Reversing the meaning of the watch
Maximilian Büsser – an 18 year-old Swiss guy who had no idea what Rolex was, became one of the most influential horological concept brand founders. MB&F (Maximilian Büsser & Friends) is his dream company, where he is developing radical horological concepts by working with the most talented independent horological professionals. Together they are not simply pushing the limits of horology, but creating a totally different dimension.
His professional career started at Jaeger-LeCoultre where he spent seven years in their senior management team during the 1990s. The next challenge started when Büsser managed Harry Winston Rare Timepieces, turning a company which was close to bankruptcy into a fully-fledged and well-respected haute horlogerie brand.
Büsser is a graduate of the Swiss Federal Institute of Technology with a Masters in Microtechnology Engineering.
You put all your life savings (900’000 francs) into MB&F and lived without a salary for two years, setting it up all by yourself in your flat. What made you believe that your project would become a successful brand, now one of the most rewarded brands in the industry?
I had no idea if it would become a success or even if we would survive. I had to do it. It was my calling. A way of being proud of myself later on in my life – proud that I fought for what I believed in, and didn’t let myself be drowned by shareholder value, marketing and the universal quest for growth and profit. As the Athenians would rally during the Persian wars: “Better die a free man than live like a slave!”
You have learned countless things during your previous professional experience such as how to work in the world of horology as a whole as well as to understand who you are. What would be the most important competence you could name, which you have learned/understood by starting your own company and running a successful business?
Never give up on your dreams, never, ever relent, never transgress your personal values and always surround yourself with great people who share those same values. Get ready for the worst because the worst will happen, and rejoice in the great times, because they will be the most important chapters of your life.
As we know every “machine” that MB&F has designed has a story and people behind it. Which of the machines have conquered your heart the most and which story you would like to share with us?
Early 2009, when I held our HM4 Thunderbolt prototype in my hand six months before presenting it to the retailers, I told my team “I don’t know if anyone will have the guts to buy and wear this piece…” and I meant it. It was one of my boldest creations to date, and to my great shock the 96 pieces actually sold completely out over the four years we needed to craft them. This gave me the courage to start experimenting much further than my guts initially would have taken me.
MB&F is as much my autobiography as my psychotherapy…
A few years ago, you assured that there are so many more ideas that you want to explore in watchmaking and you had no intention to create something else – but nowadays MB&F are producing MusicMachines. Did you already explore everything in terms of watchmaking or what did change your mind to go even further?
What I know today, is that I have no idea who I will be in a few years. I indeed said a few years ago that I had so much to experiment in watchmaking that I did not see myself creating anything else. And then I met the great artisans at Reuge, and that generated ideas to create incredible kinetic sculptures which are also music boxes… A year later with the fantastic teams at L’Epée, we started creating kinetic art clocks… And I realized that I thoroughly enjoyed creating outside of my comfort zone.
Creating is a hardcore drug. Once you start, you can never stop.
I have so many projects in the MB&F pipeline, and such few means to make them come true (even though we managed the incredible feat this year of launching two totally new movements), that I am growing more and more frustrated… The latest MB&F pieces I have designed will come out – if all goes well – in 2022. That is way too far away. So the “performance art” pieces (Reuge, L’Epée and more to come) alleviate that frustration a little.
Would it be possible for you to extend MB&F in different kinds of fields, knowing that you wanted to be a car designer? Maybe you already have some ideas/projects that you are planning to reveal in the near future?
At this time, there is no car design plan, because I don’t see any possibility of transforming my ideas into reality. It is the ultimate frustration for a creator to see his designs remain designs.
We are kinetic artists. We create and craft three-dimensional mechanical art – and that is so much more challenging and rewarding than just designing objects. There is a mechanical soul to what we do.
In 2014 we have 7 MB&F launches and 7 M.A.D.Gallery launches – as I said, creating is a drug…
