When the going gets rough, the tough get going. Chopard, Swiss maker of luxury watches, has made the controversial move to create and sell $7.5 million dollars worth of watches to long time Libyan leader Muammar al-Gaddafi.

Chopard has been around since 1860 and has always been known for their innovative designs in both watches and jewelry. In 1976, they released the first Happy Diamonds Watch, a watch that features free falling diamonds that slide and spin all around the watch face. This watch and the subsequent Happy Sport Collection put Chopard on the “watch map” forever.

Now, Chopard is back in the news as the company has just taken an order from Gaddafi, the controversial leader of  Libya.

To mark his 40 years in office, Gaddafi has ordered 250 limited edition Chopard watches. It is rumored that each watch will bear the likeness of the Colonel, as he is known. Colonel Gaddafi took power through a coup in Libya in 1969 and has not budged one inch since then.

250 limited edition, make to order, special watches run a price tag of $7.5 million dollars, a substantial amount for any company, who has surely seen a drop off in sales.

The question is, will Chopard’s acceptance of Gaddafi’s order give them a bad rap. I mean, Gaddafi isn’t the nicest human being to ever exist; one doesn’t have to be an international politics major to know that his name is most commonly associated with repressive tactics, abuse of human rights and all sorts of other lovely things.