Carlo Crocco is an Italian businessman from the family that founded Italy's Binda Group, the watch and accessories company. He moved to Switzerland, set up MDM Genève and designed a watch that he named Hublot, the French word for "porthole".
His design combined a precious-metal case with a natural rubber strap, a design English Wikipedia calls groundbreaking. It was shown at the Basel watch fair in 1980 and quickly found buyers, selling more than US$2 million in its first year.
By the early 2000s Crocco, absorbed by his own design work and by the Hand-in-Hand Foundation, a children's charity, was looking for someone to run the company. In late 2003 he met Jean-Claude Biver, and in May 2004 Biver became chief executive, board member and minority shareholder. Sales rose from 24 million Swiss francs in 2004 to nearly 100 million by the end of 2006, and in April 2008 LVMH bought Hublot from Crocco for an undisclosed sum. Casadi has not verified his date of birth.