Hands-On The M.A.D.Editions M.A.D.1S, Some Of The World’s Best Horological Entertainment And So Much More

MB&F, a brand long known as a flag bearer for collaboration and community, was also known for the high price tag that comes with avant-garde high horology. You see an MB&F, and the price makes sense. The complexity, the finishing, the engineering, the design, and the low production numbers scream "expensive." But when you meet Max Büsser and get to know him, you quickly realize these watches don't come from a place worried about price or exclusivity. It's all about ideas, designs, conversations, and community.

The M.A.D.1 should have come as no surprise. An affordable watch that’s kind of from MB&F without really being an MB&F? It felt like Max Büsser and the folks at M.A.D.Editions made something affordable just for someone like me. In that way, it was perfect. Sure, some people said the price – CHF 2,900 – may be a little high for the build quality. To me, I don't mind the price. But either way, it was more about what the price represented. 

People were clamoring for it and the four iterations (the first blue watch for the "Tribe," two raffles for red models, another raffle for a green piece, and a multi-colored collaborative watch earlier this year). The first two red models had over 40,000 raffle entries for only 3,000 pieces. Sure, not everyone who wanted one got one (myself included), but the very gesture of the whole thing struck me.

Loving watches is a democratic thing. Anyone can love watches. Owning watches is inherently the opposite. Yes, there are plenty of affordable brands. But sometimes, the ones you want always seem to love the most tend to feel far out of reach. There are financial reasons, access issues, limited supplies, and so much more that can be a barrier to entry to making the love of watches a tangible thing. But what made the M.A.D1 special was Max Büsser acknowledging that fact. Imagine a $10,000 Greubel Forsey, $15,000 Philippe Dufour, or $5,000 Urwerk, all done in ways that don’t dilute the brand. That’s what Büsser did, bringing his creativity to a whole new price bracket of people who maybe felt equally enamored with his designs, story, or even personality but never could imagine owning a Legacy Machine or Horological Machine. It was a fun and exciting design for the masses.

Frankly, I feel like any other brand might have just left it at one design, done a handful of other colors, and been done with it. As a "thank you" to the community, you could be excused for only saying thanks once. This is sort of the route M.A.D.Editions took with the M.A.D.1 anyway. It won a GPHG Challenge Award and got a few color changes, and I just assumed they'd keep doing that until everyone who wanted one had a chance. 

In fact, that game plan would have been a lucrative one. Financial reports by the brand during Chanel's recent buy of a 25% stake in MB&F put the total income from 2023 at CHF 45,500,000. But even more surprising was that CHF 10,150,000 came from just iterating on the M.A.D.1 last year alone. But when they announced the new M.A.D.1S ("S" for slim) ahead of Geneva Watch Days, they showed they wouldn't rest on their laurels. They took something that no one expected and made it better.

For those not inducted into the world of the M.A.D.1, the watch is essentially a horological fidget spinner, where the three-armed blade rotor has been placed where the dial would normally sit. I don't say this with any malice. A friend pointed out to me that I tend to wind my watch absent-mindedly, but with the M.A.D.1S, this takes fidgeting to a whole new level. With the right touch, the rotor will spin and spin for quite a while, and you'll feel that slight rattle of the rotor's weights shifting around on your wrist. Sometimes that spin can be triggered intentionally, but often, my friend remarked they watched the rotor spin freely while I was just gesturing.

I posted a video of the watch, and more than a few of my non-watch friends said, "I like it, but how do you tell the time." I explained that this is close to what we'd call a "driver's watch," where the time is relayed on the side (band) of the case. For the M.A.D.1, an arrow points to the time as a barrel rotates around with the hours marked, plus marks at every quarter. Sure, it's not particularly accurate, but that's not really the point. The time-telling barrel is made of aluminum colored to match the movement surround. There are two colors of the new M.A.D.1S – purple, available only to members of the "Tribe," and ice blue, which was up for raffle entries to buy. 

There are some practical, functional improvements to the M.A.D.1S, but the key is in the name. The watch is now just over 20% thinner. That thinness would be noticeable on most watches, but starting with a watch that’s 18.8mm thick, with dimensions of 42mm wide and 50.5mm lug-to-lug – unwieldy bordering on unwearable for many people – is just a game-changer. The relatively flat caseback and lug placement already accentuated the height, so the M.A.D.1 was like a hockey puck on the wrist. At 42mm by 15mm, with 30m of water resistance, the M.A.D1S is infinitely more wearable.

To chop off those millimeters, M.A.D.Editions removed one whole time-telling barrel from the M.A.D.1. Unlike before, when you did have a more accurate display with hours and minutes, this watch is for telling time in a general sense. I wore this watch for nearly a week, so I'll get back to how that works in practice, but on paper, it was trade-off that made perfect sense.

From the top, you see the movement and blade rotors and the lugs, which sit out from the edge of the baseband. The lugs have been slimmed down quite a bit, which makes for a more balanced profile. The rotor itself is made in a combination of tungsten and titanium, which adds enough weight to get the whole thing spinning. Set into the rotor is a decent amount of lume. If you are the kind of watch guy to carry a UV torch, you can put on a show at night as well.

With the new release, M.A.D.Editions is offering a new movement powering the M.A.D1S, a modified La Joux-Perret G101 that didn't exist when the first M.A.D.1 came out. One of Büsser's friends recommended the movement as an upgrade to their previous Miyota. The La-Joux Perret movement is made in Switzerland (though several people coyly pointed out that La Joux-Perret is also under the Citizen Group and owned by a Japanese company, so it's still in the "family"). Yet, with the size adjustments and Swiss movement running at 4Hz, with 68 hours of power reserve, the brand still kept the price at CHF 2,900. 

Finding a rotor that rotates unidirectionally is important for the rotor to do the funny "spinny" thing. A clutch also allows the rotor to continue spinning even when the barrel is fully wound. The finishing also looks much nicer than on the Miyota. However, one downside is that the rotor doesn't spin as freely and stops more abruptly than in past releases. If you abruptly change the watch's rotating axis, it stops pretty quickly. If I had to guess, the La Joux-Perret movement likely has tighter tolerances. I know the feeling of an early M.A.D.1 or other Miyota movements on the wrist – often, you get a kind of jangly feeling from the rotor that doesn't feel like it's screwed on tight. If you liked the non-stop spinning, you could say that the upgrade also came with a downside.

Typically, you’d flip the watch to see the movement or a caseback engraving. On the M.A.D1 series, the caseback is actually the superstructure holding the watch down to the lugs. The lugs and stainless steel case are otherwise not connected. The key design concern here seems to be keeping the entire watch attached to the wrist – a wrist that will probably be doing a lot of moving around to get the rotor to do its party trick. You can also see that a lot of the watch's depth is taken up by space of the hollowed-out aluminum barrel that tells the time. It also keeps the watch light.

The crown sits at 12 o'clock (or where 12 o'clock would be on a standard watch). To use the crown to set the time, you'll probably have to take the watch off the wrist, as the strap gets in the way when you wear it. The crown is much bigger and more user-friendly than the original, with a turtle with a body shaped like the rotor blades rendered on the cap.

The watch comes with a comfortable leather strap with a textile pattern that's been thinned to make it more wearable than the past straps. The accent stitching on the strap matches the color of the specific model of M.A.D.1S. It also comes with a deployant clasp, a nice and almost necessary accessory because of how often you'll find yourself taking the watch on and off to show people. But the folks over at Delugs have several cut-to-size rubber straps that they've confirmed will work with the M.A.D.1S 24mm lug width (tapering to 20mm at the spring-loaded butterfly clasp), and while I think they seem a bit pricy, I'll probably pick one up.

I'm someone that's pretty strongly opposed to "double-wristing" – it's nothing against anyone who does, I just don't. But I broke my rule (albeit briefly) for this watch. Since Max Büsser and his team were kind enough to let me borrow this for all of Geneva Watch Days, I felt like I had to wear it around and share it with as many people as I could. It's fun and put smiles on faces, so why not? Well, there are two wrinkles to that plan.

First, if you're at something like a trade show keeping pretty tight back-to-back appointments, it's helpful to have a watch that shows you an exact time. I'm just too comfortable with the normal dial layout. I've never worn the original M.A.D.1 for any extended time, but even with the lack of minutes here, I can't imagine I'd trade the slimness here for more accuracy.

Most people reflexively glance at the space where the dial usually is, so adjusting to the "driver" design takes some time. But, feeling like I still needed to share the watch with folks, I put it on my right wrist. That's how I learned that the rotor "spins" more easily on the right hand. There is a technique to making the watch do the "fidget spin," but it's up to you to figure it out. When you do, it makes a lot of sense.

One impact of the shift from Miyota to the new La Joux-Perret movement is that the rotor now rotates counter-clockwise while the original spins clockwise. Consider the angular momentum that encourages the rotor to move. If you raise your left wrist, the motion (at the elbow) is more clockwise. The right wrist makes a counter-clockwise motion around the axis of your elbow. It makes sense that the rotor should spin if you raise your wrist quickly and stop abruptly. A "whip" of either hand from right to left (with a snap or abrupt stop at the end) will also get the watch spinning fast. Think of it like skipping a stone – just be careful not to hold on too loosely and turn the watch into the M.A.D.1S "Frisbee Edition."

This all sums up to a lot of digital "ink" spilled on technical details and business decisions, all of which are beside the point for me. During Geneva Watch Days, I carried the M.A.D.1S with me everywhere, taking it out to share with anyone who hadn’t had a chance to see the watch in an appointment. Folks at major brands (indies and otherwise) asked to see the watch and tried repeatedly to make it spin. I passed the watch around a table of Italian collectors and then showed it to a doorman at the hotel, who asked to see it. It’s a cliche, but the watch just seemed to bring a smile to people’s faces.

By the time this article is live, the raffle will be complete, and hopefully, people will find out soon if they're among the lucky 1,500 to get the new M.A.D.1S. If you're not, don't lose hope – the M.A.D.Editions line has become a staple of what Max Büsser does now, and I'd put money on more versions of the M.A.D.1S in the future. Even better? Next year, they've promised me we'll see the M.A.D.2, and all the madness will start again.

M.A.D.Editions M.A.D.1S; 42mm diameter by 15mm thick stainless steel case with a 24mm lug width and 30m water resistance. Purple or ice blue accented aluminum plate around a central movement, time-telling barrel rotating around the case edge. Modified La Joux-Perret G101 movement running at 4Hz with 68 hours of power reserve. Leather "racing" strap with color-matching contrast stitching. Price: CHF 2,900. Current run limited to 1,500 pieces.