business of regulating the time.

Last but certainly not least is the most wallet-friendly version of the Long Island Evolution the 7 Days Power Reserve which is pretty self-explanatory. Because of the shape rectangular shape of these watches, however, all three of these watches are equipped with manually wound movements.

Besides the Long Island Evolution collection, another novelty we were surprised by was the Cintrée Curvex Double Retrograde. If you can move past the slightly busier dial, the complication within is actually quite intriguing. It splits the 24-hour day into 12-hour intervals and uses two retrograde displays to help the wearer distinguish between night and day. From 6 am to 6 pm the top half of the display ticks on and as it reaches the end of its tenure it seemingly passes the baton over to the hand on the lower half which then continues the task of indicating time.