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Retro-futurism with MB&F
New Models

Retro-futurism with MB&F

Sunday, 18 December 2011
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Christophe Roulet
Editor-in-chief, HH Journal

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3 min read

MB&F once again turns watchmaking on its head, this time with a retro-futuristic design. The just-released Legacy Machine LM1 has lost no time in becoming a “must have” for aficionados. Orders are already equivalent to three and a half years’ production.

A little hum of excitement rose from the MB&F stand at the Belles Montres International Prestige Watch Fair in Paris this November. The brand (short for Maximilian Busser & Friends) intrigues with its forward-looking Horological Machines. This year, however, all eyes were on the Legacy Machine LM1, the first in a new collection and the one that every visitor to the stand wanted to try.

“The underlying concept for this watch is relatively simple,” explained Charris Yadigaroglou, head of communication at MB&F. “What would happen if the team at MB&F travelled a hundred years back in time? What would they invent? What would they make? The answer is three-dimensional machines but with very different inspirations. New forms of architecture were emerging at the turn of the last century. The Eiffel Tower was built for the World’s Fair in Paris. Over in the United States, skyscrapers were pushing their way out of the ground. Cities were caught in a new impetus. These thoughts led to the LM1 with its elevated structures, to wit a vertical power-reserve indicator and a large, 14mm-wide balance wheel on the dial side, suspended from a double arch. The result is a mechanical watch that has been stripped of the superfluous, with an aesthetic that owes much to the pocket watch. This Legacy Machine LM1 features a fully independent second time zone that can be used as a chronograph.”

Legacy Machine N° 1 in red gold © MB&F
Legacy Machine N° 1 in red gold © MB&F
A more wearable watch

The two “friends” who worked on the LM1 are Jean-François Mojon, whose previous achievements include the Opus X for Harry Winston, and Kari Voutilainen, maker of such timepieces as the Observatoire. “It was a delight to work with Kari,” says Jean-François Mojon. “The project was launched four years ago although I personally spent two and a half years on it. The original idea was extremely clear, excluding any kind of standardisation, to the point that I could quickly get down to all the three-dimensional aspects of the watch. Kari and I then agreed on the aesthetic and the contextualisation of the watch within the chosen period.”

Unlike certain MB&F Horological Machines, the number of LM1 watches will be limited only by production capacity. “We’ll make 175 watches in all this year,” confirmed Charris Yadigaroglou, “including some 30 LM1s. In view of demand, we would like to move up a gear and double this figure. This has to be our most successful model so far. At the beginning of the year, we’d already taken orders for the equivalent of 200 LM1s or three and a half years’ production on the basis of 60 watches a year. To give just one example, now that deliveries are under way, we allocated 30 to our retailer in Singapore to cover the next three years. They sold out in two days.”
The Horological Machines are known for their original design hence their potential is more limited, appealing to people who can picture themselves wearing one on their wrist. Not so the Legacy Machine. Says Charris Yadigaroglou: “This watch is perfectly in keeping with the MB&F spirit but is much more wearable. Ears pricked up when we announced a more classic model. We did it the MB&F way.” Jean-François Mojon was openly delighted as the LM1 went from one wrist to another, and another, and another…

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