MB&F MoonMachine 2 with Stepan Sarpaneva
For 2018, Maximilian Büsser and Friends are back with a set of releases that cover the main areas where they excel. First, with a release of a new moon machine in collaboration with Finnish watchmaker Stepan Sarpaneva.
Like the previous MoonMachine, this one also extends an existing HM (horological machine) with the unique artful interpretation of our celestial neighbor. Taking advantage of the Horological Machine 8 prism mechanism to project the digital hours and minutes to a plane perpendicular to the movement for easy view while driving. The MoonMachine 2 projects the phase of moon in between.
The resulting view is clear and easy on the eyes as the moon phase is visible in a blue painted sky with stars adornment. As an ode to the first moon machine, the rotor of the new one also includes Sarpaneva's moon as rotating weight and that is always in full view from the top. Changing the moon phase is as easy as pressing a button on the left side of the watch.
Second is MB&F's classic re-interpretation on horology or an update to it's fantastic Legacy Machine Perpetual. This time in titanium with a blue internal dial. The LM Perpetual watch has to be seen to be understood. A complete redoing and unique MB&F take on the perpetual calendar that is more 3 dimensional mechanical art than a watch.
Working with independent watchmaker Stephen McDonnell, MB&F created a perpetual calendar watch that deconstructs the important parts of all perpetual calendars and exposes them on the dial as if in suspension. Starting with the balance wheel in the middle and the day, month, week day, leap year, and power reserve all in orbits.
But this design, while striking and easily viewable, also advances the state of the art. The patent pending mechanism is fool proof. Normally, perpetual calendars suffer from a level of fragility that requires the owner to be careful when setting the mechanism or having to keep the watch always wounded since moving the indices cannot be done separately.
Well the LM Perpetual is usable as you would expect. Wind it when you need and press one of the four buttons (on the sides) to set each of the indicators. If you started with the month and moved it to February while after moving the days, no worries, the mechanism will adjust itself and move to March 1st correctly as you press the days. Ease of use you expect today on a legacy yet futuristic design.
Only 50 of the LM Perpetual are created for the titanium blue version (shown) and 25 pieces for the white gold purple and fully skeletonize versions as well as 25 in red gold and 25 in platinum for a total number of 150.
MB&F Fifth Element with L'Epée 1839
Finally, completing this year's novelties is another collaboration with L'Epée 1839 on a mechanical horological sculpture. This time a complete weather system called the Fifth Element. A modular system that includes four independent probes, each able to measure an important aspect of our environment: clock, barometer, hygrometer (measuring humidity), and thermometer.
Each of the modules are removable and can be set on a table for easy viewing. When assembled and docked into the fifth: the mothership, the complete system stands at 15 kg of crafted, polished and bead blasted satin finish, stainless steel with glass.
And to complete the system a little brass alien called Ross seats at the edge of the middle rotating glass, controlling a central power system (8-days for the clock module) as if navigating the mother ship with its satellite probes ready to be sent to various parts of your office.
Max Büsser is a well of imagination that never cease to amaze. Digging into his childhood, pop culture, and science fiction novels of present and the past, Max figures out the right collaborator to bring alive these memories into workable, usable, albeit funky cool, mechanical toys.
I cannot wait to see what comes out of Max's dreams for next year. Perhaps a re-invention of the chronograph? I would not be surprise. I have no idea. But I am sure it will be cool and make us dream too. Long live MB&F!
One of the winners in the 2019 GPHG awards in the first week of November was a two year old upstart watch brand from Kuala Lumpur named MING Watches. The young brand won best watch in the Challenge category at the Geneva show to the delight of its founder and watch aficionados who have regularly helped sell out the brand’s 11 prior releases since its debut of the 17.01 watch.
MING watches are not limited per we but are produced in small batches of a few hundreds, which in effect make them limited. A quick perusal to their web site shows that all models, except for the two new 2019 models have sold out. Interestingly the new models are also priced much higher than the previous ones. However, before getting ahead of ourselves, how does one go about seeing or trying on a MING watch?