No products in the cart.
I had the good fortune to meet him in the inner sanctum of the M.A.D. Gallery in Geneva during the week of Watches & Wonders. Waiting for me there with Charris Yadigaroglou, Head of Marketing Communications at MB&F and a long-time friend of MB&F founder Maximilian Büsser. Eric Giroud belongs to the brand’s close inner circle, to the famous “F” — Max’s Friends. He is the kind of designer who does not impose a signature style, but instead adapts to the DNA of each project. And that, as they explained to me, may well be his greatest talent. Most people do not realize it, but Giroud has had a hand in almost every MB&F creation of the past 20 years. Not as a “star designer,” but as the person who takes Max’s ideas and turns them into objects. “Max has the incredible ideas, but he cannot draw them. That’s where I come in,” he tells me, almost apologetically. “I’m not the brain. I’m the one who experiments.”
Naturally, our conversation begins with the M.A.D.2. Not with the watch itself, however, but with the philosophy behind it. “Most people cannot afford an MB&F. Neither can we,” he says with a laugh. And that is precisely where the idea for M.A.D.Editions was born: a more accessible, yet equally creative, expression of the brand. This idea is not new. It had already existed in the early years of MB&F, in the form of a project called “Green Dog” — a transparent plastic watch that never quite found its audience. “It wasn’t the right moment,” he recalls. In the end, it took almost a decade for that thought to mature and eventually lead to the MAD1. The MAD2 was the natural next step.
If the MAD1 was explosive and unpredictable, the MAD2 is something else entirely. “It has the same ingredients,” he explains. “But cooked differently.” The central idea of the rotating rotor remains, but here the reading of time shifts. First you see the mechanical spectacle, and only then do you understand the time. “It is a watch first, and a tool second,” he says. “Whereas usually the opposite is true.” The choice of a jumping hour display, combined with the “peripheral” rotor, creates an experience that demands attention. It is not immediate. It is not easy. And that is exactly why it is so interesting.
Unlike the more “architectural” approaches that were explored at the beginning and eventually abandoned, the MAD2 found its form through music. “Max loves music. So do I. That’s where we found common ground.” The result is a watch that evokes vinyl records, turntables, and the club culture of the 1990s. Not as a literal reference, but as a feeling. During our conversation, records by Nina Simone, Queen, and Marvin Gaye are passed around. The connection is not superficial. It is lived, personal, instinctive.
Perhaps the most valuable part of the conversation is hearing how Giroud actually works. There is no linear process. There is experimentation. “We do ten projects, and in the end two or three come out of it,” he says without hesitation. Everything begins with proportions. Diameter, thickness, structure. “Like a sandwich,” as he describes it. Then come the sketches. And then… the doubts. One of the first concepts for the MAD2 was abandoned after 18 months of work. “We just weren’t feeling it,” he says simply. But that, too, is part of the process.
Unlike other brands, where the designer often works in isolation, at MB&F everything passes through the team. “Everyone can speak. Suggest. Disagree.” Even details such as whether the hour discs should be “floating” or not emerged through collective discussion. The same goes for the colours. Giroud himself admits that his initial proposals were… “boring.” “Blue and beige. Very safe.” Until the younger team at MB&F came forward with bolder ideas. And in the end, those were the ones that prevailed.
From the outside, it looks simple. From the inside, it is anything but. Matching the same colour across different materials is, as he says, “a nightmare.” Dial, discs, case, strap — they all react differently to light. Orange, for instance, created an unexpected problem: associations with Hermès. “If you put an orange strap on a watch, the mind goes straight there,” he says. That is why they chose a more metallic, more nuanced shade instead.
Despite its unusual aesthetic, the MAD2 is perhaps the easiest-to-wear M.A.D. to date. And that is no coincidence. “I’m not an eccentric person,” he tells me. “I don’t wear eccentric watches, just as I don’t wear eccentric clothes.” Perhaps that is why the MAD2 finds such a fine balance between the experimental and the everyday. It is a watch you can understand, but not at first glance.
As I leave the M.A.D. Gallery, what stays with me is not only the watch itself. It is the process behind it. The discussions, the disagreements, the trials, the failures. And, ultimately, an idea taking shape. “If you stay open, the project stays alive,” Giroud says. And perhaps that is what the M.A.D.2 really is in the end. Not just another good-looking watch, but proof that when creation is shared, it becomes far more compelling.
Watch the new M.A.D.2 come to life in the video below…
