The New M.A.D.1S Grow Your Dreams X Yinka Ilori Is Riot Of Colours On Your Wrist
4 min read
What happens when a watch born out of sheer gratitude collides with an artist whose world is painted in colour and joy? You get the M.A.D.1S Grow Your Dreams. A timepiece that looks less like something you wear on your wrist and more like a burst of optimism strapped to your arm. This three-piece collaboration between M.A.D.Editions and British-Nigerian artist Yinka Ilori MBE doesn’t just tell the time. Its a manifesto that embraces colour and reminds us that dreams are meant to grow wild and unrestrained.
The Artist Who Sees the World as a Playground
If you’ve ever stumbled across Yinka Ilori’s work, you know it feels like stepping into a carnival of optimism. From transforming dull London corners into colour-drenched playgrounds, to painting custom McLarens with joy, Ilori is on a mission: to inject everyday life with brightness and meaning. For him, design isn’t just decoration. It’s storytelling. It’s community. It’s a way of planting seeds of hope, with recurring motifs like trees a reminder that dreams take patience and love to bloom. And now, those seeds have found their way into watchmaking.
The spark for this collaboration wasn’t planned. During a summer holiday in 2023, MB&F founder Maximilian Büsser stumbled upon Ilori’s work while flipping through a magazine. Six days later, Ilori was in Geneva, stepping into the world of M.A.D.Editions - MB&F’s rebellious, more accessible sibling brand. What started as curiosity blossomed into a philosophy-driven project: a watch that captures Ilori’s belief in nurturing dreams and Max’s own love for playful horology.
Three Dreams, Three Watches
Why settle for one when you can have three? The Grow Your Dreams series comes alive in three limited editions Sun, Nature, and Water each one limited to just 400 pieces. First up is Sun: Glowing with a yellow rotor and a strap that dances between luminous yellow and green. Nature pulses with a green rotor, paired with purple and red straps that feel like a garden in full bloom. And finally, Water flows in cool blues, with a rotor and strap that shimmer like waves.
Each watch carries Ilori’s tree motif carved into its titanium rotor a miniature symbol of growth spinning with every wrist movement. Add in the Super-LumiNova glow, bold mismatched rubber straps with leaf patterns, and a hidden second white strap just in case you want to tone things down and you’ve got watches that are anything but ordinary. These watches may scream with colour, but make no mistake they’re powered by serious watchmaking. Inside beats the Swiss-made LaJoux-Perret calibre G101 with a rotating hour cylinder, 68 hours of power reserve, and a beautifully reimagined slim rotor.
The bezels debut a first for M.A.D.Editions: bursts of colour sealed into precision-cut grooves using HyCeram, a high-tech liquid ceramic that hardens into glossy brilliance. This is not the only technical challenge to diversify the rotor. Made from titanium, it undergoes anodization to transform its colour, allowing the creation of three vivid hues: yellow, green, and blue. Super-LumiNova highlights the contours of the rotor and illuminates Ilori’s motto etched into its surface: Grow Your Dreams. The numbers on the time display are designed by Yinka Ilori. Even the aluminium baseplate has waves that ripple like a secret rainbow beneath the movement.
A Brand Born From Gratitude
M.A.D.Editions itself is a dream story. Originally a “thank you” project from Max to the MB&F community, it was never meant to be a brand. But from the viral buzz of the M.A.D.1 Blue to the sold-out M.A.D.1 RED and GREEN editions, demand turned gratitude into a movement. Raffles, waitlists, and even a GPHG Challenge Prize later, M.A.D.Editions has become the place where high-end mechanical creativity meets playful accessibility. With Ilori, this spirit evolves again proof that dreams, like watches, keep ticking forward.
“Grow Your Dreams” isn’t just a collection name. It’s a mantra. A reminder that patience, care, and boldness can turn ideas into reality. Or as Ilori himself puts it: “You have to be patient and harvest a watch. There are similarities between our universes. Mine are usually very public, but there’s something beautifully private about a watch. Everyone sees it, but it’s you who has that personal connection with it.” The M.A.D.1S Grow Your Dreams is for anyone who still unapologetically dares to dream like a child. After all a creative adult is a child who survived.
Price
CHF 3200 (Excl VAT) or Rs 3,50,000 Approx.
