MB&F Debuts Legacy Machine No.1 in Singapore

MB&F has gained a reputation for futuristic and whimsical models - prime exhibit: this year's offering for your Only View auction, the HM4 Thunderbolt - so it may come like a surprise to horological observers that their most up-to-date, the Legacy Machine No. 1, is a classically round timepiece.

We caught up with our friend Maximilian Busser when he offered his most up-to-date creation, this time with friends Kari Voutilainen (he of the superb finishing touch) and Jean-Francois Mojon (Harry Winston Opus 10 and IWC Siderale Scafusia).

Conceived like a tribute to traditional 19th century watchmaking (an age when mechanical watchmaking was astonishing the world), Legacy Machine No. 1 (inside the spirit from the Horological Machine, we shall call this the LM1) was borne from one of B¡§1sser's inspired flights of fantasy: what would I have created if I had been born in 1867 instead of 1967?

Please keep the address reproduced:The Fashion Watch

Without jet fighters and Star Wars to inspire him, B¡§1sser decided his thought experiment would have to turn towards icons of innovation at that time: pocket watches, the Eiffel Tower and Jules Verne.

The result? A horological machine having a clear bubble dome wrought from sapphire, through which one can see the LM1's engine. Hewing towards the pocket watches in the day, the LMI capabilities a 2.5 Hz slowly oscillating stability - 18,000 vph - that has a traditional Breguet overcoil suspended from twin arches. The clear dome ensures that this regulating mechanism can be appreciated in full view.

The hours and minutes within the two sub dials can be set independently of each other - a noteworthy function considering that most dual time zone complications using a single harmony do not allow for the independent adjustment from the minutes. For a slim profile, the LM1 also holds claim to the world's very first vertical energy reserve indicator, driven by an ultra-flat differential with ceramic bearings.

Finish-wise, acclaimed watchmaker Kari Voutilainen was responsible for the LM1's sun-ray pattern, engraved dial-side around the movement plate; caseback-side, rubies set in polished countersunk gold chatons provide striking visual counterpoints towards the Geneva waves traversing the curved bridges.