Horological Meandering

It was definitely not easy.  The brand was founded in 2005 in the summer.  There was no product for two years.  Almost everything was running off of Busser's savings.  The first product came out in 2007.  Fortunately, the retailers had given Busser some deposits, funds he was able to use for company operations.  Then disaster struck, one of the suppliers was no longer able to work with him.  Busser, whom was low on money and on time, had to call a few friends, including his friend/competitors at Urwerk, to get extra help.  In the end, Peter Speake-Marin, Felix Baumgartner, and a few other people helped MB&F get the first batch of watches made.  The watch deliveries were late, but fortunately the retailers and consumers didn't complain too much.  

Busser is forever thankful to the watchmakers and friends who came to his rescue.  And Busser is forever thankful to the retailers who didn't cancel their orders and retract their deposits and who put their money on the line at great risk.  Retailers knew it was a possibility that Busser's company may go belly up, and take their deposits with him, but they trusted him.  

Busser is also a true artist, one who has fiercely stuck to his own style, even at the risk of commercial failure.  Many of his creations are also extremely unusual and they are all very expensive.  HM1, 2, and 3 are all very strange watches that appeal to super-niche audiences.  They're even more niche to wear than a Panerai.  And they were fabulously expensive, so they could only appeal to a tiny eccentric niche.  I really liked HM4, but it's not easy to wear on the wrist.  Thus, business was difficult.  The debut of Legacy Machines did turn things around, this was a great modernization of Breguet's La Tradition, and was easier to sell and still very true to Busser's own artistic identity.  

The business was difficult and tough for the first 10+ years or so as it was a constant juggle to keep costs under control.  Without consistent profit and growth, no investors are interested - and the ones who are interested want terms favorable terms as they're taking on big risk - they also want to see product lines that are more "conventional" and this doesn't agree with Busser's artist-first philosophy.  Notice, Busser's title is not President, it's "Creative Director."  The Creative Director also had his own extremely aggressive milestones and his consistent expansion and growth like opening the M.A.D. Gallery, an unproven concept, was an incredibly risky move at the time.  Retail is incredibly expensive and an entirely different set of expertise.  In the first ten years, Busser came out with several different calibers, a new retail concept, non-watch consumer products such as music boxes and clocks, and a new line of Legacy Machine watches.  

And has only gotten easier for him probably just before the pandemic, the pandemic made things super stressful, and around 2021 more production challenges and high demand challenges came.