Independents

patrick_y
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So much courage!

So many trials and tribulations in the first 10 years could kill a man or at least make very good men give up. Max did so much in those ten years. And had so many incredible problems that were outside of his control. It was a good thing that he was a humble and emphatic man when he worked at Jaeger-LeCoultre and at Harry Winston before he started his business. When MB&F problems, friends and competitors like Felix Baumgartner, Peter Speake-Marin, and more would come over and help him out - something of a rarity in the polite but segregated watch industry.
Max also set out on a super aggressive schedule.
Within six years of launching his brand, he already debuted the Legacy Machine in 2011. Wow. Just wow. His Horological Machines were super crazy design and very expensive and they were incredibly difficult to sell as it needed to appeal to a very specific person - as I said, only one out of 100,000 people would buy it. I was worried his business would not be able to be sustainable. But with Legacy Machine, it was a beautiful watch, like a modernized Breguet La Tradition. And it was made with Kari Voutilainen and it sold very well.
It wasn't easy. But the man was a visionary. And he NEVER STOPPED pursuing other projects! Over a decade ago, when his brand was only about 5-7 years old, I said off-the-cuff, "Max, you are already a lifestyle brand in the watch industry, you have to start a lifestyle brand outside of watches." And he told me he already had something in the works - that later became the M.A.D. Gallery. He sent a car service to take me from Geneva Airport Convention Center to the M.A.D. Gallery to see his gallery concept, and I then met him at his office. All I could say was Bravo. Enormous Bravo. But I realized something, he was going into retail, something that is extremely cost intensive, capital intensive, and not his core competency. He was taking another huge risk and so shortly after the Legacy Machine. The man just never took a break! And the man took on so much financial risk that if I were his investor, my head would be spinning. But he succeeded, through passion, through intelligence, and through likability - everyone was always rooting for him.