MB&F has always championed the spirit of partnership and collaboration. It is, after all, where it finds inspiration for its name: Maximilian Büsser & Friends. Working with jewellers, however, is a totally different ball game. There was perhaps the 2010 JwlryMachine created in partnership with Boucheron, which seemed like a one-off project. It would be another nine years before precious stones were set onto another MB&F creation.
In 2019, MB&F launched the Legacy Machine FlyingT. Founder and creative director of MB&F, Maximilian Büsser, shared that he conceived the timepiece in honour of some of the most important women in his life, particularly his wife, Tiffany, who lent her first initial to the name of the timepiece. The Legacy Machine FlyingT was initially announced in three versions set with varying amounts of diamonds.
When asked why it wasn’t until the Legacy Machine FlyingT that Büsser had thought to put precious stones on an MB&F watch, he shares, “I am no jeweller… If I wanted to work with other jewellers, I knew I needed to create a canvas for them to work on. Once the Legacy Machine FlyingT was created, I knew I finally had that canvas because of its incredible three dimensional space. Ladies’ watches tend to be diminutive. [On the contrary] now I’ve got this incredible dome with a canvas underneath that is protected.”
On this philosophy, Büsser worked with Bvlgari to produce the Legacy Machine FlyingT Allegra (2021). Recounting how the watch came to be, Büsser shares, “Bulgari is incredibly innovative and inventive. But I don’t work with brands, I work with people.” Büsser goes on further to share that it was only after hitting it off with Bvlgari’s Product Creation Executive Director, Fabrizio Buonamassa Stigliani, during a casual conversation in 2017, that things began to come together. He recounts that the conversation went so well that Buonamassa was sketching out ideas in between sips of coffee. After the launch of the Legacy Machine FlyingT in 2019, Buonamassa introduced Büsser to Antoine Pin, Managing Director of Bvlgari’s Watch Division — the rest, shall we say is history.
The twist in the story, however, is that earlier in 2019, Büsser had also met with a very different artist to collaborate on another gem set Legacy Machine FlyingT.
Independent French contemporary jewellery designer, Emmanuel Tarpin, was just 27 in 2019. Tarpin grew up hiking through the mountains near his home in southeastern France and developed a deep appreciation for nature. The beauty that he encountered continues to inform his approach to design and aesthetics today. Tarpin’s parents also noticed that as a child he had a knack for sculpting and were quick to nurture this talent by having him enrolled in sculpture classes. His interest, of course, soon turned into his life’s pursuit.
Tarpin later graduated from the prestigious Geneva University of Art and Design (HEAD), and took up an internship with Van Cleef & Arpels’ high jewellery workshop. His talent was quickly recognised there and he was soon offered a full-time role.
By 25, Tarpin’s vision and sense of design had developed such a unique identity that he courageously struck out on his own to establish his eponymous brand in 2017, in Paris. At his atelier, he began to produce pieces that looked less like jewellery and more like ornate objects found in nature. The sheer organic fluidity of Tarpin’s work soon caught the eyes of industry veterans and discerning collectors. In December 2017, Christie’s offered a pair of his earrings for sale. They sold for US$25,000 — an impressive feat for the relative newcomer.
Since Büsser knew that the Legacy Machine FlyingT would make a great canvas to collaborate with talented jewellers on, he began enquiring about potential partners and encountered the name Emmanuel Tarpin. Büsser noticed that they were already connected on LinkedIn and later learnt that he had made a presentation at the HEAD when Tarpin was a student. “The serendipity of it all was incredible. The conversation progressed as he shared more about how he sees the world and his creative approach. His ethos spoke to me because they are perfectly in line with my own. I asked him there and then if he would like to collaborate with MB&F,” he shares.
Fast forward to November of 2022, MB&F unveils the Legacy Machine FlyingT ‘Ice’ and ‘Blizzard’ timepieces. “In line with how important nature and mountains are to Emmanuel, he envisioned a mountain scene with icy stalagmites contained within the dome of the Ice variant. Blizzard, on the other hand, reminds me of a snow globe with ‘snow’ seemingly afloat across the glass dome,” explains Büsser.
MB&F will produce only eight pieces of each design. Both feature diamond-set white gold cases with matte lapis lazuli dials. Built upon MB&F’s Legacy Machine FlyingT, the watches boast an elevated 60-second tourbillon in the center while time is displayed on a 50° vertically tilted dial.
Tarpin adds that for the Ice version, he sought inspiration from a trip to Lake Baïkal in Southern Siberia during winter, where the lake freezes from its bank towards its center. Mimicking the randomness of nature, each diamond-set stalagmite is different and asymmetric. For Blizzard, Tarpin recreated memories of skiing and being caught in snowfalls on the Alps. To fully realise the scenes he had imagined for the watches, Tarpin requested to change the watch’s gold-coloured components to fit the theme. MB&F took on what was seemingly a simple request but encountered several challenges, including needing to swap out most of the yellow-hued components and bluing the balance wheel.
When asked how Büsser had briefed Tarpin to arrive at the final creations, he explains, “Never approach somebody who’s incredibly creative, ask them to work on your piece, and at the same time, give them guidelines. Fabrizio, for instance, basically drew the Allegra during a Zoom conversation…The same applies to Emmanuel. He sent two initial rough sketches, which weren’t far from what we’ve created.”
Tarpin, in turn, shares, “I do very few collaborations; I much prefer to focus on my own creations. But we had a chat and then met in person and we got on really well. I found the project to be extremely interesting and working with Max was just spontaneous and easy, even if this was my first time working on a watch!”
