The Vanguard with its dial cut away.

A chronograph is the most mechanical thing most people will ever wear: a second gear train that starts, stops and returns to zero on command, run by a column wheel or a cam and a set of levers. On a normal dial you see none of it. Franck Muller’s Grande Date chronograph cuts the dial back to a chapter ring and two counter rings, so the levers, the hammers and the coupling sit in the open under the crystal and move when you press the pushers.

The large date is the other thing on the dial: two discs showing the day in two windows at lower left, big enough to read without glasses, which is the point of a grande date. The counters are skeletonised too, and the luminous hands are the only solid white on the watch. In steel with a black strap it is the plainest metal Franck Muller offers around the most complicated dial.

This is a regular Amazon listing from an independent dealer, Luxor Watches on the day we read it, with Amazon’s 30-day return window; it is not a Luxury Stores pre-owned unit. The second button opens the live search for Vanguard Grande Dates in case this one has sold.

Franck Muller Vanguards have resold for well under new and close to what pre-owned buyers paid, sometimes more, sometimes less; that is a pattern, not a promise, and nothing here is investment advice.