MB&F said Thursday that luxury fashion brand, Chanel, has taken a 25% stake in the independent Swiss watchmaking brand. Under the agreement, founder Maximilian Büsser, retains the majority of MB&F shares with 60%, while his partner in the company, Serge Kriknoff, head of R&D & Production, owns 15%. The two said they will continue to lead MB&F together with Charris Yadigaroglou, head of Marketing Communications, and Thibault Verdonckt, head of Sales.
The MB&F LM Sequential Flyback Platinum, one of the its most recent watch releases
©Laurent Xavier Moulin / www.laurentxaviermoulin.ch
MB&F in its statement said that Chanel’s minority stake “ensures stability and resilience” with a strong strategic shareholder that shares “the same values and guaranteeing that MB&F’s long-term strategy will be maintained.”
“It was our responsibility, in today’s very favourable context and with our management team in its prime, to take this major step to ensure our long-term future – a natural evolution for a company celebrating its 20th anniversary next year,” Büsser said in a statement. “In addition to allowing us to pursue our independent path, free of any pressure on growth, the investment by Chanel will strengthen our operations by providing access when needed to their wider ecosystem and network of specialized suppliers.”
MB&F, an independent Swiss watchmaker, reported revenues of CHF 45.4 million ($53.2 million) in 2023. The company says it produced 419 MB&F wristwatches in 2023. In 2021 it created a parallel more accessible brand, M.A.D.Editions, which currently manufactures approximately 3,500 pieces per year.
Chanel, in the same statement, said the strategic investment demonstrates its “desire to continue to evolve and invest in the future of high-end watchmaking expertise, creation and design.” The French company said the investment “follows a long-term strategy to partner with luxury specialists to preserve and develop expert savoir-faire.”
Chanel launched its own watchmaking venture in 1987, setting up a watch design studio on Place Vendôme in Paris and acquiring G&F Châtelain Manufacture in La Chaux-de-Fonds, Switzerland, in 1993. Chanel said the investment in MB&F follows similar investments in high-end watchmakers Romain Gauthier (2011) and F.P. Journe (2018), which have remained independently run.
“We are delighted to sign a strategic partnership with MB&F who share the same values of independence, creativity and excellence,” Frédéric Grangié, president of Chanel Watches & Fine Jewellery, said in the statement. “The announcement is part of our long-term strategy to continue to preserve, develop and invest in specialist know-how and expertise, reaffirming our position in high-end watchmaking.”
Büsser, a watch industry veteran who was previously CEO of Harry Winston Rare Timepieces and who worked for Jaeger-LeCoultre, founded MB&F in 2005 with a focus on creating three-dimensional kinetic art that he calls “Horological Machines.” The name of the firm stands for Maximilian Büsser & Friends. His friends consist of horological professionals, designers, artists and those in other fields of expertise who partner with the Swiss watch brand to produce these conceptual timepieces.
Büsser says MB&F is the world’s first “horological concept laboratory,” specializing in artistic and micro-engineering creative watchmaking. The company designs and crafts a small series of radical concept watches.
From the very beginning MB&F was a commercial and critical success. It has received nine awards from the Grand Prix d’Horlogerie de Genève (considered the Oscars of the watch industry), including the ultimate prize: the “Aiguille d’Or,” which rewards the best watch of the year.
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