Unworn Franck Muller Vanguard Yachting KOI UTSURA 41mm Steel Limited 28 | Black Tag Watches

Unworn Franck Muller Vanguard Yachting KOI UTSURA 41mm Steel — Limited Edition of 28, Full Set (Ref. V41 YT SC DT JA AC BL)

Utsuri is a specific Japanese koi — a black fish with coloured markings that resolve into gold, silver, or red depending on the breeding line. Franck Muller painted a pair of them across a yachting dial and made twenty-eight examples. Both halves of that sentence are deliberate.

Available now at Black Tag Watches (Aventura, Florida), this unworn example — reference V41 YT SC DT JA AC BL, Limited Edition of 28 — is cased in 41mm stainless steel in the Cintrée Curvex tonneau geometry, powered by the calibre FM 720, and offered complete with its original Franck Muller box and papers.

What Is the Franck Muller Vanguard Yachting KOI UTSURA?

Decoding the Reference

The unworn Franck Muller Vanguard Yachting KOI UTSURA is one of twenty-eight pieces produced within the maison’s Yachting sub-line of the Vanguard collection. The reference designation reads at a glance to Franck Muller collectors but takes some unpacking elsewhere: V41 for the forty-one-millimetre Vanguard case, YT for Yachting, SC-DT for central-seconds and date, JA for the Japanese koi overlay, AC for acier (steel), BL for the blue dial, and KOI for the specific dial pattern that defines the sub-variant. Each element of the reference encodes a specific configuration — which is itself characteristic of how Franck Muller catalogues its production.

The UTSURA Strain and the 28-Piece Rarity

UTSURA is the specific koi strain the dial depicts — a reference to utsurimono, a Japanese koi classification characterised by a black fish with coloured markings in gold, silver, or red, bred selectively since the early twentieth century at the Niigata-prefecture farms where the Japanese koi trade is centred. The reference is one of several Vanguard KOI editions Franck Muller has produced, each anchored on a different koi strain and executed in a different production number. This UTSURA variant was made in twenty-eight pieces — materially rarer than the broader one-hundred-and-eighty-eight-piece KOI references that have more frequent secondary-market presence. For collectors of pre-owned Franck Muller, knowing which koi strain is on the dial, and in what production number, is the whole game.

Dial & Case Design: Cintrée Curvex Tonneau, Koi Over Compass Rose

The Cintrée Curvex Case

The 41mm case is rendered in polished stainless steel in the maison’s signature Cintrée Curvex tonneau geometry — the shaped case that defined the Franck Muller catalogue through the 1990s and that the Vanguard collection, launched in 2014, carries forward in a modernised silhouette. The case stands 12.2mm thick and 44mm lug-to-lug, with brushed and polished flanks framing the dial through a signed polished bezel and signed crown. The Cintrée Curvex is one of the most immediately recognisable case shapes in modern watchmaking, and it anchors the Vanguard KOI to the maison’s core visual identity.

The Yachting KOI Dial

The dial is where the Yachting sub-line and the KOI overlay converge, and the resulting composition is deliberately dense. A compass rose anchors the centre, with the cardinal directions NORTH, EAST, SOUTH, and WEST printed in white around the outer dial — the Yachting-line signature. Over that nautical foundation, two golden koi — one in bright metallic gold, one in a darker calico marking that reads to utsuri specification — swim across the field, one above and one below the compass-rose centre. The maison’s signature oversized Arabic numerals (6, 10, 12, and the characteristic Franck Muller 7) sit at the periphery in large white script, with the word “KOI” printed prominently near the lower dial. A date aperture at 6 o’clock completes the information set. The composition is maximalist by any neutral standard, and the maison would make no argument otherwise: Franck Muller’s visual vocabulary has been decorative-first since the early 1990s, and the Yachting KOI exists to be read on those terms rather than against the restraint of a classical dress watch.

Movement: Franck Muller Calibre FM 720 — Swiss Automatic

A Properly Specified Automatic for the Class

Inside the Vanguard Yachting KOI is the Franck Muller calibre FM 720 — a Swiss automatic movement of 21 jewels running at 28,800 vph (4 Hz) with a 42-hour power reserve. The FM 720 is the maison’s designation for the base automatic architecture used across the Vanguard mid-tier references, developed and finished to the maison’s standards for the collection. The movement drives the central hours, minutes, seconds, and date, and sits behind a solid steel caseback carrying the reference and the maison’s marks. As a horological argument for a mid-tier limited-edition Vanguard at this price point, the FM 720 does what a properly specified Swiss automatic should in this class: it drives the dial reliably, keeps accurate time, and is serviceable through any qualified Swiss watchmaker or through Franck Muller’s own service network. The horological argument for the piece is the maison’s independent-manufacture positioning and the twenty-eight-piece production rather than the base calibre inside the case — a distinction worth stating plainly.

Movement Specifications

Specification

Detail

Calibre

Franck Muller FM 720, Swiss automatic

Functions

Hours, minutes, central seconds, date

Jewels

21

Frequency

28,800 vph (4 Hz)

Power reserve

42 hours

Caseback

Solid steel

Condition, Provenance & Documentation

Unworn, Complete Original Delivery

Condition is unworn. The watch is offered with its original Franck Muller presentation box and papers, on the original blue alligator-and-rubber composite strap and the original signed stainless-steel double-folding deployment buckle with push buttons. For an unworn limited-edition Vanguard from a production run of twenty-eight pieces with a complete original delivery, this is the strongest possible provenance position a pre-owned example can occupy — the case markings and reference designation are verifiable against the maison’s records, and Franck Muller boutiques and service centres continue to service the Vanguard line under the standard programme.

Condition and Accessories

Detail

Information

Condition

Unworn

Box

Original Franck Muller presentation box

Papers

Yes

Strap

Original blue alligator-and-rubber composite

Buckle

Original signed steel double-folding deployment

Full Specifications — Franck Muller Vanguard Yachting KOI UTSURA V41 YT SC DT JA AC BL

Specification

Detail

Brand

Franck Muller (Genthod, Geneva)

Collection

Vanguard Yachting KOI

Variant

UTSURA

Reference

V41 YT SC DT JA AC BL

Production

Limited Edition of 28 pieces

Case

Polished stainless steel

Shape

Cintrée Curvex tonneau

Dimensions

41 × 44mm lug-to-lug, 12.2mm thick

Bezel

Fixed polished steel

Crystal

Sapphire

Dial

Blue, compass rose + cardinal markings

Overlay

Two koi (gold + calico, utsuri)

Typography

Oversized Arabic numerals, “KOI” script

Date

At 6 o’clock

Movement

Franck Muller FM 720, Swiss automatic

Functions

Hours, minutes, central seconds, date

Jewels

21

Frequency

28,800 vph (4 Hz)

Power reserve

42 hours

Water resistance

30m / 3 ATM

Caseback

Solid steel

Strap

Original blue alligator-and-rubber composite

Buckle

Original signed steel double-folding

Condition

Unworn

Box & Papers

Full set

Why Buy the Franck Muller Vanguard Yachting KOI UTSURA?

A Materially Rarer Production Number

The Yachting KOI UTSURA occupies a specific corner of the Franck Muller secondary market that its twenty-eight-piece production run explains plainly. The KOI references have become a quiet collector sub-category: the broader one-hundred-and-eighty-eight-piece KOI editions appear with reasonable frequency on the secondary market, and this twenty-eight-piece UTSURA variant appears materially less often. Unworn full-set examples of the twenty-eight-piece variant are the configuration that establishes the market’s floor for the sub-reference. For the buyer who understands the KOI sub-category, the production number is the differentiator — and twenty-eight is a materially stronger position than one hundred and eighty-eight.

A Modern Independent with Real Complication Pedigree

Franck Muller is one of the handful of Swiss independent maisons founded in the modern era with a documented contribution to serious complication work — the Aeternitas Mega 4 of 2009, carrying thirty-six complications across one thousand twenty-eight separate components, remains among the most complicated wristwatches ever produced. The Vanguard collection sits within that larger context as the maison’s modernised sport-contemporary line. Against contemporary Franck Muller retail on the broader Vanguard KOI line, this unworn UTSURA variant offers a materially rarer production number, a complete original delivery, and direct entry into one of the modern independent maisons at a level that rewards horological literacy over badge recognition.

Available at Black Tag Watches — Aventura, Florida

Black Tag Watches is a pre-owned luxury watch dealer based in Aventura, FL, specialising in rare, certified, and fully documented timepieces from Franck Muller and the world’s leading Swiss manufactures.

View the Franck Muller Vanguard Yachting KOI UTSURA — Full Details & Pricing

A twenty-eight-piece Vanguard Yachting KOI with two utsuri over a compass rose, offered unworn — Franck Muller operating in its own visual vocabulary rather than in anyone else’s, and offering a specific-strain limited edition that rewards knowing which koi is on the dial.

Posted in Black Tag Watches Blog.
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