Dear Friends,
If you live somewhere in the northern hemisphere, I hope you’re enjoying a nice summer – including at least a few days off, hopefully :) … Even better, you managed to take a long vacation – in which case you may have missed our most recent introduction: the LM1 Silberstein, three colourful new limited editions of Legacy Machine No.1. Read on for a quick catch-up or refresher course!

The new LM1 Silberstein editions were created by handing over one of our most classic timepieces – Legacy Machine No.1 – to one of the watchmaking world’s most creative and unconventional designers. But even more importantly than the timepiece itself, the LM1 Silberstein is really a story of friendship and creativity, written in three chapters.

Chapter One takes us back to 2009, when I asked renowned French designer Alain Silberstein to reinterpret our Horological Machine No.2. If you’re not familiar with this famous designer, Alain made a name for himself back in the 90s thanks to his unrestrained creativity, innovative spirit and readiness to break watchmaking conventions; his own brand, strongly inspired by the Bauhaus movement, ceased operations in 2012 but continues to have a cult following among many seasoned collectors worldwide. The result of that first collaboration was the HM2.2 ‘Blackbox’, which paved the way for many other artistic collaborations, giving birth to our ‘Performance Art’ collection.

For Chapter Two, we fast-forward a few years later, to 2012: at the time we had just launched our first Legacy Machine, LM1, and I run into Alain again. After a few minutes he tells me how much he likes the new LM1, but being Alain, he simply cannot resist making a few suggestions… His spontaneous ideas will mark the unexpected beginning of a new collaboration.

Final Chapter: the LM1 is totally transformed by Alain Silberstein, who transforms our tribute to traditional watchmaking into a colourful, metaphysical time metaphor. What strikes first are the typically-Bauhaus primary colours: Silberstein’s bold use of red, blue and yellow. Look closer and you’ll see that the original LM1’s domed subdials are now concave, like small satellite dishes: in his own words, Alain has designed them “to capture eternal time from the surrounding universe”. Eternal time is converted into civilian time by the flying balance wheel – now suspended by an almost invisible bridge in sapphire crystal. That transparent bridge was certainly the project’s most difficult technical challenge: it took us two years to perfect given the incredibly tight tolerances required (and by the way, Alain was the very first to create a case in sapphire crystal several years ago). Last but not least, the vertical power reserve indicator is now a miniature Silberstein sculpture: yellow sphere, red cube and blue pyramid.

These new editions have enjoyed fantastic feedback since the launch: in just over two months, only 9 of the 36 limited pieces are still up for grabs at our retail partners. And it has been incredibly satisfying to receive so many heart-warming comments from Alain’s fans around the globe, delighted to see his legacy continue.

The LM1 Silberstein is available in grade 5 titanium, black PVD titanium or 18K red gold – each a limited edition of only 12 pieces. You’ll find all the details about the LM1 Silberstein on our website. 

As mentioned, the LM1 Silberstein is part of our ‘Performance Art’ pieces: the principle behind this collection is to take existing MB&F machines, and to ask external artists or designers to reinterpret it in their own style. But next to these Performance Art pieces, we’ve also developed a series of “co-creations” over the last few years. The principle here is a bit different: MB&F conceives and designs an entirely new machine – not a wristwatch! – and we then hand over the engineering and production to another specialised Manufacture. The three music boxes we created with Reuge (MusicMachines 1, 2 and 3) fall into this category.

Our other co-creations have been the result of a very satisfying collaboration with L’Epée 1839, the last remaining high-end clock Manufacture in Switzerland. You may remember the Starfleet Machine, Arachnophobia, or the two robot-clocks Melchior and Sherman. On September 1^st, we add a fifth table clock to the collection. Want a hint? The new clock is Melchior’s big brother!

If you’re a collector of our wristwatches, I encourage you to join The Tribe, our MB&F owners’ club. The immediate and important benefit you’ll receive by registering your timepiece is an additional 2 years of warranty, on top of the warranty you currently have… In other words, if you’ve just bought a piece with its original 2-year warranty, joining The Tribe will extend the warranty to 4 years!

Perhaps more surprisingly, this also applies to older models, for which the original 2-year warranty is no longer valid. To take an example, if you own one of our very first HM1s, sold in 2007, by simply registering the piece at The Tribe you will kick off a new 2-year warranty, valid from the date you register. No questions asked. And this also applies of course if you purchased the piece from another collector.

However, for those older pieces no longer covered by our warranty, you only have 4 months to go before this offer expires: first announced last year as part of our 10^th Anniversary celebrations, the 2-year extension is only valid if you register with The Tribe before the end of this year. Go for it!

Remember ''The Six Million Dollar Man" TV series that ran during the 70s? Steve Austin, the hero of the series, became the world's first bionic man after having an eye, arm and both legs replaced by bionics offering more power and functionality. But while technology has evolved amazingly since the 70s, prosthetics haven’t really appeared to keep pace. We have self-driving cars, but most robot arms still can’t hold a glass of water… or couldn't, until the Luke.

Designed by Segway inventor Dean Kamen, the Luke is operated by thought: it uses electrodes placed on a residual limb to pick up electrical signals from the user’s muscles – a much more intuitive bio-feedback system than standard prosthetics.

After nearly 10 years of development, Mobius Bionics has announced that the Luke has FDA approval and should be on the market later this year. Prices haven’t been revealed yet, but don't expect much change from $100,000. While that's not cheap, it's substantially less than six million dollars.

Read more about the Luke on our blog, A Parallel World.

Our summer will be winding down in a couple of weeks and September will mark the beginning of yet another busy season – not just in terms of new introductions (look out for that new co-creation on September 1^st), but also with an active MB&F presence at several watch shows around the world: IWST in Taipei (starting September 22nd), WatchTime in New York City (October 14th) and Mexico City’s SIAR (October 18th). London’s Salon QP and the Dubai Watch Week will follow in November. We look forward to seeing you there!