{"id":2119282,"date":"2026-10-28T21:42:13","date_gmt":"2026-10-28T20:42:13","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.luxsure.fr\/?p=2119282"},"modified":"2026-10-29T18:41:33","modified_gmt":"2026-10-29T17:41:33","slug":"mbf-and-caran-dache-turn-the-pencil-sharpener-into-a-mechanical-creature","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.luxsure.fr\/en\/2026\/10\/28\/mbf-and-caran-dache-turn-the-pencil-sharpener-into-a-mechanical-creature\/","title":{"rendered":"MB&F and Caran d’Ache turn the pencil sharpener into a mechanical creature"},"content":{"rendered":"\n

For the 15th anniversary of the M.A.D.Gallery, MB&F reinterprets the iconic Caran d’Ache sharpening machine as a metal gorilla, a limited edition of 300 pieces unveiled for World Gorilla Day.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

There is an object that generations of Swiss schoolchildren have handled without ever suspecting it would one day become a work of art: the Caran d’Ache sharpening machine, a faithful companion of classrooms since 1933. It is nonetheless in this improbable form that MB&F chooses to celebrate the fifteen years of its M.A.D.Gallery, entrusting this utilitarian object to the designer Maximilian Maertens.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

The result is called GorillaSharpener: a perfectly functional pencil sharpener, metamorphosed into a muscular mechanical creature, perched on powerful limbs in stainless steel and cast iron, leaning forward as if ready to cross the desk. Dressed in Alpine Frost blue, it turns a familiar utilitarian object into a three-dimensional work of art, and perhaps offers, MB&F slips in not without mischief, one more good reason to look away from screens a little and pick the pencils up again.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

It belongs to a line already begun by MB&F and Caran d’Ache, after the Astrograph writing instrument in 2016 and, more recently, the DinoSharpener \u2014 a way for the two houses to make the utilitarian object a recurring creative playground, rather than a one-off exercise in collaboration. This continuity in the association between an independent watchmaking manufacture<\/a> renowned for its Machines with complications and a century-old writing-instrument house says something about the pleasure the two entities seem to find in reinventing, season after season, the same everyday object.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

The choice of date is not insignificant: the GorillaSharpener is unveiled on 24 September, World Gorilla Day. For the occasion, MB&F partners with the Dian Fossey Gorilla Fund, the largest and oldest organisation in the world entirely devoted to the protection of gorillas, through the symbolic adoption of Pablo’s group, the historic group of mountain gorillas in Rwanda \u2014 a contribution that supports the Fund’s daily protection, scientific research and conservation activities carried out in the field for these threatened gorillas.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

The choice of the gorilla, rather than a creature more expected in the MB&F universe usually populated by robots and futuristic figures, is explained precisely by this charitable dimension: associating a threatened animal with a mass-market object makes it possible to raise awareness among an audience that would not necessarily have come across, otherwise, the work of the Dian Fossey Gorilla Fund. The humour of the form \u2014 a pencil sharpener turned into a muscular primate \u2014 thus serves a very real cause, far from the sometimes cold image associated with very high complication watchmaking.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

The fact that this creature belongs to a collection already begun with the DinoSharpener also confirms that MB&F has found, in the Caran d’Ache pencil sharpener, a recurring format particularly conducive to formal experimentation. Each new creature adds to a mechanical bestiary which, over time, could well become as recognisable as the most emblematic Machines of the Geneva manufacture.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Sold at 850 Swiss francs excluding tax, or about 925 euros, the GorillaSharpener is limited to 300 pieces and available in the M.A.D.Galleries, the MB&F Labs and Lounge, as well as on the brand’s eShop. Beyond the object, it is a mantra that is replayed once more: \u201cA creative adult is a child who survived\u201d. A way for a creative watchmaking house accustomed to the most sophisticated mechanical feats to remind us that sophistication has no age \u2014 and that the pencil, at times, still deserves to be sharpened, even by a steel gorilla.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

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Also on Luxsure:<\/em> A million hours: the watch that measures beyond a career<\/a> \u00b7 At Jaeger-LeCoultre, the ambassador is chosen at the workbench<\/a> \u00b7 MB&F SP One Pav\u00e9e: the diamond in the service of architecture<\/a> \u00b7 At Codognato, colour becomes a language as serious as black and gold<\/a><\/p>\n\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

For the 15th anniversary of the M.A.D.Gallery, MB&F reinterprets the iconic Caran d’Ache sharpening machine as a metal gorilla, a limited edition of 300 pieces unveiled for World Gorilla Day.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":214,"featured_media":2094249,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_lmt_disableupdate":"","_lmt_disable":"","footnotes":""},"categories":[30122],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-2119282","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-watches-and-jewelry"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.luxsure.fr\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2119282","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.luxsure.fr\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.luxsure.fr\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.luxsure.fr\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/214"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.luxsure.fr\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=2119282"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.luxsure.fr\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2119282\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.luxsure.fr\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/2094249"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.luxsure.fr\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=2119282"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.luxsure.fr\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=2119282"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.luxsure.fr\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=2119282"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}