There are watches that tell time and watches that tell a story. Then, occasionally, there are watches that tell your story, and Krayon’s PAC-MAN series, unveiled for the Time To Watches Geneva in April 2026, falls squarely into that rarer category.
Fifteen unique platinum pieces, each powered by the celebrated Calibre C030 and each bearing a one-of-a-kind Métiers d’Art dial: this is not a collaboration born of commercial opportunism, but a genuinely personal artistic statement from Rémi Maillat and Fei Hou, the creative duo behind this Neuchâtel atelier. I have followed Krayon since the Everywhere, and this feels like a Maison finally exhaling, completely at ease with itself.
Fun Through Exquisite Mechanics
The foundation of each PAC-MAN dial is polished onyx, a material Krayon selects with clear intent. Onyx is cold, mirror-smooth and optically deep, making it the ideal mineral stage for the visual composition above it. Krayon renders the iconic maze through translucent tampography, a pad-printing technique that deposits ink in ultra-fine layers directly onto the stone surface.
The result is genuinely extraordinary: the labyrinth stays invisible under flat light and reveals itself only when light strikes at an oblique angle, a deliberate, almost conspiratorial effect reserved for the wearer alone. Above the onyx, a system of superimposed sapphire discs carries the hand-painted ghosts and fruit: Blinky, Pinky, Inky and Clyde in their exact 1980 colours and pixel-perfect proportions, and no two compositions across the fifteen pieces are identical, as Fei Hou personally composes each disc arrangement.
The inscriptions, MIDDAY, MIDNIGHT, MARCH and SEPTEMBER, adopt the original pixelated typography of the 1980 game, and the Krayon logotype becomes a pixel cartouche, a detail that truly rewards close inspection.
A Superb Calibre – Brings Joy On So Many Levels
Krayon engineered Calibre C030 specifically for the Anywhere complication, and the PAC-MAN series inherits it in full, which technically is a statement in itself. At 35.40 mm in diameter and just 5.00 mm thick, this hand-wound calibre packs 432 components and 55 jewels into a profile that holds the 39 mm case to a genuinely svelte 9.5 mm total height.
Beating at 21,600 vph with a 72-hour power reserve, the calibre calculates sunrise and sunset for any location on Earth the wearer selects. In the PAC-MAN iteration, PAC-MAN himself takes the role of the sun indicator on the 24-hour disc, advancing through the dial as the day progresses; the large cookie marks sunset, and the ghost gang turns blue at midnight, exactly as in the game, before regaining their red, pink, orange and light-blue identities at dawn.
Furthermore, the direction of the ghosts’ eyes simultaneously indicates the sunrise position, a function that is both mechanical and theatrical. As for finishing, Calibre C030 receives hand-bevelling across all bridges, countersunk perforations, intricately shaped anglage on both inward and outward angles, undulating waves across the plates, and a ratchet click whose elegance would shame far costlier calibres. The regulating cluster at 6 o’clock, a visible assembly of racks, yokes and a distinctive central screw system, proves just as attractive as it is functional.
Precious
Krayon builds the PAC-MAN series in PT950 platinum, entirely consistent with the Maison’s Métiers d’Art DNA. The 39 mm case receives a fully polished treatment, a deliberate choice that lets the dial dominate visually rather than competing with a contrasting brushed finish. At 9.5 mm tall, the proportions sit correctly on the wrist despite housing a movement of considerable lateral breadth, and sapphire crystals front and back provide direct visual access to both the dial composition and the movement. A PT950 platinum pin buckle closes the hand-stitched black alligator strap with appropriate formality, and water resistance reaches a sensible 30 metres.
In Closing
Krayon prices the PAC-MAN series upon request and you can expect a price tag above CHF 150,000 (unconfirmed CHF 188,000), which, for a bespoke platinum Métiers d’Art piece limited to fifteen unique examples, reflects the extraordinary investment of craft and intellectual rigour that each watch represents. What Fei Hou and Rémi Maillat built here is a technically serious, GPHG-recognised complication housed inside a deeply personal artistic universe, executed without compromise or apology. As Fei Hou puts it directly: Krayon knows how to smile. After following this brand for nearly a decade, I believe that might be the most important thing it has ever learned.
