We’re always watching to see where Yinka Ilori’s joyful optimism lands – and this time, it’s right on your wrist. The London-based artist and designer, known for his technicolor aesthetic and uplifting public installations, has teamed up with MB&F’s more accessible sister brand, M.A.D.Editions, to debut the M.A.D.1S “Grow Your Dreams” watch series. Let’s just say: it’s blooming with personality.
Nature
The heart of the collaboration centers on a single, symbolic motif: the tree. While watches and trees may seem like an unlikely pairing, Ilori draws a beautifully poetic parallel between the two. “I’ve always been obsessed with trees,” he shares. “Harvesting and growing them because you invest time in it. It’s pouring love into something you care about, and that starts a conversation.” That same mindset, he explains, shaped the creative process with MB&F owner and creative director, Maximilian Büsser. “You have to be patient and harvest a watch. There are similarities between our universes. Typically, mine are very public, but there’s something very private and public about a watch. Everyone sees it, but it’s you who has that connection with it.”
Water
That emotional resonance is undeniably present in the collection. Guided by Ilori’s mantra, “Grow Your Dreams,” the trio of vibrant timepieces celebrates the audacity of big dreams and the beauty of nurturing them over time. Each design explores one of three natural elements – Sun, Nature, and Water – turning universal forces into joyful, wearable art. True to Ilori’s style, the watches are a bold invitation to live colorfully, dream expansively, and carry a bit of optimism with you wherever you go.
Sun
While the inner mechanics of the M.A.D.1S remain grounded in the original Swiss-made LaJoux-Perret movement, this edition takes bold creative leaps. The redesigned rotor – now slimmer and engraved with a symbolic tree motif on each blade – spins with vibrant energy in anodized titanium, glowing in yellow, green, or blue depending on the model. Super-LumiNova®, known for its phosphorescent pigment, brings Ilori’s “Grow Your Dreams” mantra to life in the dark, while the numbers on the time display are designed by Illori himself. For the first time ever, MB&F injects color into the bezel using hand-polished HyCeram ceramic inlays, and the entire mechanism is grounded by a baseplate stamped with wave-like textures that ripple beneath the movement – a subtle nod to nature and rhythm.
Watch lovers can see the timepieces in person at the Yinka Ilori pop-up shop at MB&F’s M.A.D.Gallery in Geneva until September 20th, 2025.
Only 400 pieces of each colorway have been produced, making these wearable artworks as exclusive as they are expressive. If you’ve been dreaming of adding a splash of Ilori’s joy to your everyday, let this be your sign: it’s time.
Yinka Ilori and Maximilian Büsser
Yinka Ilori
To add the M.A.D.1S “Grow Your Dreams” watch collection by Yinka Ilori and MB&F’s M.A.D.Editions to your watch collection, visit mbandf.com.
Photography courtesy of M.A.D.Editions.
