If you speak with anyone working in the watch game for more than a couple of decades, you’ll likely find the reason they’ve been around so long is less about the watches themselves and more about the people making the watches. The new M.A.D.1 GMT Milano Edition is a perfect example of this, created by MB&F founder Maximilian Büsser to celebrate his 30-year friendship with the Corvo family who owns the “Great Masters of Time” boutiques in Italy.
The M.A.D.1 edition was originally born as a project to thank Büsser’s long-term friends and associates in the watch industry but was met with such voracious reception from the collecting community, that further editions were created to broaden the access to the unusual timepiece. Now on its fourth edition, the M.A.D.1 is back in a copper tone as a 30-piece limited edition.
If you’ve not seen a M.A.D.1 before and you’re (rightly) wondering how you actually tell the time, the time is displayed between the lugs at 6 o’clock via a set of rotating rings. Instead of the dial telling you the information you’re after, it instead features a “battle-axe” winding rotor that not only serves up a neat party trick when it disappears in a rotating blur but also delivers a taste of MB&F’s wild designs at a fraction of the brand’s typical six-figure price.
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This futuristic-looking timepiece measures 42mm in diameter and stands a whopping 18.8mm tall, most of which is thanks to the time being told on the flank of the steel case, rather than the dial side. It’s powered by a heavily modified Miyota cal. 821A movement that delivers 21 hours of power reserve, while if you flip the M.A.D.1 GMT Milano Edition over it features an engraving that speaks to the relationship between Büsser and the Corvo family.
In a post to Instagram, Büsser told the story behind his close relationship with three generations of the Corvo family, which began back in 1992 when he started his career at Jaeger-LeCoultre. “3 generations of Corvo in 30 years. An honour, a pleasure, a journey,” he said.
“Thank you Giorgio, Michele, Jacopo and Mattia for being by my side in good and tough times and for being such great friends. These thirty M.A.D. 1 pieces are a very small token of my enormous gratitude.”
The M.A.D.1 GMT Milano Edition will be available exclusively from Great Masters of Time boutiques, as a limited edition of 30 pieces.
