MB&F Chronicles: About A Man Who Started A Watchmaking Revolution - Part 1

Horological originality is a scarcity. When an industry leans too heavy on tradition, getting aesthetic and micro-mechanic asides is a blue moon occurrence. Accepted, tradition is the Swiss watch industry’s ultimate prestige, but so has to be the perpetual innovation in crafts, materials, technology and design. One individual who deserves credit maxima for invigorating tradition-found avant-garde into contemporary horology is Maximilian Büsser.

As a key orchestrator of high horology arts at MB&F, Max Büsser has rebelled against many norms of traditional watchmaking, not only in its creative dimensions, but also in approach to the kinetic. Once taught by a certain Günter Blümlein, “creativity is not a democratic process,” he truly set forth to being completely liberated, both in terms of creative thought as well as the tangible realization of that thought. That’s why he never wanted to or claimed to create watches that he thinks everyone will like. Among the many spheres of luxury engineering, his creations stand out for their outright idiosyncrasy. Yet somewhere they find an organic connect with the masses, for they truly exemplify the maxima of biomorphic design. This particular approach fosters a sense of flow, a perception of forms and a response to stimulus that we’re naturally familiar with. And that’s the genius of one Maximilian Büsser.

A flurry of quirks distilled in a brand

If you ought to borrow one of Elon Musk’s fancy flying machines and traverse light years into the cosmic abyss, you’ll very likely meet some life forms on the way. Chances are their timekeeping contraptions would somewhat resemble what the Maison of Max Büsser has to offer. Every machine that has found its genesis at MB&F is an haute horlogerie reinvention of the absolute sense. It is the Manufacture where insanely crazy and outright bizarre timepieces are born. If I’m to describe what Max has created, it would be a laboratory invested in crafting the most unexpected, incredibly complicated and utterly unforgettable machines.

While the mechanical is dedicated to a few friends that Max Büsser has earned along the way, the aesthetic is truly his brainchild. It’s like a grown man has decided to realize all of his crazy childhood fantasies in the most extraordinary way, and in doing so proven the notion that the child within actually never dies. For me, collecting Hot Wheels is a means to feed the infant within, for Max, well, he chose the hard way. For a man who insists he isn’t a “watchmaker,” he has been the true reiterator of the fine watchmaking tale. By constantly pumping a tour de force of unexpected and unforeseen into his creations, Maximilian Büsser has attained what I loudly and delightfully pronounce as the most deserving synthesis of captivating speculation around his releases. Very few watch brands can be credited with this level of anticipation and elation. Whatever emanates from MB&F is rightfully estimated to delight the purists, for in these creations, the art and inventiveness of mechanical thrive without check. This is watchmaking prestige reinvented!

Maximilian Büsser - Life before friends

In my research (forget everything you understand of the word) for this article, I read a lot about Maximilian Büsser. His is a tale that neither bores you with biographic narratives, nor is it remarked by record chasing feats. It is nothing but simply a very pure and honest love for engineering. When you harbor a love for the mechanical, you try to make beautiful machines. So, as I’ve hinted at the obvious, let’s now progress into learning a bit about the life and career of Max Büsser. Also, it is now that I’ll serve the disclaimer that it could lead to an infatuation with watch world’s nicest guy.

As an only child and a self-proclaimed geeky kid, Max Büsser had a lot of time to dream. And he always dreamt of being a car designer. Letting his imagination run wild was a hobby and therein synthesized a formative affinity for creating and crafting beautiful things. Taught in Lausanne to be a micro-technology engineer, Max grew from a kid with crazy ideas to being an adult with crazy ideas. And why not, for he has always emphasized, “A creative adult is a child who survives.”

In 1991, at the tender age of 24, he was appointed by the then managing director of Jaeger-LeCoultre - Henry-John Belmont, as the product manager of the brand. He spent the better part of a decade with his first employer and later, his career saw him act as the managing director at Harry Winston Rare Timepieces from 1998. This however wasn’t met with too great an enthusiasm by Mr. Belmont. For Harry Winston, he created the revolutionary Opus series and in many ways, planted the seed of seeking collaborative efforts in watchmaking. His efforts in the project literally turned the company around. This series, realized through the creative undertaking of collaborators, who were leading independent watchmakers, led to a revenue surge for the brand from a modest $8 million to a staggering $80 million within a mere five years.

Working with the best contemporary cabinotiers - F.P. Journe, Vianney Halter, Antoine Preziuso, Christophe Claret and Felix Baumgartner, Büsser was exposed to an exceptional entrepreneurial force which ignited a profound transformation within him. He encountered a novel paradigm, one characterized by liberated creativity, and also the inherent challenges of forging one's own path. It was owing to this experience that the thought of creating MB&F synthesized.

The makings of MB&F

In 2005, Max took a decision that many qualified as crazy. I however cannot overstate my admiration for his firmness that found him favor within collector communities and reaped him many rewards. It represented in many ways a sort of step-up, I’ll even call it an evolution, in presenting an extravagant amalgam of contemporary watchmaking and ingenious design. This materialized when he plowed $900,000 of his life savings and advances for the 25 initial timepieces into a venture that would be christened MB&F. It was born as a horological concept laboratory where “3-dimensional kinetic art” was conceived. Everything from the first release in 2007 to the latest Legacy Machine ‘Longhorns’ which we got just a few days back has been consistent in the brand’s iconography of pushing designs that seem very distant from the industry habits. Also, it exhibits a continuation and sustained existence of the practice of realizing mechanical artworks through an assemblage of talented horological artisans - something that Max Büsser got the best hint of when creating the Opus series. While I need not deduce what the initials ‘MB’ in MB&F stand for, it is the ‘F’ that makes it so very special.

F stands for ‘friends,’ yes, the many that have been the part of a fine horological tale with Max Büsser. What is very transparent in a usually opaque industry is the advertisement and promotion of the collaborators for MB&F, of which everyone from the movement designers to the buckle makers and product photographers feature in the friend-list. Deconstructing the traditional watchmaking norms, Max Büsser not only integrates the best horological professionals, but enables a widespread appreciation of their respective efforts and crafts. Now this is something very telling about the man. Right from the inceptive series, the HM1 of 2007, to the more recent releases, there has been a consistent derivation of inspiration from non-horological frontiers. MB&F represents freedom, and that’s in many ways their ultimate freedom. Max and his friends possess a liberating ability to choose anything as inspiration as well as the amazing will and skill to create it in a beautiful mechanical art form.

Still Crazy After 20 Years

For the two decades of its existence, MB&F has been a sustaining example of Swiss watchmaking resilience. Having to battle potential bankruptcies, the brand has had its fair share of misfortunes. But it exists still and exists gloriously. Celebrating its 20th anniversary this year, MB&F has evolved and diversified tastefully. The brand currently curates a quartet of machine creations - the Horological Machines, Legacy Machines, Co-creations and the M.A.D.Editions. Some just crazy and some even crazier, these machines even when scrutinised with a microscope can only be understood on a surface level, for they harbor an immense depth of aesthetic detail and mechanical complexity. These fiercely unconventional machines, while rebelling against the many aspects of traditional watchmaking, elevate the scopes of affinity for the same while being ever so distant from its habitual norms. They serve a beautiful inspiration, an inspiration to be creative and comfortable in stepping out of the comfort zone.

As an engineer myself, I absolutely love it when the word “beauty” is associated with engineering. On many levels, that’s where my affinity for watches was born and that’s also what makes Maximilian Büsser and his friends so very special.

A special note to Max Büsser and Friends: You guys serve us exactly what we’re for in this game. So, thank you.

About MB&F Chronicles: We’ll cover the MB&F story in a series as our celebration of the wonderful machines it has given birth to. Don’t worry, we won’t only talk about what the machines are and what they do, we’re here to learn about the people, the ‘friends’ behind these machines and the creative direction of Max Büsser that originally inspired the same. This will not only be a watchmaking story, but a story of men and women who’re lucky to be friends.