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Twelve on Time
MB&F’s Maximilian Büsser and his Personal Relationship with Time and Watches
A series that moves beyond brands and products to explore the personalities of the watch industry’s most influential leaders.
Twelve on Time is a conversation series that invites leading personalities from the watch industry to step beyond their work and speak more personally about their relationship with time, creativity, and craft. Through a set of twelve questions, the column aims to lift the veil on both the individual and their perspective on watchmaking, revealing not only how they perceive watches but also how they perceive themselves within a culture shaped by precision, heritage, and emotion. We start this series today with none other than Maximilian Büsser, the founder and creative mind behind MB&F.
- Which watch changed the way you looked at watchmaking? The Urwerk UR-103 in 2003. For me, it was the first three-dimensional kinetic art piece which gives time.
- What is the quality you value most in a watch? The human qualities of its creator, and often the journey we shared.
- Which is your favourite complication? The creator’s very complicated brain.
- What is the most overrated trend in modern watchmaking? Watches as speculative assets.
- What detail instantly tells you a watch was made with care? That no detail deters from the rest.
- Which moment do you believe most fundamentally shaped watchmaking as we know it today? The era between 1750 and 1870, when virtually every known complication was created.
- What is the greatest challenge facing the watch industry today? Returning to a much healthier “value for money” ratio.
- What outside sources of inspiration most influence your thinking in watchmaking? Even though I try to escape from it, my childhood.
- Which watch do you wish you had created? Beat Haldimann’s H2.
- Which watch do you wear most when nobody is watching? These days, my IWC DaVinci 10th anniversary, which added the split-second chronograph to the Perpetual Calendar, from 1995.
- Which personality has most shaped your view of watchmaking? Günter Blümlein (Editor’s note: the man behind IWC, Jaeger-LeCoultre and A. Lange & Söhne, all under a division named LMH, which was crucial in shaping the Richemont Group as we know it today.)
- What should younger collectors focus on before buying their next watch? Understanding the “Why?” and the level of integrity of a brand.
https://monochrome-watches.com/twelve-on-time-mbf-maximilian-busser-about-his-personal-relation-to-time-and-watches/
3 responses
Damn. He was in my Horological Hall Of Fame already, next to.. well, his Friends, but I hold him in even greater regard now.
If ever I have the opportunity to be involved in the technical side of a project for this man, it would be a dream come true!
There’s a man I would aspire to work with.
Welp, that’s the level of professionality you get when the page refuses to refresh…