Chanel has taken a stake in MB&F, the latest example of how customer enthusiasm for artisanal timepieces has prompted luxury groups to look for partners.

In 2005, when Maximilian Büsser founded his avant-garde watch brand MB&F, he became an early champion of the nascent category of independent watchmaking. The label loosely referred to artisans who were producing limited numbers of high-end mechanical timepieces with total creative freedom, not beholden to any corporate interests.

It was a sharp contrast to the manufacture of most luxury watches: made by teams of unidentified engineers in state-of-the-art factories owned by brands under a handful of luxury holding companies, chiefly LVMH Moët Hennessy Louis Vuitton, Compagnie Financière Richemont and the Swatch Group.

Today, that definition of independent watchmaking is still accurate. What has changed, though, is the degree of influence that independents wield, the prices their pieces command and the lengths to which watch enthusiasts go to acquire

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