Chopard To Provide Special Watches For Libyan Leader Gaddafi's 40th Anniversay On 'Throne'

by Ariel Adams (RSS feed)
Aug 28th 2009 at 12:02PM

Swiss Chopard luxury watch and jewelry maker has just taken a substantial order from highly controversial Libyan 'supreme leader' Muammar Gaddafi. The move was politically interesting, because Gaddafi was very ticked at the Swiss because his son Hannibal Gaddafi was arrested in Geneva for something like crimes against humanity, or having the name "Hannibal." Gaddafi actually ordered a complete import embargo on all Swiss goods due to the arrest. Interestingly enough he made an exception for the large order from Chopard.

So what did he get? The order was for 250 limited edition watches valued at around 8 million Swiss Francs. They should each have the likeness of Mr. Gaddafi on them in some form and were ordered to celebrate his 40th anniversary of being in office there. Gaddafi, if evidenced by his love of "intense" sunglasses, will likely enjoy the blingy reminders of his "victories" over the competition for that long.

It is a tricky move for Chopard to accept an order from someone with such a spotty record on human rights and so forth. The company is known to be majorly hurting due to the weak economy, especially as it is pointed to the luxury industry. The move was likely due to the large amount of the order. You know what they say, desperate times call for despot orders.

Via Business Montres (in French)

Ariel Adams publishes the luxury watch review site aBlogtoRead.com.

Tags: 40th anniversary, 40thAnniversary, chopard, libya, Muammar Gaddafi, MuammarGaddafi, watch