When it comes to watchmaking, it’s no stretch of a hairspring to say that Michel Navas has done it all. He was a key figure at Gérald Genta in the high complications team in the boom times of the ’90s. He also worked at Patek Philippe and Audemars Piguet. At Franck Muller, he masterminded the implementation of a complication based on the personality of its creator, from concept to the wrist — the ‘Crazy Hours’. The luminous brilliance of this invention, which sees the hour hand jump capriciously (and just about instantaneously) around the dial to the non-sequential numbers, is undimmed by time. Even after decades, the changing of the hour on a Franck Muller Crazy Hours watch makes me blink in surprise, every single time. While few would contest Muller’s brilliance, his frenetic, unpredictable process was just as legend – Navas is credited with translating this into a mechanical tribute that has become the singular Franck Muller watch. The icon for the brand. But, in conversation with his friend and soon to be lifetime business partner Enrico Barbasini, Navas concluded: “Between us, we had more ideas than the big brands needed.” So, in 2004, the pair broke away to form…
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