So, is it art or is it design?

“Art exists in an egoistic dimension,” affirms Max Büsser, “while design is in an altruistic dimension. In other words, an artist ideally must not think about pleasing others, but only about expressing what he has in himself. A designer, on the other hand, must think of others, of the use that they will make of his creation. In the beginnings of watchmaking, the artistic part was important in terms of decoration and the actual invention. Then came industrialisation and the watch turned into an object for the masses. But, since the 1970s and the appearance of the quartz movement, mechanical timepieces have become technically obsolete. We can thus state categorically that, from that moment, the mechanical watch should only be created as an art object, either as a one-of-a-kind creation or as a series, as artists do. But, alas, there are not enough real egoists in the watch industry, meaning people who think not in terms of the market, but rather and above all about themselves, about their own creation, without being worried if they please or don’t please. All the ‘designers’ exhibited in this gallery have in common this egoistic approach. They are thus artists.”

So, can we classify MB&F in this category?

“From our first steps,” Max Büsser continues, “we have sought to create in an ‘egoistic’ manner. Our approach has nothing to do with any type of market study, but is the result of a much more personal and intimate introspective research. When, for example, we introduced the very extreme HM4 Thunderbolt, we asked ourselves ‘who is going to be able to buy this thing?’ And, while it succeeded well beyond our expectations, it was not because of any calculated effort, but rather because it apparently ‘spoke’ about itself, it ‘touched’ the sensibilities of many people. Like a work of art does.”