Haute Time Presents: Franc Vila At Basel World 2012

I was very excited to meet Franc Vila for the first time. I am a huge fan of the watch brand and an owner of the Franc Vila Cobra myself.

He immediately impressed me with a ladies’ tourbillon watch in black and red. Unlike most ladies tourbillon pieces at Basel, the Fvt #1 Planetair is very sporty and edgy and retails for $195,000. Equipped with a flying tourbillon with a five-day power reserve, this movement made history adopting an aesthetic shape for the first time.

Next, Franc showed me the men’s tourbillon piece called the Tourbillon Intrepido. Limited to eight pieces, this piece is a Ferrari in a watch. Its composition is titanium and is one of the lightest pieces I have ever seen, featuring a tourbillon with day and night three-dimensional indication and 96 hours of power reserve.  Another piece I was drawn to was the SuperSonic 5-Minute Repeater, Superligero Concept. A very cool watch, the timepiece features a five-minute repetition complication and is a new watch introduced at Basel World. Franc’s favorite quality is the complication, which is high-tech due to the mechanism needed to convert time to music.

Franc then showed me the new Cobra, an upgrade of the piece I have, as well as the Superligero Automatic Big Date. This dynamic model is limited to only 88 pieces.

Check out the video above for an inside look of my meeting with Franc Vila and a glimpse at all the amazing timepieces I saw at Basel World.

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Seth Semilof

Co-Founder & COO · Haute Time

Seth Semilof co-founded Haute Living and, with business partner Kamal Hotchandani, launched Haute Time, the brands' luxury timepiece site, to educate buyers about the best watches in the world and to showcase the passion of collectors and the CEOs who lead the great maisons. His love of watches began early: a TAG Heuer at 13, an Omega at 16, and his first Rolex at 20. Through Haute Time he has been honored to visit the greatest watch manufactures in the world and meet the master watchmakers behind them. He has also personally featured private collections exclusive to Haute Time, taking readers inside the watch boxes of Kevin Hart, Carmelo Anthony, Tony Robbins and Swizz Beatz.