De Grisogono’s Fawaz Gruosi has made a career out of challenging Swiss watchmaking norms.

It was not the first time Fawaz Gruosi had been called crazy, nor would it be the last. A decade ago, while returning home from an international business trip, Gruosi decided to make a mechanical wristwatch with a digital display like the electronic timetables in airports. When he described his idea to the watchmakers in his Geneva atelier, they deemed it impossible. When he insisted that they build it anyway, they thr…