MB&F owner and chief creative officer Max Büsser has said that British jewellery designer Shaun Leane inspired him to work on the bejewelled JwlryMachine timepiece that the watchmaker created in collaboration with Boucheron.

Büsser told Professional Jeweller that he was inspired by Leane’s Queen the Night necklace that the jewellery designer created in partnership with Boucheron to mark the French house’s 150th anniversary. Büsser said that he had been impressed by the bejewelled flowers on the piece that can be made to open and close with secret mechanisms.
After seeing the piece Büsser approached Boucheron president Jean-Christophe Bédos about collaborating together on a watch. Büsser said: “I went to him and I said ‘You do 3D jewellery, I do 3D watches, let’s work together’.”
The resulting collaboration was the The JwlryMachine, a colourful owl-like timekeeping creature that tells the time through two watch dials made from glowing cabochons surrounded by diamonds in place of its eyes.The watch is decorated with amethysts, diamonds, sapphires, pink tourmaline and rose quartz, with colourways in pink or purple.
MB&F is currently exhibiting at BaselWorld as part of The Dream Factory section of the show that is dedicated to inspirational, avant-garde timepieces. The watch house is using the show to unveil its ReBel timepiece, a variation on its HM3 timepiece and has a black PVD-treated white gold case that conceals charcoal-coloured movement plates and bridges with a 22ct gold rotor. There have been 18 of the watches made.
MB&F will unveil a completely new timepiece in September, which it is keeping under wraps until then.
The watch house is soon to embark on a retail venture, opening its own stores in Beijing and Geneva. Busser said that he has signed a lease for the shop in Beijing, which is due to open by September, and said that he is hoping to sign the lease on the Geneva shop this week.