Maximilian Büsser: extreme haute horlogerie.

Haute horlogerie is a micro-technological artform that taunts me cruelly, a siren call to avarice, only to dash my dreams on the sawtooth rocks of economic reality. I’d have to be rolling the readies like Abramovich, because the price of admission is equivalent to a small apartment, or a tad more than an Aston Martin V8 Vantage. Alas, the trinkets of extreme affluence can only be light-years-distant objects of desire for the likes of me.

So kids, here’s another glass ceiling to lick covetously, while above, oligarchs, arms dealers, and Google founders stride indifferently across it’s mirror polished expanses. When they pause to sample the wares, it will be Max Büsser and friends peddling his obscenely expensive sculptural timepieces to them. Perversely, I have the morally and ethically challenged to thank for creating exclusive markets where exquisite horological marvels like the  HM4 Thunderbolt are liberated from the fertile minds of Büsser and pals and made real.

The inspiration for the Thunderbolt can be found in aviation, 300 precision crafted components fashioned into a miniature shrine to the dream of flying. This is probably no surprise when you consider Büsser started out building model airplanes as a boy. I wonder if he imagined it would lead to this. There are no electronics to foul the mechanically driven purity of the titanium and sapphire encased HM4, which is what Max and friends Laurent Besse and Beranger Reynard intended. The jet-like nacelles display the time (of course) and a power reserve meter. From concept to finished product, this watchmaker’s fantasy took 3 years.

Creative label MB&F represent nothing less than the rebirth of the Swiss watch industry. I look forward to admiring their next incredible timepiece.