MB&F has unveiled the third model in their popular M.A.D Editions range – a series of watches designed to bring MB&F’s level of creativity to a more affordable price bracket. With the launch of the M.A.D.2 by Eric Giroud in 2025 they introduced the notion of watch being dedicated to an iconic watchmaker and friend of the brand, a concept they are building on with the M.A.D.3 Vincent Calabrese. The watchmaker at the heart of this release is the 82-year-old watchmaking legend Vincent Calabrese – one of the founders of the AHCI, designer of 40 patented mechanisms as well as iconic designs like the Corum Golden Bridge.
MB&F has been looking for an opportunity to collaborate with Calabrese for years as they share an experimental approach to watch design. However, the stars never quite aligned to bring a project to fruition until now. M.A.D Editions represented the perfect opportunity to work together because it fundamentally lines up with Calabrese’s own beliefs that watchmaking should be accessible to all and therefore affordable. Despite his resume Calabrese has intentionally kept his work accessible, which is why you can find lots of his watches pre-owned for around £2,000 – £6,000. That price range matches the M.A.D.3’s price tag of CHF 2,900 (approx. £2,650) + VAT.
The watch is based on a previous creation by Calabrese called the Baladin, a wandering jump hours watch – combining both a wandering hours and jump hours display. What that means is there is an aperture that displays the current hour of the day while also rotating around the display at a rate of once per 60-minutes. Essentially, the jump hour display is also the minute hand. The additional hand seen on the dial is the seconds.
Calabrese first developed this design in response to static jump hour watches, which he believed were too cold and mechanically uncaring in their immobility. Making the hours move reintroduces movement and emotion to the display, relating more strongly to how humans experience the passage of time as a continuous flow rather than abrupt change.
An important distinction to make is that the M.A.D.3 is a modern reinterpretation of the Baladin rather than a faithful recreation. They had to find a way to produce the wandering jump hours using modern production methods and with the higher specifications that modern collectors now take for granted. The solution came in creating a wandering jump hours module that could be applied to the La Joux-Perret G111 automatic movement.
Even then, MB&F had to customise and adjust the G111 with tighter tolerances and improved stability. That stability is important for both the 55-hour power reserve and the longevity of the jump hour function. That’s because the immense strain and expulsion of energy of each jump means that jump hour modules are prone to being short lived if they’re low quality. Something MB&F were keen to avoid.
Aesthetically, MB&F have opted for a choice of two colours: raspberry and blue. As with the inaugural release of each M.A.D Editions watch, one of the colours is restricted for MB&F’s ‘Tribe and Friends’ (meaning you have to be invited personally to buy one) with the other being allocated via raffle. For the M.A.D.3, the pink one is the invite only and the blue is the raffle. Both dials are intense in colour with sunray brushed finish.
The case measures 40mm x 12.7mm in steel with 30m water resistance. It is designed by Eric Giroud to maintain a sense of visual unity with the previous M.A.D watches which he also designed. It has sapphire crystals on both the front and back of the watch. Through the back you can see a 360° rotor with cut-outs that reveal an inscription underneath. It reads “Il est assez aisé de plaire aux autres, bien plus ardu d’être fier de soi”, in English: “It is fairly easy to please others, far more difficult to be proud of oneself”. An affirmation regarding MB&F and Calabrese’s choices to pursue experimental, non-traditional design.
If you want to enter the raffle for a chance to buy the M.A.D.3 Vincent Calabrese, registration is open for just one week, 1st September – 7th September. If you miss out, take heart in the fact that MB&F have shown compassion to fans who repeatedly miss out on raffles by producing the M.A.D.2 REDemption, a watch specifically for repeatedly unlucky fans. There’s no guarantee they’ll do something like this again and it may be several years from now even if they do, but it’s reassuring to know that MB&F see you and they haven’t forgotten you. May the odds be in your favour.
Price and Specs:
More details at M.A.D.Editions.
