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If you haven’t been living in a cave for the past 20 years, you will know two things about Franck Muller watches. The first thing is that they are truly unique and well designed. Secondly, they are luxury watches and are therefore by definition extremely expensive.
If you are a regular person, Franck Muller watches will be way out of your price range unless you want something which is right at the bottom. However, at the high end, Franck Muller watches typically cost more than a house, coming in at around $300k. Thankfully, it is possible to buy a cheaper alternative to Franck Muller style watches on a budget.
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How Much Do Franck Muller Watches Cost?
Franck Muller has a very different pricing structure from many other watchmakers. The pricepoint of this luxury brand generally starts around $10k for a standard used watch, although there can be bargains found for less complicated watches. The best deals on Franck Muller watches are actually found in Japan since the brand was so popular during the 1990s. These older Franck Muller watches can be picked up pre-owned for around $2000 or so.
At the higher end of the Franck Muller range, you will see watches that cost a very solid 6-figures such as the vanguard revolution. These watches are extremely complicated and made from the finest materials. The Aeternitas Mega 4 cost around $2.7 million dollars and took over 5 years to create. This shows that there is a great deal of variation in price within the brand.
Why Do Franck Muller Watches Cost So Much?
Like many other luxury brands, Franck Muller is an extremely established watchmaking company. The marketing, celebrity association, and quality of watches make them much more expensive than average.
Franck Muller watches are made in Switzerland and depending on the price, have an extreme amount of complications. At the top end, this can be a perpetual calendar, moonphase, and tourbillon. All of these complications are extremely costly to produce within a mechanical watch. The design, research, and development cost the brand a huge amount of money which it must recover by selling watches.
Not only this, but Franck Muller watches have a truly unique style. There is no other high end brand that makes watches in a way quite like theirs. Granted – they are not as popular as AP, Richard Mille, or Rolex at the current time, but they still have their own history and quality creations.
Are There Cheaper Alternatives To Franck Muller Watches?
Thankfully there is quite an abundance of Franck Muller style wristwatches. Obviously, these are not Swiss made, nor are they created from luxury materials with in-house movements. They are however, both reliable and inexpensive.
Many watches made in the style of Franck Muller use quartz movements, which is ideal for something cheap since it requires almost no looking after. Quartz watches use a simple battery that will need replacing every few years with absolutely no servicing costs. So in terms of getting a bargain price Franck Muller homage watch, quartz is a very good option.
The best Franck Muller alternatives are listed below and all cost well below $150.
One Key Reason Not To Buy Franck Muller Watches
As Franck Muller is not the hottest watch right now, if you pay full retail price for a brand new model, it is likely you will lose money. This point is proven on Chrono24, where you will find many lonely Franck Muller watches selling for around 50% under retail cost.
This is the exact opposite of buying an AP, Patek Philippe, or Rolex. Since the brands are so popular, it is almost impossible to get your hands on a new model. If you are lucky enough to buy one of these brands at retail price, you can sell the watch on immediately for a profit.
The Best Cheap Alternatives To Franck Muller Watches
Sewor Automatic
Although the Sewor is not a direct copy of any Franck Muller watch, its closest resemblance is the Casablanca. Considering the Sewor is an automatic watch, the price tag is extremely low. Of course, the movement is Chinese and may not be the best quality, but even still, this is pretty good value considering the cost of production alone.
In short, this oversized watch has the typical Franck Muller style of misshaped numbering, along with a few features of its own. This includes displaying a balance wheel at the 9 o’clock position, as well as having an AM/PM indicator in the lower center of the dial.
To summarise, this watch may not be for everyone and will depend on how much the aesthetics appeal to you personally.
Invicta Tonneau
Not quite a Franck Muller conquistador homage, this Invicta Tonneau watch has a style of its own. The Tonneau shape, alongside the numbering as very Franck Muller, although this watch is wider and less slim than a direct copy.
The reliability of this watch is unquestioned since it uses a VD57 calibre movement, which is exactly the same as the variation Seiko use in their chronograph watches. The 43mm case size won’t be to the taste of everyone, but Invicta watches are known for being oversized, so this goes with the territory.
At around $75, the price is reasonable. This certainly isn’t the best deal you will get, but is decent value and one of the only Franck Muller style chronograph watches you can buy.
Forsining
Forsining is a Chinese brand that is well known for homage watches. Although this brand doesn’t have a reputation of genuine quality, it is one we see pop-up when mentioning Chinese watches.
Anyone who knows about Chinese watches will know that they are extremely well priced, but can sometimes leave a lot to be desired in terms of quality and honesty. This is shown by the word “Tourbillon” displayed beneath the balance wheel on the dial. A tourbillon watch at the lowest end (Chinese made) will set you back around $1000, so I am not quite sure why Forsining decided to wrist this on the center of a $50 watch dial.
Even still, this is a nice enough watch and a decent attempt at mimicking a Franck Muller chronograph variation.
Tissot Porto
Whilst Tissot is not a brand you would expect to see making this style of watch, the Porto is an unusual, yet welcome variation.
Obviously, as Tissot is a Swiss brand that uses ETA movements, their watches are nowhere near as cheap when being compared to Chinese-made brands. This price difference is due to the difference in quality of both construction of the watch, as well as materials used.
Tissot uses an unusual hinged strap rather than having something directly attached to the case which allows for the watch to wrap around your wrist more easily. This is welcomed since tonneau cases are typically long and thin, which can be awkward for people with smaller wrists.
Fanmis
Fanmis are yet another Chinese brand that seems to change its name every year. Sometimes referred to as either “Pintime” or “Parnis”, Fanmis almost exclusively make fashion style homage watches of various brands – including Franck Muller.
This specific watch has the typical numbers layout, but strangely has “north” and “south” printed at the top and bottom of the dial. There is no real reason for this since it doesn’t offer anything practical, but is pretty much what we’ve come to expect from Chinese brands.
A very cheap watch, this has a quartz movement so will not break on you like a Chinese mechanical movement make. It should also be noted that this is one of the very few iced out Franck Muller style watches you can buy.
