I love watches. Especially unusual ones. The first quirky watch I acquired has only one hand, yet you could always tell the exact time. (The entire watch dial rotated in the rear to indicate the hour, while the single hand pointed to the minute.)

Over time, I’ve become a watch fanatic, and now have a nice little collection.

On a recent trip to Tokyo, I flipped through a watch-themed magazine and suddenly stopped. I’d never seen this watch before: a Franck Muller 7880 model named “Magic Time.” It even had those two words printed on the dial: “MAGIC TIME.” I instantly wanted one. Why? The two hands of the watch always point to 12:00, all day long. If someone were to glance at your wrist, they would see the time as 12:00. A second hand ticks around, counting off each second, but the minute and hour hands don’t move…

Until you press the hidden button.

To the left of the ‘9,’ there is an additional bezel that you can press. Whilst the button is depressed, the hands of the watch instantly shoot to the proper place on the dial to tell you the actual time. When the button is released, the hands flip back to the 12:00 mark. There they stay, all day long. (Reminds me of the old joke: “Even a broken watch is correct two times each day.”)

Upon returning to New York, I checked with my friend at Cellini, the high-end jewelry shop in the lobby of the Waldorf-Astoria. He made some calls to Franck Muller, and was informed that “Magic Time” is no longer available due to a trademark infringement case. As such, Franck Muller has renamed the watch “Secret Hours.” It has the same functionality (and I had a chance to fiddle with it at the Cellini shop). But oddly enough, I have no desire to own this watch with its new name. “Magic Time,” thumbs up. “Secret Hours,” I’ll take a pass.

Fortunately Franck Muller has such a lovely inventory of functional and/or flashy watches. I have a Master Banker that I’m quite fond of. The craftsmanship is unparalleled.

In a future post, I’ll write about my visit to Geneva to explore watchmaking facilities.