Franck Muller Collaborates with Pop Artist Jisbar

Collaborations between pop artists and watch brands are nothing new. The concept dates back to at least 1983 when Movado released some limited-edition watches with Andy Warhol photographs on the dial, and soon after Swatch was collaborating with artists like Kiki Picasso and Keith Habring. But in recent years there’s been a surge of particularly high-end watch brands working with contemporary artists. And for 2025, Franck Muller collaborated with French pop artist Jisbar to make a 250-piece series of special Vanguard Crazy Hours models.

Origin of the FM x Jisbar Collab

Franck Muller had previously collaborated with contemporary artists like Eileen Chan, Loes Van Delft, Ryoko Kaneta, and Hom Nguyen. Jean-Baptiste Launay, better known as Jisbar, has been compared to artists like Alec Monopoly and Mr. Brainwash for his colorful collages of contemporary pop culture-inspired images and text. Jisbar seems like a natural fit for a Franck Muller collab, but he actually had visions of this watch dial long before he met with any of the brand’s team. He was hired to decorate the launch party for the Patek Philippe Cubitus, but if he floated the idea of a pop art watch dial to Patek, they must have passed.

“I created this dial 2 or 3 years ago; I presented to many brands–no one accepted. Then one day I met Romain [Urlacher of Franck Muller] at an exhibition and he said ‘I want it.’”

Jisbar, speaking with Luxury Bazaar CEO Roman Sharf at WPHH 2025

The 43mm Vanguard makes sense for the Franck Muller Jisbar collab, with its sleek tonneau case and hidden lugs allowing for its rather large dial to take center stage. Although it’s a pretty big watch, the wrist-hugging curve of the case means you don’t need a huge wrist for it.

Regardless of what you think of the aesthetic, it’s far from a simple printed dial–according to Franck Muller, 25 layers of lacquer are applied to each dial.

The Crazy Hours Complication

Franck Muller–true to their slogan, “Master of Complications”–has released numerous advanced complications over the years. The Crazy Hours, first seen in 2003, is perhaps their most unusual one. The hour markers are all jumbled around–instead of going sequentially from 1-12, they go 1, 6, 11, 4, 9, 2, 7, 12, 5, 10, 3, 8. It looks totally random at a glance, but the pattern is actually simple: the next correct hour is always five spots ahead of the current one.

So at the top of each hour, the hour hand advances five spaces forward instead of one. And because it’s a true jumping hours complication, the hour hand doesn’t move at all in between hours–it stays pointing exactly at the (abnormally located) current hour, which helps minimize the visual confusion a bit. As the hour progresses, tension is being built up inside the watch, which is released at the top of the hour when the hand jumps; even a regular jump hour is not a trivial complication.

“For me the classic Franck Muller is the Crazy Hours,” Jisbar explained. He felt it was a natural basis for an art project “because you don’t buy a Crazy Hours watch to tell the time. It’s so complicated to read the time on this, and even moreso with my design.” Indeed, this Franck Muller x Jisbar collab clearly isn’t about at-a-glance legibility. Let’s talk about the idea behind it.

Jisbar’s Inspiration

You’ll notice that each of the 12 hour markers on the Franck Muller x Jisbar Vanguard is a totally different style. “To create the dial I took elements from 12 of my paintings,” Jisbar said, with each element ultimately becoming an hour marker. “For example, the dollar’s two bars are the number eleven.”

As you might expect, each watch comes in a big, special Franck Muller x Jisbar box. But you might not expect 1/50th of a painting to be in that box too.

“For each edition, I created an original painting on canvas that represents the watch. And to give more value–to give the value that I really wanted to add on this project–I decided to take these original pieces, cut it in 50 pieces, and slip one into the box.”

Jisbar

Jisbar likes the idea that if all 50 collectors of one of his watches were in the same place, they could put an entire painting together. Obviously, that’s not going to happen, but it’s a wonderfully preposterous notion, much like the watch itself. Now let’s take a look at the specs.

Franck Muller x Jisbar Vanguard Crazy Hours Specs

Model Name	Franck Muller Vanguard Crazy Hours Jisbar Collection
Reference Number	V 43 CH JISBAR ACNR AC (Stainless steel) V 43 CH JISBAR TTBR TT (Titanium) V 43 CH JISBAR NRBR TT (Blackened titanium) V 43 CH JISBAR CARBONE (Carbon) V 43 CH JISBAR 5N (Rose gold)
Case Material	Steel, titanium (blackened or not), carbon or 18k rose gold
Case Width	43mm
Water Resistance	30m
Movement	MVD 2800-CHRS (Automatic, 8 beats per second)
Movement Functions	Jump hours (scattered, hand jumps to correct hour on the hour), minutes, seconds
Power Reserve	42 hours
Bracelet/Strap	Alligator strap with tang buckle (except fabric strap on carbon version)
Caseback	Solid, with engraving of Jisbar’s signature
Limited Edition	250 pieces (50 per material)
Extras	Each watch comes with 1/50th of a Jisbar painting and a special box
MSRP	CHF 23,700 (Steel or titanium) CHF 26,700 (Carbon) CHF 33,300 (Rose gold)

Final Thoughts on the Franck Muller x Jisbar Vanguard Crazy Hours

Interestingly, Franck Muller has priced the steel and titanium versions of the Vanguard Jisbar Collection the same–about $29,000 at April 2025 exchange rates. The rose gold model is closer to $41,000, but the carbon model priced at $33,000 just might be the one to get. It’s the only one with a textured dial (to match its textured case), and it’s also the only one with a fabric strap instead of alligator. Despite the extensive finishing of the movements inside, the casebacks are all solid, bearing Jisbar’s signature.

I expect the Franck Muller x Jisbar Vanguard Crazy Hours to get a healthy amount of hype, but it’s worth noting that for $29,000 you could buy a modern steel Rolex Daytona at current market prices, or even a solid gold Omega Speedmaster Professional. There’s a lot of formidable competition once you get to this price level, and 250 watches is a fair number to sell. But the point here isn’t just to compete with traditional luxury watches. As Jisbar says, “the point is to have, like, kind of art on the wrist.” If you’d prefer some of Jisbar’s art on your wall, it doesn’t cost quite that much at auction (at least not yet).