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22 www.thejewelrybook.com MB&F's Maximilian Büsser has worked with everyone from writing instrument maker Caran d'Ache, to French luxury jew- ellery house Boucheron, which makes the "F" in the brand's name all the more appropriate (MB&F stands for Max Büsser & Friends in case you're wondering). But it was his 2016 col- laboration with artist and lume-master James Thompson that caught the attention of many collectors and showed the watch world just how interesting – and even fun – collaborations can be. The HMX Black Badger was introduced in three colors at the 2016 Baselworld Watch and Jewellery Show and it com- bined the precision timekeeping and extraordinary detail of the MB&F HMX (a model introduced in 2015 to celebrate the tenth anniversary of the brand) with brightly colored, high-effi ciency lume milled from solid blocks made up of Thompson's signature (and sometimes unexpected) materials. If an automatic men's watch that glows in the dark doesn't impress you, then maybe a collaboration between a well- respected watch brand and a popular shoe brand will. Last year, as part of the 85th-birthday celebration of Jaeger-LeCoultre's iconic Reverso, the brand joined forces with luxury footwear maison, Christian Louboutin. The designer himself – draw- ing inspiration from both his sought-after shoe collections, the galleries of Paris, and the carved wood lattice work of North Africa – worked with the watch brand to add color, vibrancy, and femininity to the art-deco feel of the women's Reverso. The results gave women watch-wearers of the world some- thing to cheer about and opened the door for other successful shoe/watch collaborations in the future. And fi nally, if you're an ancient history buff who's looking for a timepiece that's a little out of the ordinary but that won't break the bank, unconventional watch company Ernst Benz will be introducing their Sundial ChronoSport in early 2017. Their collaboration with Italian jewelry brand 1884 Collec- tion allows for both companies to showcase their brand's story while centrally focusing on the historical aspects of the Petochi family's jewelry business – now six generations old – which opened in Rome in the year 1884. Every watch in this collection will contain a "fl oating" 2000-year-old Roman coin suspended between two synthetic sapphire crystals, as to pre- vent oxidation of the watch parts. The limited edition watches will be released in only twenty-fi ve pieces per emperor and will house the ETA 2836-2 movement. With some in the watch industry panicking due to a downturn in worldwide sales, expect to see more collaborations like the ones above in the near future. It is times like these when the luxury industry is forced to put on its thinking cap, and as we've seen many times throughout history, creativity can often be planted and grown out of a soil made up of hardships and failures. The HMX Black Badger. Ernst Benz Sundial ChronoSport. T H R E E W A T C H B R A N D S C O L L A B O R A T I O N WAT C H R E P O R T

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