Why a Gasket-Free Swiss Watchmaker Chose a Swimmer and a Linebacker

At a Glance

• MAURON MUSY has named Ryan Lochte, a twelve-time Olympic medallist, and
  Tuli Tuipulotu, outside linebacker for the Los Angeles Chargers, Friends of
  the Brand
• Lochte wears the MU05-103 Blueprint, a thirteen-piece edition;
  Tuipulotu wears the GMT Sport MU04-203
• The maison was founded in 2013 in the Broye valley by Eric Mauron and
  Christophe Musy, and makes 300 watches a year
• Its patented nO-Ring® system is the only fully mechanical
  water-resistance system in the world without gaskets
• In 2026 the patent turns ten, and the anniversary piece was presented at
  Geneva Watch Days

Choosing an ambassador is rarely as innocent as it looks. When a Swiss house that makes
three hundred watches a year reaches past the usual circle of collectors and picks two
American athletes, the choice says something about what the house believes it has to prove.

Water and impact

MAURON MUSY exists because of a single patent. Its nO-Ring® system
replaces the rubber gasket — the component every other watchmaker relies on —
with thirty-six precision parts, and reaches 300 metres of water resistance mechanically.
It is, by the maison’s own account, the only fully mechanical sealing system in the
world without gaskets.

Now look again at the two names. Ryan Lochte spent a career in water.
Tuli Tuipulotu spends his in collision. Water and impact are precisely the
two forces a case without gaskets has to survive, and the two doubts a collector would raise
first. The appointments are not decoration; they are an argument.

The watches confirm it. Lochte wears the MU05-103 Blueprint, a
thirteen-piece edition in grade 5 titanium anodised blue, its titanium dial skeletonised in
six parts. Tuipulotu wears the GMT Sport MU04-203, a 44 mm case with a
bi-material titanium-ceramic bezel and a dial machined by laser in a single operation, its
texture drawn from cast iron. One is a jeweller’s object; the other is built like a
tool.

Ten years of a patent, and what it changed

The house was founded in 2013 in the Broye valley, at the foot of the Swiss Jura, by
Eric Mauron and Christophe Musy, two men trained in precision mechanics.
The origin is unusually modest for a watch brand: months of research produced the patent,
the first pieces were made as Christmas presents for their families, and demand did the
rest.

In 2026 that patent turns ten, and the maison presented its anniversary timepiece at
Geneva Watch Days — the Geneva week that gathered seventy-one brands and more than two
thousand five hundred collectors this year. A decade is long enough for a technical claim to
stop being a promise and start being a record.

What follows from the patent is not a specification but a different relationship with
time. A gasket hardens, ages and must be replaced. A mechanical seal does not. MAURON MUSY
watches carry a five-year guarantee with no scheduled maintenance — a sentence almost
no other house can write about a case rated to 300 metres.

The American structure behind the names

Neither appointment happened in isolation. FundTime LLC, an American
investment firm, holds an equity stake in the maison and acts as its exclusive distributor in
the United States. Its managing partner, Lior Arussy, framed the choice around
« excellence, determination, authenticity, and performance under
pressure ».

A month before the announcement, the maison gathered collectors in Miami. The pattern is
consistent: an investor with a distribution mandate, events where the watches are handled
rather than photographed, and ambassadors whose sports make the patent legible without a
single technical word. For a house that took an equity investment to enter a market, this is
what building looks like.

Three hundred a year

The number worth holding on to is not the medal count. It is three hundred
— the pieces MAURON MUSY makes in a year, a ceiling the maison sets itself. Every
watch carries the Swiss Crafted inscription, a standard the house defines as
going beyond Swiss Made: one hundred per cent designed, developed and manufactured in
Switzerland.

Three hundred pieces will not fill a stadium. But it is the right order of magnitude for
a house whose argument is a patent rather than a catalogue, and it explains why two athletes
matter more to it than two hundred advertisements would. The MU09 NODE
made the same point in its own way: the form emerges from the gasket-free architecture rather
than being applied to it.

Frequently Asked Questions

Who are MAURON MUSY’s Friends of the Brand?

Ryan Lochte, a twelve-time Olympic medallist and Swimming Hall of Famer, and Tuli
Tuipulotu, outside linebacker for the Los Angeles Chargers. Lochte wears the MU05-103
Blueprint, Tuipulotu the GMT Sport MU04-203.

What is the nO-Ring® system?

A patented sealing architecture that replaces the rubber gasket with thirty-six precision
components and achieves 300 metres of water resistance mechanically. The maison describes it
as the only fully mechanical water-resistance system in the world without gaskets. In 2026 it
turns ten.

How many watches does MAURON MUSY make each year?

Three hundred, a ceiling the maison sets itself. Each piece carries the Swiss Crafted
inscription, certifying that one hundred per cent of the watch is designed, developed and
manufactured in Switzerland.

Images courtesy of MAURON MUSY. Official site: mauronmusy.ch.