The French brand S.T. Dupont has produced a number of distinctive luxury items since it was founded in 1872, but its newest creation may be the most unusual of them all.
The S.T. Dupont x Franck Muller Master Lighter — or the Master Lighter Franck Muller x S.T. Dupont, as the watch brand calls it — is a lighter with a watch embedded in its case.
Such a partnership might appear to be just a marketing strategy, but the companies say the project, conceived one evening when executives from both brands met informally over cigars, was definitely not that.
“It didn’t start from a commercial approach at all,” said Alain Crevet, Dupont’s chief executive. “It started from the will of a few crazy maverick technical people to create something original.”
The design does seem more integrated than some collaborations, which can appear as though one company has simply lent its name or distinctive color palette to another. “The idea was to keep the best of the two brands,” said Jean-Loup Glénat, the head of design at the Swiss watch brand Franck Muller, with the shared goal “to together create one product, not two products in one.”
At 39.2 millimeters by 66 millimeters, the Master Lighter is noticeably larger than most Dupont lighters, while the whimsical numeral font used on the clock dials is traditional Franck Muller.
The palladium-plated brass piece comes in four iterations: matte black with a P.V.D. (physical vapor deposition) coating on the case and glow-in-the-dark numbers on the black dial; two versions with white dials and numbers in either black or an assortment of bright colors; and a royal blue dial with white numbers. The dials are guilloché enamel with a central sun pattern.
The design has a distinct front and back, unlike a typical lighter. The front features the dial, while the back is skeletonized to show the movement (as well as, unusually, the seconds hand). The watch is powered by an in-house mechanical movement that must be wound manually, using the crown on the right side of the case; it has a three-day power reserve.
The Master Lighter is to be sold on Dupont’s website and Franck Muller’s website, with prices still being determined. They also may be ordered through both brands’ boutiques as well as through select retailers.
As the lighters are being made-to-order, Dupont said delivery would take about six months.
The design proved to be a challenge for both brands. Dupont said it had to create enough internal space to accommodate the watch’s movement as well as a hole through the pressurized liquid gas tank to accommodate the watch hands.
And Mr. Glénat of Franck Muller noted that watch parts had to be waterproofed for protection from the liquid gas. “It seems simple when you use the lighter, but it’s complicated, like a watch, to make and to assemble,” he said.
Collaborations have become routine for both companies. Franck Muller has recently worked with the Dutch artist Loes van Delft and the hard rock band AC/DC, while Dupont has produced items with myriad partners including Louis Vuitton and Warner Bros. Discovery.
While the audience for Dupont and Muller products may be similar, “just because you do a collaboration with two strong brand names, it’s not going to guarantee success,” said Rita Lombardo, a partner and the director of strategy at Lombardo Partners, a consulting firm in Florida that has worked with luxury brands including Watches of Switzerland. “I do think that there’s a lot of value in doing them, not only for the media coverage and the buzz that gets but the exclusivity.”
If the lighter does resonate with consumers, Mr. Glénat said, “we have many other ideas to continue this adventure between these two brands.”
One idea could potentially be a writing instrument, another signature Dupont product. As Mr. Crevet put it, “It could be very interesting to create a complication pen.”
“We don’t even know how we could do that,” he said, laughing. “We said, ‘Let’s finish this one first, but then, why not?’”
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