Part Watch, Part Toy. Entirely M.A.D.
A little color usually goes a long way in the watch world, a detail to brighten up what can feel like static design. But this ain’t that.
MB&F, the experimental watchmaking company that describes itself as the world's first-ever horological concept laboratory, has tapped into the color-obsessed world of designer Yinka Ilori with its latest watch drop.
The MB&F M.A.D.1S Grow Your Dreams is the result of that partnership, an art watch executed to a tee.
This color-blocked wrist real estate doesn’t have a face that’s easily recognizable as a watch. Instead of a flat dial, a rotor spins right on top, visible and oversized, like spree wheels in a hip-hop video. Each blade is cut with Ilori’s tree motif, anodized in yellows, greens, or blues.
The bezel isn’t brushed metal but glazed in liquid ceramic, polished until it looks like a candy shell.
But that’s the thing about MB&F: It doesn’t make “watches,” it makes “horological machines,” timepieces that hold time in the most imaginative ways while deconstructing the whole idea of what a watch should be.
Standing for “Mechanical Art Devices,” MB&F's M.A.D. Editions line is where it experiments with the kind of conceptual play rarely found in mainstream watchmaking, but at a more affordable price point.
This collab comes in three versions — Sun, Nature, and Water — each capped at 400 pieces and blessed with Ilori’s technicolor optimism. The British-Nigerian designer has previously brought his palette to adidas sneakers, LEGO builds, and The North Face jackets, but here he turns indie watchmaking into a kaleidoscope you can strap to your wrist.
Art watches are quickly becoming a pillar of the hype-watch cycle, not unlike streetwear brands tapping artists to remix their staples.
We’ve seen this happen with brands like Hublot run with Takashi Murakami, Zenith’s colorful dips with Felipe Pantone, and Swatch Tate Gallery runs.
If KAWS x Audemars Piguet set the tone last year, MB&F and Ilori just turned pop-art watchmaking into a headline act.
Independents are already where watchmaking has the most fun, but the “Grow Your Dreams,” trilogy pushes it to the loudest, brightest conclusion yet. It spins, it shouts in color, it blurs the line between machine and toy.
Call it the happiest watch drop of the year, call it MB&F by way of Lego, either way, it moves.
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