Editor’s note: This is a preview of the new MB&F M.A.D.2 by Eric Giroud. For our detailed hands-on reviews, please head to our dedicated reviews section here.
What is it
Emails about new drops from MB&F are like little shots of sunshine that pierce through a dark cloud on a rainy day, providing a lasting warmth with their fleeting presence. And when they happen to be about those versions that watch enthusiasts can find accessible, aka M.A.D editions, they do more than that – they provide hope in a sea of dive watches that all morph into one, as one’s life’s most fertile years get spent in soul-sucking dizziness of fictional waiting lists. Anyway, I am ranting.
Coming to the topic at hand, the new MB&F M.A.D.2 by Eric Giroud. Officially, the M.A.D.2 by Eric Giroud is a “love letter to the wild, electrifying spirit of 1990s club culture”; while the design surely has those elements, to me it harks to another piece of music. The opening verses from perhaps my favourite song ever sum up its design aesthetic perfectly: ‘Round, like a circle in a spiral, Like a wheel within a wheel; Never ending or beginning, On an ever-spinning reel’. I have referenced this once earlier, coincidently with another of their co-creations, the REUGE x MB&F MusicMachine 1 Reloaded, but the Oscar-winning Noel Harrison rendered and the Michel Legrand composed title track from McQueen’s The Thomas Crown Affair keeps playing in my head as I ogle at these press images.
There is something buttery smooth about the watch design that I really like; like ‘the ripples from a pebble, someone tosses in a stream’, the 30m water-resistant, 316L stainless steel 42mm x 12.3mm watch — with top sapphire crystal treated with anti-reflective coating on both faces and bottom sapphire crystal treated with anti-reflective coating on inside face — is designed like a pebble, smooth and slick. Heck, even the press release refers to it as “smooth like an almond” and “like a rounded pebble”.
The raised central sub-dials that display the hours and minutes have been inspired by the aesthetics of “turntables from a DJ mixing console”, and like ‘never ending or beginning’, they beat to the harmonious rhythm of pulsating time over a central dial which in itself is a “love letter to vinyl textures, with grooves and satin finishes mimicking music tracks”. As you might have guessed, I have decided to write this review by creating metaphors out of some of the lyrics of this track.
‘Like a snowball down a mountain’ the M.A.D.2 by Eric Giroud should generate an avalanche of interest from any watch enthusiast who values design and value-for-money [and I will compare this to other watches down below in a bit to prove my point], and like ‘a carnival balloon’ could bring tears (of joy), like a balloon when grasped firmly by tiny, chubby fingers of a toddler. Just ‘like a carousel that’s burning, running rings around the moon’, the central dial of the M.A.D.2 by Eric Giroud is surrounded by “the platter, inspired by the stroboscopic band of the Technics SL-1200 – complete with Super-LumiNova stop pins”.
The hours and minutes are not displayed by conventional 3-handed design; ironically, being an in-house developed jumping-hour module, it never really grooves to another verse for the song: ‘Like a clock whose hands are sweeping, Past the minutes of its face’. But a bit of aberration is a good thing! Featuring two sub-dials on the watch face is nothing new for the maverick brand: this can be seen in timepieces such as MB&F LMX, HM10 Panda, HM10 Bulldog, and HM3 FrogX.
Under the Hood of M.A.D.2 by Eric Giroud
Powering the new M.A.D.2 by Eric Giroud is the Swiss made Manufacture La Joux-Perret calibre G101 with a bi-directional jumping hour and trailing minutes module developed by MB&F. The 25.6mm diameter automatic winding movement comprises 24 jewels, and beating at the frequency of 4Hz providing a very decent power -reserve of 64-hours.
Why choose the M.A.D.2 by Eric Giroud
I believe that another thing working in its favour is the lack genuine competition at the same price-point. Both the raffle version (green colorway) and Tribe version (orange colorway) of the M.A.D.2 by Eric Giroud retail for CHF 2’900 + VAT.
To put other watches in perspective, the Christopher Ward Bel Canto is the first quirky watch with a modified jumping hour complication that comes to mind; it retails for a 3’550 CHF (though converted to AUD they somehow both come around the same 5’300 AUD price-point, perhaps its to do with VAT). The starting price of d.m.h (Dingemans Mechanical Watches) jump hour is around 4’800 AUD + taxes. The Fears Brunswick 40.5 Jump Hour Raven Black retails for 8’100 AUD. The Behrens × Konstantin Chaykin, albeit with titanium casing but with the very common Sellita SW200, retailed for 9’100 USD (~14’300 AUD). Similar styled but regulator Louis Erard x Konstantin Chaykin again retail for a higher CHF 4’000 + VAT. The only watch retailing for rather less that I can think of with good finishings is the Furlan Marri Grey Sector; it features the same base movement, but sans the defining jumping hour movement as seen in the M.A.D.2 by Eric Giroud.
But these comparisons are beyond the main point; even if this wasn’t an MB&F related release, purely based on specs and aesthetics, it is an absolute steal — in steel — and a great looker. Coming full circle, harking to my rant in the intro, if anyone still wishes to crib about the price point for this, then this is not for them; they should just get in line for a generic Tudor diver and lose out any iota of individuality that may be left in their watch collecting journey. Not that there is anything particularly wrong with Tudor, they do generally make exceptional tool watches for the price-point, except their more recent releases have become a case of been there, done that, anything to add or you simply going to milk it till it runs dry? The fact that the M.A.D.2 by Eric Giroud is from a brand whose design ethos are exemplary, and the built quality excellent (as in my M.A.D.1 Red), is simply a bonus.
The orange version of the M.A.D.2 by Eric Giroud, reserved for MB&F’s members of ‘The Tribe’, reminds me of Aang from the series Avatar the Last Airbender; perhaps it is the colour way, or perhaps it is also the combination of kinetic elements that form the DNA of every MB&F offering. Though this latest version is not as quirky as compared to M.A.D.1, I find that this brings, much like Avatar Aang, a certain welcome balance to the overall design language. The features while maintaining the MB&F-esque aesthetics also resonate with other two sub-dialled jumping hour timepieces available in the market, and in that — along with the decreased thickness — make the M.A.D.2 by Eric Giroud more of daily wearer and a slight under the radar timepiece. If you have the funds, you should definitely register for the raffle; and all the best!
To find out more about the MB&F M.A.D.2 by Eric Giroud, please head to: https://www.mbandf.com/madeditions/madeditions-raffles. All images unless otherwise stated are courtesy © MB&F – 2025 – All rights reserved.