MB&F — The Independent Maker of Three-Dimensional Watches
MB&F — The Independent Maker of Three-Dimensional Watches
Maximilian Büsser's Geneva collective producing Horological Machines and Legacy Machines
MB&F — Maximilian Büsser & Friends — is a Swiss independent watchmaker founded in Geneva in 2005 by Maximilian Büsser, the former managing director of Harry Winston Rare Timepieces. The brand operates as a collaborative collective of designers, engineers, and specialist suppliers (the Friends of the name), producing two principal lines: the Horological Machines (HM), conceived as three-dimensional sculptural objects with horological complications inside, and the Legacy Machines (LM), more conventionally formed timepieces drawing on traditional pocket-watch and observation-watch aesthetics.
The collaborative model
MB&F's distinctive operational model assembles a project team for each new calibre, drawing on independent watchmakers, case designers, dial specialists, and movement makers as required. Movement development is typically led by an independent watchmaker — Jean-Marc Wiederrecht of Agenhor for several early Horological Machines, Stephen McDonnell for the LM Perpetual, Eric Coudray and others for various pieces. Each piece is credited with the names of the principal collaborators, an unusual practice in Swiss watchmaking that emphasises authorship.
The Horological Machines
The HM line began with the HM1 in 2007 and has continued through more than a dozen subsequent machines. Each is conceived as a sculptural object with horological function rather than as a wristwatch in the conventional sense. The HM3 Frog uses domed sapphire indicators rotating to display hours and minutes. The HM6 (Space Pirate) and HM6 Sapphire Vision are biomorphic forms with multiple sapphire domes housing tourbillons and rotating time displays. The HM10 Bulldog uses jaw-like power-reserve indicators that open as the mainspring runs down.
Gem-set Horological Machines have appeared periodically — the HM3 in baguette-set sapphire variants, the HM6 in diamond-set white-gold cases — with the gemstones treated as architectural integration rather than as conventional jewellery decoration. The MB&F approach to gem-setting tends toward the geometric and structural rather than the figurative.
The Legacy Machines
The LM line, introduced in 2011 with the LM1, draws on the visual language of traditional pocket watches and observation chronometers. The LM1 features a large central balance wheel suspended above the dial — a deliberate inversion of the conventional arrangement — with two independently adjustable subdials and a vertical power-reserve indicator. The LM Perpetual (2015), developed with Stephen McDonnell, integrates a perpetual calendar with the central-balance Legacy Machine layout in a movement architecture that solves several long-standing perpetual-calendar limitations.
Legacy Machines in gem-set variants — diamond pavé, set sapphire and ruby, and full baguette settings — appear periodically as one-off and limited-edition pieces. As with the Horological Machines, the gem-setting is integrated into the architectural conception of the piece rather than added as decoration to a conventional case.
Production scale and market position
MB&F production is in the low hundreds of pieces per year across all lines, distributed through a small network of authorised retailers and through the brand's M.A.D. Gallery exhibition spaces. Prices for new pieces typically fall in the range of approximately CHF 50,000 to CHF 500,000 depending on complexity and gem content, with auction-market secondary prices for sought-after pieces sometimes exceeding retail. The brand sits in the same general independent-watchmaking segment as F.P. Journe, Greubel Forsey, and a small handful of other makers operating outside the major maisons.