LONDON — M.A.D. Editions, the more accessible offering from the Chanel-backed high-end Swiss timepiece maker MB&F, has partnered with British-Nigerian artist Yinka Ilori for its latest collaboration.

Initially envisioned as a friends and family project during the COVID-19 pandemic, M.A.D. Editions have been attracting collector attention for their unconventional designs and a price tag that’s significantly more affordable compared to an MB&F main line, which costs somewhere between $72,000 and half a million dollars.

M.A.D. Editions watches retail around 3,200 Swiss francs, or $3,988, plus value-added tax. Each new launch is available to the public via an online raffle system.

The Ilori-designed collaboration, titled “grow your dreams,” is based on the brand’s M.A.D.1S model, and comes in three colorways inspired by forces of nature.

The Sun model is fitted with a yellow rotor and a mismatched yellow and green rubber strap. The Nature style comes with a green rotor and purple and red strap, while the Water design has a blue rotor and a dark and light blue strap.

All the rubber straps are bespoke-made with stamped leaf patterns. A white strap with a stainless steel folding buckle will come with each model as well, for more understated occasions.

There will be a limited run of 400 pieces for each color. After meeting the demand for existing clients and suppliers of MB&F, the remaining lot will be available for purchase via a raffle running between Sept 2 and 8.

Ilori is the brand’s second artist collaborator. MB&F last year debuted a love-themed M.A.D. 1 style designed by Jean-Charles de Castelbajac, who brand founder Maximilian Büsser reached out to via Instagram DMs.

For Ilori, who Büsser stumbled upon during a summer holiday in 2023 while reading a copy of the Ideat magazine, the independent watch brand owner opted for a more proper request via LinkedIn.

Six days later, Ilori travelled to Geneva and started working on the project.

“There’s no watch that encapsulates his world. Ilori lives in a universe bursting with color. His work makes you feel alive, like a rush of adrenaline pushing you to go further. The watch world has never heard of him. After spending a day together in Geneva, it was like, let’s do this. You bring your world into our world,” recalled Büsser, who was particularly fond of Ilori’s colorful basketball design at the time.

According to the artist, he has always wanted to work with a watch brand. “For me, it was about working with the right watch brand to capture these ideas of joy, play, humor, and also good design,” he added.

The inspiration for this collaboration is nature, specifically the growth and life cycle of trees.

On a technical level, the collaboration is also about taking risks and celebrating creativity. At MB&F, the only rule of thumb is to follow wild ideas to the end, but with M.A.D. Editions, the design has to be cost-efficient.

Ilori said he pushed wherever he could.

“Watches are sometimes too serious, not playful enough. With most kinds of watch collaborations, sometimes you can’t really do too much. It might be a print or whatever, but this, I knew I was not going to change the shape of the case, but I want to push in every bit of detail that I can,” the artist said.

Büsser said fitting the watches with bespoke, mismatched rubber straps was one of the many challenges they overcame in the end.

“We have never done a rubber strap. Rubber straps are incredibly expensive to make because you need to make molds, which cost hundreds of thousands of pounds. But Ilori wanted a rubber strap. Well, OK, let’s do a rubber strap with his motif. Then he was like: ‘Wouldn’t it be cool if we tried all sorts of colors?’ He starts playing around. ‘Can we do a green and yellow?’ Yeah, sure,” he recalled.

“His whole color coating also pushed us in a lot. Our cases have never had color on them, so we have to find a way to do that. That’s called HyCeram. It’s a very specific liquid ceramic system. Also, the rotor had to be completely recalibrated, because it’s also a system that winds. You need an inertia,” added Büsser.

“He has brought us into a world which is not ours. We think we’re the craziest watch creator in watchmaking, but when he comes out with this, we’re like, OK, there’s definitely crazier out there. He brings us into territories we would never come to, and we are very happy with that,” Büsser continued.

Born in London, Ilori is known for his vivid color palette in the world of design, creating objects, furniture, as well as structures, and murals in public spaces. Utilizing West African textiles, inspired by his Nigerian roots, his works are often playful, with a message of inclusivity.

Ilori is a graduate of London Metropolitan University, where he studied furniture and product design. He began upcycling secondhand furnishings. Today his work has been shown globally through solo and group exhibitions, public commissions, and set and exhibition design.

He founded his own design studio in 2015, representing architects and designers, while taking on larger-scale architectural and interior design projects. Clients have included Bulgari, Beats, Nike, Adidas, Pepsi and Lego, as well as England’s National Health Service Foundation Trust, creating works for hospitals.