Martin Braun

Martin Braun is an eponymous German/Swiss watch brand, currently owned by Franck Muller's Watchland group. See also Braun, Martin and his new brand, Antoine Martin.

Watch brand, founded by the German watchmaker Martin Braun. Meanwhile, the trademark rights are held by the group Franck Muller/Watchland, after Braun has left.

Astronomical complications

The 2000 presented model EOS, with its complication of the sunrise and sunset times, announced the beginning of the watch brand Martin Braun. The following year, Martin Braun for the first time exhibited at the Basel watch fair.

Since then, the union of watchmaking and astronomy consituted the particular style of his watches. Typical features were the equation of time, sunrise and sunset times, declination (a rarity) and moon phase.

The Boreas, presented in 2002, encompassed both the display of sunrise and sunset times as well as the equation of time; in 2004 this effort was awarded in the U.S. with an innovation prize. In 2005 the Heliozentric was launched, and also the Astraios, which was regarded as one of the most complicated watches.

Relocation to Switzerland

Since 2007 the production of Martin Braun's watches, as part of the Franck Muller project Watchland, is located in the Swiss town Sarnen (Canton Obwalden). 51 percent of the company were now owned by the Franck Muller Group. "For me, this means that a large part of the financial pressure is eliminated," says Martin Braun. For the company it means a very beneficial use of the international distribution structures. "The entire product development and brand alignment remains in my hands. Something else would have no meaning. Each brand must retain its own personality. Martin Braun is Martin Braun to stay."<ref>From: www.uhrenjuwelen.com</ref>

In-house movements

Another important milestone for Martin Braun is the development of his own automatic base calibre MAB 88 and the chronograph calibre MAB 98 (produced since 2006).

Withdrawal of the name giver

Discrepancies with the Franck Muller/Watchland Group caused the name giver of the company, Martin Braun, in September 2009 to withdraw from the company. He now wants to persue his personal self-determined goals. He is sacrificing the manufacturer's name, as before him the prestigious watch creators Gérald Genta, Jörg Hysek, Roger Dubuis or Daniel Roth have done, who also had first become part of larger companies with their brands and then had decided to return to their own independent continuation of their work, sacrificing the business name rights.

In 2011 Martin Braun came back into the limelight, when he became co-founder of the new watch brand Antoine Martin.

Models

Well known models and model ranges by Martin Braun are:

• EOS
• Boreas
• Heliozentric
• Astraios
• Notos
• Selene
• Zephyros

Literature

• Das ZEITGEFÜHL-Uhrenbuch; Autor: Gerd-Lothar Reschke; ISBN 3-938607-61-0

Address

Martin Braun AG
Marktstr. 8
CH-6060 Sarnen

Tel. +41/41-662 02 42
Fax +41/41-662 02 41