Precious Stones On Disruptive Watches

For more than 10 years now, MB&F and Urwerk have been famous for having broken the codes of high-end watchmaking. Their focus has chiefly been on developing new displays and introducing disruptive designs. But both have also worked on creating gem-set watches, a very special kind of luxury timepiece. Their approaches differ as for MB&F the JWLRYMACHINE is the result of a chance encounter between Max Büsser, its founder, and Jean-Christophe Bedos, former CEO of French jeweler Boucheron. They decided to join forces in order to create a piece reflecting both identities. This had never been done before, and the result is an owl based on the HM3 Starcruiser model by MB&F made out of precious and semi-precious gems such as diamonds, sapphires and amethysts. Actually, the JWLRYMACHINE remains a masterpiece of contemporary watchmaking because of its very strong identity and the quality of the execution. Urwerk, too, uses gemstones to adorn and embellish the designs of their watches, which serve to create “tailored” coats made of “stars”, as Martin Frei, co-founder and artistic director, describes. For him, precious stones are natural materials created by the earth to be admired by us. Frei and Felix Baumgartner, co-founder and master watchmaker of Urwerk, regularly find new ways to use gemstones on their models. And new ones are also on the way.