The name of independent watch brand MB&F stands for Maximilian Busser (its founder) & Friends. While the “friends” bit of the name refers to members of Busser’s team as well as leading independent names in watch design and engineering, it might well also apply to the retailers who stock the brand’s avant-garde timepieces.
A year after it first launched its e-shop of the MB&F M.A.D. Gallery in Geneva — which sold its table clocks co-created with L’Epee 1839 as well as a range of kinetic sculptures — the brand is now also selling its watches online. However, what makes MB&F’s e-commerce platform unique is that it will be showcasing pieces sold by its retail partners as well. This is a significant move at a time when a growing number of watch brands are looking to strike a fine balance between supporting their network of retailers and selling directly to their customers.
The first such timepiece is an HM3 Frog Titanium, the last of this model to be available on the market. It is sold by US retailer Westime. MB&F’s head of communication Charris Yadigaroglou elaborates, “Our approach is not to offer the entire inventory of our partners, but carefully selected pieces — typically, the last remaining piece of a specific reference. Those pieces, although promoted on our e-shop, are sold in full transparency directly by our retail partners to the final customer. Our e-shop acts as an additional sales channel for our partners, and we take no extra commissions or fees on those sales.”
This modus operandi also applies to MB&F’s own inventory. Rather than its entire collection, selected pieces will be available online for limited periods of time, on a rotational basis. So far, the e-store has stocked the new HM10 Bulldog, the LM101 MB&F X H. Moser (now sold out) and the LM2 White Gold Purple. For fans of the brand here in Singapore, the last-of-its-kind pieces that are long sold out everywhere else would be of interest. For everything else MB&F, there is, of course, the brand’s long-time local exclusive retailer The Hour Glass.
