The radical watch brand spawned by a near-death experience
by Luke Benedictus · Australian Financial ReviewLuke BenedictusWatch editor
Sep 11, 2026 – 5.00am
In 1990, during his Swiss military service, Maximilian Büsser found himself behind the wheel of a battered Unimog jeep in a convoy of vehicles heading back from a training exercise. As the unit threaded through the rolling hills of Aargau, one driver began struggling with his gearbox, forcing people to overtake him. Büsser accelerated to do the same, but the burst of speed caused the trailer he was towing to start violently snaking from side to side. The momentum was impossible to control. “I knew there was no way I was going to be able to stay on the road,” Büsser recalls.
On one side of the road was forest. On the other, a house with a garden. Out of desperation, Büsser aimed for the latter. The Unimog, which had no seatbelts or roll-bars, hit the kerb and flipped, catapulting him onto the grass. Seconds later, the 3000-kilogram jeep landed on top of him, pinning him to the ground. “My shoulder just exploded,” Büsser says. “I should have died. There’s absolutely no reason whatsoever I should be alive.”
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Luke BenedictusWatch editorLuke Benedictus is watch editor of The Australian Financial Review. He also writes about wellness.
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