What Happens Two Rule-Breaking Chefs Play With Time?

A collision of craftsmanship and creativity

In the dim half-light of a Swiss kitchen, beneath the gentle hum of stainless steel and the rhythmic hiss of reduction sauces, a watch ticks on a wrist—not just counting seconds, but marking moments of precision, beauty, and defiance. It is not surprising, then, that TUDOR, the Swiss watchmaker synonymous with bold elegance and relentless innovation, has found its latest collaborators not in the boardrooms of industry or the circuits of sport, but in the heat and finesse of two of Switzerland’s most visionary kitchens.

Meet Yoann Caloué and Franck Reynaud—two chefs who have not just rewritten the rules of Swiss gastronomy, but torn the pages from the book and started fresh. Together, they form TUDOR’s newest culinary alliance, bringing horology and haute cuisine into a philosophical conversation about time, mastery, and the art of daring.

The prodigy who reimagines time

Yoann is a prodigy that tradition tends to mistrust—until, of course, he earns his star. At just 31, the French-born chef had already clinched a Michelin star at Le Flacon, making him the youngest in Swiss history to do so. But true to form, he didn’t rest there. In 2022, he launched Café des Banques in Geneva, a restaurant that manages to be both intimate and theatrical. Its open kitchen suggests transparency and trust, but also places pressure where Yoann thrives: being watched, judged, tested—and consistently rising.

“What I like most in cooking is the creative freedom it offers,” he says. “My eyes sparkle when I strive to transform raw products into something good and beautiful.” His kitchen is less laboratory than atelier, his culinary instinct more sculptor than scientist. There, amid foie gras and fennel, Yoann wears the TUDOR Pelagos 39, a sleek, silent metronome against the chaos. “Time is a key element in kitchen,” he explains. “It is both an ally and an opponent. Being a chef is like being a conductor. You need to give the pulse.”

And who better to keep time than TUDOR, whose timepieces are engineered with the same tension between discipline and daring? Yoann has gone so far as to design signature dishes inspired by their range. “This is all about craftsmanship, precision, and creativity,” he says. “A common desire to make people dream.”

The veteran who elevates the local

If Yoann represents the youthful insurgent, Franck is the seasoned sovereign. His culinary terrain is Crans-Montana, the alpine jewel of Switzerland, and he has spent decades turning its altitude into attitude. Franck is a devotee of terroir, but never a slave to it; the ingredients he champions are local, but the imagination he brings to them is unbound. At Pas-de-l’Ours, his flagship restaurant, the menu is more manifesto than meal—an ode to refinement without rigidity.

“My goal is to use my expertise, knowledge and my sense of creation to provide pleasure,” Franck says. With a Black Bay Chrono “Flamingo Blue” glinting on his wrist, he channels TUDOR’s Born to Dare philosophy into edible form. He cooks for TUDOR’s annual Watches & Wonders dinner and curates experiences, reminding guests that time can be tasted when treated properly.

That’s what binds this unlikely trio—the chef, the chef, and the watchmaker. Beneath the surface distinctions—leather straps vs. lamb reductions, brushed steel vs. burnt butter—lies a shared ideology. A commitment to meticulous craft, yes. But also a belief in movement. In risk. In the audacity of vision.

Because to be great at anything, whether assembling a chronometer or deconstructing a carrot, is to live in tension with time. To master it, bend it, even defy it.

So what happens when horology and gastronomy collide? The answer isn’t a fusion. It’s a philosophy. One that dares to say: time is not a constraint. It’s an ingredient.

Courtesy TUDOR