In any credible account of the most exciting places in the world to live or visit, Geneva would probably not feature amongst the top 10, or even the top 20. There’s a chance it might scrape the top 50 (a very small chance). But the City of Calvin possesses one thing that elevates it beyond all others in the eyes of the international community of watch lovers. Geneva was the first city to have a M.A.D. Gallery.
To the uninitiated, the M.A.D. of M.A.D. Gallery is an initialism for “Mechanical Art Devices” — a self-explanatory name for the cabinet of wonders located near the heart of Geneva’s Old Town. MB&F founder Maximilian Büsser conceived of a space that would not only offer the timepieces of his brand for sale, but also surround them with objects that live in a parallel world of wonder and whimsy.
Kinetic wall art by American sculptor Ryan Kvande spins hypnotically next to science-fiction-inflected, Nixie-tube-studded creations by German designer Frank Buchwald. A beautifully articulated set of fingers tap out a rhythm on spot-lit plinth, driven by cams and wheels. Even the photography, a frozen, two-dimensional medium, speaks of motion and spatial expanse — like Fabian Oefner’s prints of disintegrating cars.
Here and there among the other installations are the MB&F objects, the various Horological Machines, Legacy Machines and Co-Creations that sprang from Max Büsser’s imagination. Occasionally, other watch brands will make an appearance, from the exuberantly designed SevenFriday timepieces that caused a sensation a few years ago by introducing mechanical watchmaking to a young, trendy and active audience, to the quirky and subversive Seconde-Seconde, a project by the young creative Romaric André that disguises cultural commentary as vintage watches.
The M.A.D. Gallery came from Max Büsser’s desire to create a native home for his creations, but it didn’t stop there. In MB&F’s Book of Genesis, Geneva is Eden, and the story that began in 2011 continued to grow beyond that first garden of delights.
Today, the M.A.D. Gallery concept is present in markets with a fast-growing interest in modern independent watchmaking — Dubai, Taiwan and Hong Kong. These apostolic offshoots of the MB&F creed of mechanical art have found a home in cities renowned for their dynamic, melting-pot culture. In these cities, traditional foundations underpin a 21st-century approach, a description that just happens to apply equally well to MB&F and the M.A.D. Gallery concept. Recently, the M.A.D. Gallery brought itself fully into the digital realm, launching its first e-shop based on the objects available for purchase in the original Geneva location, a timely development given the global shutdown of retail spaces in the past months.
This week, the M.A.D. Gallery reopens its doors in Geneva. WorldTempus wishes its new partner an exceptional reactivation as the most intriguing horological space in the city.
