BY HARLAN CHAPMAN-GREEN
M.A.D.Editions, even if you’re not sure you’ve heard of it, you’ve probably seen their first watch, the M.A.D.1, at some point in the last few years; it’s that watch with the rotor that kinda looks like an axe on the top and the time on the side of the case. It was inspired a lot by MB&F designs which, as it was envisaged by Maximilian Büsser (the MB in MB&F), makes sense.
Eric Giroud & Maximilian Büsser
Perhaps at the time, the best thing for it was to look like an affordable MB&F watch, as one of those doesn’t exist. The M.A.D.1 wasn’t an MB&F piece. In fact, it wasn’t meant to go any further than a few watches and yet the masses lapped it up.
So, here we are with the M.A.D.2 Jumping Hours watch. It was designed by Eric Giroud who’s been working with MB&F for ages at this point and is one of the main driving forces behind most of their watches. The design of the M.A.D.2 Jumping Hours is partially inspired by the Technics SL-1200 Mk2 turntables used in the clubs he frequented in the 1990s. For those who don’t know, the SL-1200 was probably the most important innovation for the club scene when it was released in the 1970s as it was specifically designed by Technics (then Matsushita, now Panasonic) for DJs to easily and accurately mix high-definition tunes. The jumping hours and minutes displays are sat atop a green plate with grooves cut into it to make it look like a vinyl record. There is an orange version, but this is only available to a select few in ‘The Tribe’, essentially people who already own an MB&F watch.
You’ll have noticed that while there are the jumping time displays there is no seconds indication. Judging by the comments on our recent coverage of the new Parmigiani Fluerier Tonda watch it seems you guys really love the animation the seconds hand brings. Well, there might not be any seconds hand here, but in keeping with the ideas from the M.A.D.1, the rotor for the self-winding movement is on display on the dial side. The black ring with white dots (which are luminescent) is the rotor and it’s allowed to spin freely below the time indication. It’s also been inspired by the SL-1200 turntable, specifically, the dots at the edge of the platter which you can use to influence the record’s play speed.
The movement inside this piece is based on the La Joux-Perret G101 which was used in some versions of the M.A.D.1 and has found its way into watches from the likes of Furlan Marri. The G101 calibre has a 4Hz beat rate and 68-hour power reserve, and it’s been modified here with that rotor and the jumping time display. I think it’s quite a quirky way of adapting an ebauche to suit your needs.
All of this is set inside a pebble-shaped polished stainless steel case that measures 42.0mm x 12.3mm. The water resistance is 30m, but you can clearly see it’s meant for daily wear as long as your daily life doesn’t take you underwater. With a green grained calfskin leather strap, this one should be very comfortable on the wrist; the orange watch available to those in ‘The Tribe’ has a black strap.
I like that it looks a lot more natural than the angular M.A.D.1. In fact, I just like the way the M.A.D.2 Jumping Hours looks; it’s got charm and is a great successor to the old watch, especially considering the folks behind it weren’t expecting M.A.D.Editions to become its own brand. As with the last watch, to get hold of a M.A.D.2 Jumping Hours for yourself, you need to enter a raffle to win a chance to buy one. The raffle opens at 14:00 CET on April 1st (yes we get the irony of that) and stays open for one week. The price of the watch will be CHF2,900.00 before tax.
