The MB&F HMX Watch Is a Stunning Automotive-Inspired Timepiece

It’s hard to believe that some of the most incredible independent watch brands of our times are celebrating their 10th anniversaries this year. MB&F – a.k.a. Max Busser and Friends – is one such brand. Making it difficult to believe the company is already 10 years old is that in that short span of time, the brand has built 10 horological machines, multiple movements, and wowed the world with its avant-garde Space-age magic.

Now, in honor of the 10th anniversary of MB&F, founder Maximilian Busser opts to sidestep the tradition of creating the most complicated watch as a celebratory piece (for those who know the man, he thinks in a side-step process), and instead creates an elaborate and affordable horological machine. Additionally, the new micro-mechanical timepiece is the first to be priced in the “affordable” luxe category. Heretofore, none of the machines built by MB&F carried a retail price of less than €55,000-plus and most are upwards of €90,000. The new watch retails for 29,000 Swiss Francs (approximately €30,000). The price, says Busser, is meant to thank the loyal fans who have been purchasing the brand’s unique timepieces since its inception.

The new Horological Machine X, HMX (with X recalling the Roman numeral 10) was one of the more challenging watches to build, as the price requirement Busser wanted to maintain required considerable testing and rejecting of forms, materials, finishes and more.

But the testing and retesting is not what makes this watch special. In fact, neither is the price, really. What makes the watch a typical Max Busser brainchild (meaning a watch pretty far out there in creativity) is the fact that the time display is not actually a literal display at all, but rather, is a projection of the time onto the dial – an optical illusion, if you will.

Before explaining how the engineering of optics comes into play here, it should be noted that this watch is designed as a driver’s watch – inspired by yesteryear drivers watches wherein the time is read from the side of the watch that would be facing the driver when his or her hands are on the steering wheel, instead of from the typical top or “dial” side of the watch. Make no mistake, though, this is not a yester-year design in any way, shape or form. Instead it is more visionary than reflective – much like all of Busser’s creations.

Looking at the watch, where the dial would ordinarily be placed, is where the movement is placed in full view. The case side features an oval eye-shaped opening that displays the time to the driver. Using a series of sapphire disks and prisms, and harnessing the light, the HMX projects the time indication from the movement on the topside of the watch to the case side panel from which the time is read.

The story behind the watch, it’s theme, and how it operates is a complex tale that pre-dates the brand itself and has roots in the childhood of Max Busser. You can read more about him, his history and the inspirations that made this brand a success on ATimelyPerspective.com.

But for the short version: Max was a child consumed by space stories, futuristic vehicles and beings. He dreamed of becoming a car designer and filled sketchbooks with the machines of his mind. As such, his theme for the 10th anniversary reflects the growth of childhood to adulthood while still holding on to the child within: “A creative adult is a child who survived.”

The dial side of the driver-style watch displays the time via a series of prisms bent at a 90-degree angle to reflect the light and numerals onto the dial.

Busser, who previously held a top-level position with Harry Winston (where he vigilantly implemented the Opus project of creating one incredibly special watch annually in cooperation with an independent watchmaker), began his company as more of a creative laboratory project than as a watch brand. He enlisted the aid of many independent designers, thinkers, material workers, movement makers and more – all to bring Max Busser & Friends to reality. Machine after machine, year after year, that reality has kept followers open-mouthed in awe.

Now, the “affordable” HMX car-of-the-future-inspired watch does the same. Essentially, the Superleggera-inspired chassis of the watch holds the secret of time in an automatic movement that uses jumping hours and trailing minutes disks. The circular disks rotate on the top of the movement and have mirror-image numerals (coated in SuperLuminova for easy reading) that are magnified by two triangular shaped prisms and then are reflected up at a 90-degree angle to project the time from the flat surface onto the “front” eye-shaped display. In fact, the display read by the wearer is a reflection — an optical triumph achieved by harnessing the light that streams through the case top (meant to resemble an engine cover) to illuminate the engine and backlight the time display.

Making the horological machine more reminiscent of a supercar are two “rocker covers” (come on muscle machine and racing enthusiasts, you know those grooved rocker covers) placed on top of the movement. Each bears a fully functional oil cap – used by the watchmaker to oil the jeweled bearings of the indication disks. It gets better. The rocker covers are created in famed racing colors: Lotus black, British Racing Green, Ferrari red and Bugatti Blue.

Like all MB&F horological machines, this one – very much akin to the brand’s HM5 (though that watch did not have the optical engineering feat built into it) — is the result of a host of “friends.” The mechanical movement is powered by a Sellita gear train with an in-house developed jumping hour and trailing minutes module built onto it.

“When I first started out, I knew all of my horological machines would be very different from what the world was seeing,” says Busser. “I have thought for a long time about the 10th anniversary watch and I knew that whatever I was going to make, I had to be as proud of it as I have been of all the creations. Just because the price is lower to thank our friends, the watch still has to be the best possible translation of time. I am not satisfied until I feel that everything is perfect, every detail, and this is especially important for an anniversary piece.”

The caseback of the watch, with its oversized car-inspired 22-karat gold rotor, is engraved with the 10th anniversary theme, “A Creative Adult is a Child Who Survived” and with the notation that it is a 10thanniversary watch. Just 20 pieces of each three-dimensional HMX – in a grade 5 titanium and stainless steel case – will be created.

Roberta Naas is the founder of the online watch magazine, ATimelyPerspective.com.

Roberta Naas is founder of  A Timely Perspective; Watch Seduction(for women); and author of six books on watches.

in: Forbes

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