fter Romain Gauthier and F.P. Journe, Chanel is now buying a stake – again, a minority stake, 25% – in another of the finest flowers of creative Swiss watchmaking: MB&F, which will celebrate 20 years of existence in 2025.

When it came to bringing a new shareholder into one of the brands which have reshaped the watchmaking scene of the new millennium, Chanel seemed the obvious choice: not only did Max Büsser’s business partner, Serge Kriknoff, spend many years directing the watch manufacture of that famed luxury house, but Chanel also showed itself willing to stake its bets on long-term support for an unconventional brand.

Max Büsser and Serge Kriknoff

For several years, MB&F deliberately refused to grow, before suddenly expanding at a phenomenal rate during the record-breaking period recently experienced by the Swiss watch industry – an atypical strategy that would have been completely out of line with the expectations of a listed player. After all, if Max Büsser had freed himself from a major company to launch his own business venture once, he was hardly likely to chain himself down again twenty years later…

Europa Star: Can you give us the inside story of the process that led to Chanel’s investment in MB&F?

Max Büsser: During the first ten years of MB&F’s existence, from 2005 to 2015, the word “succession” wasn’t part of our vocabulary, we were just thinking about surviving! The five following years, we tried to maintain a stable configuration which suited us, with stable turnover; we deliberately chose not to grow. It was in 2020, when the pandemic broke out, that everything changed. Demand simply exploded.

We still didn’t want to grow – growing just because there’s high demand, which by definition can be short-lived, is a recipe for failure. But our retailers and partners came to see us with ambitious plans – we were offered dedicated stores in Los Angeles, Singapore… But for that we needed to produce more, to increase our capacity.

So we let ourselves be persuaded to open the flood gates to growth just a crack: in two and a half years we doubled in size, from 30 to 60 people, and invested in a new workshop in Geneva. It was an even bigger responsibility and it was at that point that we really asked ourselves about the long-term survival of what we’d created… For these past three years, that question has been my biggest project, my biggest preoccupation.

M.A.D. House, the brand’s new headquarters in Geneva

I imagine that it was also a very personal matter, with your business partner Serge Kriknoff (who before Chanel’s acquisition owned a 20% stake, 80% being owned by Max Büsser – Ed.).

We’re both approaching sixty, there was the pandemic, we’re starting to lose people close to us, sadly … It’s scary. What would happen to my wife and our two daughters who are only 11 and 7 if I was no longer around? It’s an all-too familiar story with independent designers: the risk of a takeover by a player who respects neither our philosophy nor our ways of working and ultimately destroys the work of a lifetime.

Not doing anything, not planning ahead was simply too risky. I’ve started mentoring a very talented young designer, Maximilian Maertens, to guarantee continuity at the creative level, but a crucial piece was missing from the puzzle: a financial partner capable of backing us in the long term and in line with our values. A guarantee for the future.

The “Friends” of MB&F

In concrete terms, how did the relationship with Chanel come about?

Among the original “Friends” of MB&F, 19 years ago, there was the manufacture G&F Châtelain, which belongs to Chanel and of which my business partner Serge Kriknoff is a former director (from 2002 to 2008 – Ed.). So it’s a relationship that goes back a long way. We analysed the landscape of potential partners and the name Chanel came to mind straight away because of their long-term vision, but also because of a certain humility on the part of the people who run the company. We talked about it very naturally two years ago and they asked me how they could help our company. We’ve spent these past two years getting to know one another to confirm our partnership.

LM Sequential Flyback Platinum

What does their investment mean to you in the immediate future?

For the next four years we’re going to maintain a policy of zero growth – as you can imagine, that’s quite an unusual scenario when you’ve brought in a new investor: in the conventional business world, you’re more likely to hear about ultra-ambitious plans! But they’re giving us free rein because they understand exactly what we’re looking for, which is sustainability. We’ve already doubled in size in a very short time and we still have to adjust to this new reality. But they can certainly already help us on things like legal issues and human resources, because we still think like a start-up, with the “spontaneity” that entails!

HM8 Mark 2

And in the longer term, is your preferred option the possibility that MB&F (for Friends) might become MB&D (for Daughters)?

They really insisted on taking a minority stake, with the idea of a family succession in the long term, whether through my children or Serge’s. But we’re certainly not going to force our children and of course there are a lot of unknowns. Will they even be interested? And will they be capable? In any case, Chanel’s acquisition makes this scenario more plausible if only because it will allow us to wait and see with greater serenity whether our children are interested, in ten or twenty years’ time.

The MB&F Lab in Singapore

Has it affected your retail strategy?

We’ll be opening our fifth “Lab” in two months’ time – which will make 14 points of sale, half of which are single-brand. Even so, apart from the historical M.A.D. Gallery in Geneva, they are all franchises, and there’s no way we want to turn into retailers by integrating the distribution side, like many other brands have done. We’re going to continue working with our partners, who have been loyal to us ever since we began.

Above all, we want to work without the stress of having to race around opening new points of sale or manage stock. There’s already enough to do creatively, that’s our priority, far more than growth. What we want first and foremost is to keep the friendly atmosphere of our early years as a start-up. That’s the essence of our vision. It’s already quite a challenge when you’ve grown so fast from a workforce of 30 to 60.

Last question: will we be seeing Chanel x MB&F creations?

That’s a question you should put to Chanel rather (smiles). I’ve certainly no shortage of ideas on that score. Time will tell!