Wasim Akram Visits Franck Muller’s Watchland in Geneva

At a Glance

• Franck Muller welcomed cricket legend and World Cup winner Wasim Akram to its Watchland headquarters in Genthod, Geneva, where Akram joined CEO Nicholas Rudaz for a game of cricket on the manufacture’s front lawn, celebrating the shared values of precision and passion that unite elite sport and fine watchmaking.
• Akram toured the brand’s strap factory in Le Locle, observing each stage of production from material selection through cutting, stitching, finishing and quality control.
• He also visited Franck Muller’s dial manufacture in Les Bois, one of the most technically and visually expressive production ateliers in the group.
• The visit concluded with a boat ride on Lake Geneva, with the Alps forming the backdrop to a day defined by craft and collegiality.

Cricket on the Lawn at Watchland

Bat in hand on the front lawn of Watchland, Wasim Akram brought a sport defined by precision and composure to one of Geneva’s most storied manufacture addresses. The setting in Genthod is itself a statement: a grand property where watchmaking takes place at a remove from the city’s commercial centre, surrounded by parkland and clear Swiss air. Nicholas Rudaz, CEO of Franck Muller, met him there for what the brand describes as a spirited match, two figures whose respective fields demand the same qualities: an economy of movement, an absolute commitment to detail, and an intolerance of approximation.

For GCC audiences familiar with Akram’s status across South Asia and the broader cricket world, his appearance at a Swiss manufacture carries specific weight. Cricket commands one of the largest and most devoted followings in the Gulf, and his alignment with a Geneva-based watchmaker draws a clear line between the discipline required at international level and the discipline that governs mechanical horology. The visit was not a product activation. It was an extended editorial moment, grounded in craft on both sides.

Inside the Production: Le Locle and Les Bois

Beyond the lawn, Akram’s itinerary moved into the production infrastructure that underpins every Franck Muller timepiece. At the strap factory in Le Locle, he followed the full arc of production: material selection, precise cutting, stitching, finishing and quality control. Each strap that leaves Le Locle passes through a process that is both sequential and unforgiving — any deviation in tension, alignment or surface treatment is visible at the final inspection stage. For a fast bowler whose entire career rested on repeatable, disciplined execution, the parallel is immediate.

The dial manufacture in Les Bois offered a different register of the same discipline. Dials at Franck Muller are among the most visually complex in the industry: colour, texture, applied indices and the interplay between surface layers are resolved through processes that require a trained eye and a steady hand at every stage. Akram’s visit to Les Bois was, in the brand’s words, a privileged insight into the expertise and artisanal savoir-faire behind a component that most wearers will study for years without exhausting its detail. For collectors in the region following Franck Muller across releases such as the Cintree Curvex Gatsby or the Vanguard Crazy Hours Jisbar, this is the production context that gives those dials their authority.

What the Visit Signals for the Brand

Franck Muller’s decision to bring Akram into its production sites rather than simply its reception rooms reflects a broader editorial ambition. The manufacture tour format, with access to Le Locle and Les Bois as well as Watchland itself, places a public figure inside the actual evidence of the brand’s craft claims. It is a more demanding and more credible format than a boutique appearance or a product gifting. The Master Jumper Skeleton and other mechanically complex references in the current catalogue acquire additional resonance when the atelier producing their components has been documented at first hand.

Akram closed the day with a boat ride on Lake Geneva, the Alps providing the kind of backdrop that Geneva deploys with considerable effect on visitors. The image that persists, though, is the earlier one: a World Cup winner on a watchmaker’s lawn, both parties operating within the same vocabulary of precision, discipline and the refusal to accept good enough. For the GCC market, where cricket following is deep and watch collecting is equally serious, the combination carries genuine editorial weight.

For more on Franck Muller and its manufacture, visit the brand’s official website. Stay ahead of the latest releases. Subscribe to our newsletter for editor-curated coverage of luxury timepieces across the GCC.