The Watch World's $100K Toy Maker
GQ US|Summer 2023
Max Büsser's novel designs inspire legions of fans to visit his M.A.D. Gallery in Geneva-and to stop him on the street for selfies
CAM WOLF
The Watch World's $100K Toy Maker

MAX BÜSSER, THE M founder of the watch brand Maximilian Büsser & Friends, typically produces fewer than 300 watches a year.

His M.A.D. Gallery is no bigger than an average New York apartment but is stuffed with whirring machines. Büsser, who founded MB&F in 2005, curates these objects from disparate makers and sells them here. He shows me some of his favorites, including a dancing chandelier and an accordion-fan sculpture that appears to breathe on its own.

"Actually, the price is stupidly low," Büsser says while admiring the contraption. "$30,000." He is fascinated by these objects, which far outnumber the store's watches that sit inside vitrines at the center of the shop.

"I deconstruct traditional watchmaking and reconstruct it into a 3D kinetic art piece," he says. "Inspired by a bulldog, inspired by a jellyfish, inspired by a spaceship." He removes a few watches from their display cases for me to play with. He brings my attention to the $105,000 HM10 Bulldog. (MB&F divides its watches into two sections: HMs, or Horological Machines, and LMS, Legacy Machines.) Büsser holds the piece up so I'm looking at it straight on. Where the typical watch is flat, and round or square, MB&F's stand proudly off the wrist like figurines.

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