Maximilian Büsser and the Corvo Family, 30 years of friendship

The relationship with Maximilian Büsser began during the growth years of Jaeger-LeCoultre during which Max, product manager in the early 1990s, planned the future developments of the Manufacture with Giorgio and Michele Corvo, distributors for the Italian market. These were the years of the Reverso and the return of diamond watches.

Having taken over the watchmaking division of the famous jeweller Harry Winston in 1998, Maximilian Büsser remains in touch with Corvo and, as soon as the relationship with Jaeger-LeCoultre ends (2003), he enthusiastically asks Michele Corvo to distribute Harry Winston watches on the Italian market. It won’t be easy: the challenge is considerable.

Maximilian Büsser’s idea to transform a purely feminine brand through the “complicated” Opus collection – developed with the help of talented masters of the time (F.P. Journe, A. Preziuso, C. Claret, V. Halter, F. Baumgartner of Urwerk) – is a total win and allows the success of the American brand in Europe.

The time has come for the engineer to start his own business, building on the great knowledge and experience he has gained, using it to pursue a personal dream. Maximilian Büsser founded MB&F in 2005, with the idea of developing a collection of complicated watches together with new “Friends” and, once again, he relied on Corvo to represent him in Italy.

At the same time, Corvo sensed that it was time to open a boutique to promote independent Haute Horlogerie: thus GMT – Great Masters of Time – was born.

The rest is history. Maximilian Büsser’s creations are projected into the future. As a pure visionary, he has imagined a new and courageous approach to watchmaking. It took a few years for his Horological Machines and Legacy Machines to be understood and appreciated, but the challenge was met, and success arrived. HM and LM are now represented in a few select stores around the world, such as the new GMT boutique on Via della Spiga 25 in Milan in which, a part, is entirely dedicated to MB&F.

To celebrate these thirty years of collaboration and friendship between Maximilian Büsser and the Corvo family, a commemorative edition of a brilliant watch, recently awarded at the GPHG, will be produced: the M.A.D.1 GMT Milano Edition which the boutique, inspired by the initiative behind the M.A.D.1 project, will be dedicating to its client friends who have supported it over the years.

The M.A.D.1 GMT Milano Edition is a watch with an automatic movement and a tungsten and titanium rotating mass visible on the dial side. The rotor is made of a triple blade, similar to those found in some of Maximilian Büsser’s MB&F watches. The time is indicated on two cylindrical aluminium discs on the side of the 42mm diameter case. The gold-plated 4N finishes recall the first special series produced by other manufacturers for the Corvo family, and the strap is in classic Milano green. 30 pieces have been produced, like the number of years of this long union.

1992 Maximilian Büsser, product manager at Jaeger-LeCoultre, starts working with Giorgio and Michele Corvo.

1998 Maximilian Büsser joins Harry Winston as Director of Fine Watchmaking.

2004 Corvo resumes working with Maximilian Büsser as distributor of Harry Winston products for Italy.

2005 Maximilian Büsser founds MB&F, a creative laboratory involving a collective of independent professionals, his friends, in the development of Haute Horlogerie.

2007 Corvo opens the first GMT Great Masters of Time boutique in Porto Cervo where they receive the first HM1 Tourbillon. The collaboration with MB&F begins.

2009 Corvo opens a second GMT boutique in Milan, in Corso Magenta.

2011 Maximilian Büsser opens the first M.A.D. Gallery in Geneva and presents the first watch of the Legacy Machine collection, the LM1 – an international success awarded twice at the GPHG.

2012 GMT organizes an exhibition in Corso Magenta in Milan with the MB&F collection and some pieces from the M.A.D. Gallery.

2015 After the Gallery in Geneva, Maximilian Büsser opens the M.A.D. Gallery in Dubai. For this one he collaborates with Jacopo Corvo, Michele’s son.

2021 Corvo opens GMT in via della Spiga in Milan, boutique managed by Mattia Corvo, Michele’s second son.

2022 Maximilian Büsser wins the “Aiguille d’Or” with the LM Sequential EVO and the “Challenge Watch Prize” with the M.A.D.1 Red at the GPHG while the Corvo Family presents the commemorative M.A.D.1 GMT Milano Edition.