The French brand S.T. Dupont has produced a number of distinctive luxury items since it was founded in 1872, but its newest creation may be the most unusual of them all.

The S.T. Dupont x Franck Muller Master Lighter — or the Master Lighter Franck Muller x S.T. Dupont, as the watch brand calls it — is a lighter with a watch embedded in its case.

Such a partnership might appear to be just a marketing strategy, but the companies say the project, conceived one evening when executives from both brands met informally over cigars, was definitely not that.

“It didn’t start from a commercial approach at all,” said Alain Crevet, Dupont’s chief executive. “It started from the will of a few crazy maverick technical people to create something original.”

The design does seem more integrated than some collaborations, which can appear as though one company has simply lent its name or distinctive color palette to another. “The idea was to keep the best of the two brands,” said Jean-Loup Glénat, the head of design at the Swiss watch brand Franck Muller, with the shared goal “to together create one product, not two products in one.”