As a child, Max Büsser dreamt of creating the next great supercar.
He almost made that dream a reality when a satellite of the world-renowned ArtCenter College of Design from Pasadena, arguably the world’s best institution for automotive design, opened in La Tour-de-Peilz, just down the road from his family home.
But, with fees back in 1985 of CHF 50,000 for the course, he realised it was beyond reach, so the sketches he constantly scribbled of cars in his youth remained his private archive, never to be tested in the academic, let alone the commercial world.
The combination of creativity, engineering and mathematics might have been lost to the world forever, but Mr Büsser pivoted to a broader design course at the Swiss Federal Institute of Technology Lausanne (EPFL) where he discovered that his range of skills could be employed by Switzerland’s pre-eminent manufacturing industry: watchmaking.
Later in life, he discovered an equally valuable skill: building relationships that allowed him to source precision parts from a spectrum of component makers who allowed him to bring his ideas to life.
And thus Max Büsser & Friends (MB&F) was born and a chain of events was set in motion that led to the creation of the super car-inspired Horological Machine 5 (HM5) in 2012, HMX in 2015 and HM8 in 2016.
“I lost my way, I lost my marbles, and ended up in the watchmaking industry,” Mr Büsser jokes. “So, when I decided to tackle car design in a timepiece, this was humungous for me. It was everything I had ever dreamed of.”
All HM timepieces have a similar architecture and functionality. They have the profile of a race car with the time displayed like old-style speedometers on the front of the case.
The angle of the face means it can be checked easily when the person wearing the watch has their left hand on a steering wheel.
In the HMX and all subsequent motoring-inspired horological machines, the rotor of the automatic wristwatch’s movement was exposed under sapphire crystal, just like the engine of a supercar.
As these timepieces evolved over time, they continued to adopt the language of automotive design: chassis, cam shafts and roll bars all found a role in the watches.
The latest, and perhaps final chapter of the HM automotive story, is written today with the unveiling of the HM8 Mark 2, which arrives in titanium and super-strong CarbonMacrolon body panels of British Racing Green or white with a matt finish on the top and high polish on the sides.
Both use a three-dimensional horological movement driving a jumping hour and trailing minutes module developed in-house by MB&F and powered by a Girard-Perregaux base calibre.
CarbonMacrolon, developed by MB&F, is eight times lighter than steel, just as strong, but incredibly hard to mill.
The crystal sapphire exhibition bonnet exposing the movement is just as complex to make with its double-domed shape increasing the risk of each one cracking in the workshop.
However, once fitted, the crystal is as damage-resistant as a Submariner’s glass.
Enquiries are being accepted now (priority going to longstanding friends of the brand) for the watch priced at CHF 73,000.
Now complete, and made in limited quantities of 33 pieces per colour, the HM8 Mark 2 takes everything that MB&F fans have loved in this automotive series over the last decade and made it more technical, more legible, sexier and easier to wear, the company says.
“But more than that, it is a reminder that, wherever you are in life, it is never too late to follow your dreams,” the team adds.
