Dear Friends,

How have you been? I hope you’re (still) enjoying the summer, and if not do try to take a break before the crazy rush descends upon us again this autumn… In the meantime, read on for some information on our most recent introductions: the ‘Destination Moon’ rocket clock and the Final Edition of our Legacy Machine No.1.

If you were at Baselworld, you may have been among the first to witness the take-off of our latest co-creation, our sixth table clock: Destination Moon, a horological rocket that also happens to give you the time on Earth.

Destination Moon is the latest instalment of what has become a full-fledged product category within MB&F: next to our Horological Machines, Legacy Machines and Performance Art pieces, Destination Moon is our 10th co-creation in 5 years. You may remember the three music boxes we created with Reuge, the Astrograph pen developed with Caran d’Ache, and the five previous table clocks created with our good friends at L’Epée 1839. Rest assured, more are on the way!

Destination Moon is actually one of my favourites. Standing over 40cm tall, it has an unmistakable presence. The vertically stacked movement – 237 components, beautifully finished by the talented people at L’Epée – displays hours and minutes on two revolving rings. Regulated by the lateral balance wheel and escapement, the clock has an 8-day power reserve; once a week, you’ll have the pleasure of winding the oversized “thruster” crown at the rocket’s base. Another crown at the top of the mechanism allows you to set the time easily. The movement is by the way an entirely new development at L’Epée – the result of one of their engineers’ imagination during his spare time!

Destination Moon is occupied by Neil, the rocket’s resident astronaut, who can be easily removed or placed back on the ladder thanks to an integrated magnet.

Destination Moon is crafted in four limited editions of 50 pieces each with accents in blue, green, black or silver. Check out the short video – or read the full story on our website.

It’s been six years since we launched the Legacy Machine N°1 (LM1) series in 2011, establishing a second collection of tradition-inspired Legacy Machines alongside our radical Horological Machines. I still remember the surprise at the time, after our four previous Machines which were anything but traditional: here was an MB&F with a round case, white lacquer dials, Roman numerals, classic finishing… MB&F took the familiar codes of traditional watchmaking and offered a Horological remix. Together with our Friends Jean-François Mojon and Kari Voutilainen, we introduced three world firsts with LM1: the suspended “flying” balance wheel, fully independent dual time displays, and the vertical power reserve indicator.

Happily, 6 years later, it’s fair to say that collectors approved. With this Final Edition, we will have crafted about 435 LM1s, making it our second most popular series after the prolific HM3. The LM1 has appeared in red gold, white gold, platinum and titanium, in faces of blue, grey and green. It has also generated two Performance Art pieces, our collaborations with artists: the LM1 Xia Hang and LM1 Silberstein.

According to popular wisdom, you don’t fix what ain’t broke… so why stop the LM1? Simply because this is how we operate at MB&F: after a few years, we need to end production of existing pieces – even very successful ones – to focus on new developments, keeping the creative spark that comes with a compact organisation.

The LM1 Final Edition closes the series with a few special features. The most obvious are the dark brown face (which we would describe as 85-percent dark chocolate) and the new balance bridge, cambered and tapered in the style we introduced with the LM101 and LM Perpetual. But there’s something more: a stainless steel case. A first for LM1, and a metal you don't find often in our Horological lab.

You’ll find all the details on the LM1 Final Edition – limited to only 18 pieces – on our website.

Talking about popular timepieces, there are now about 2,000 MB&F timepieces on the planet. That may seem like a significant amount, but it remains a drop in the Horological Ocean – our entire production of these last 12 years is what a mid-sized luxury watch brand produces in about a week or two!

The result of those 2,000 pieces is that a secondary market has emerged. In principle, this is a good thing – it makes the market more attractive and fluid – but it also means that you should exercise caution when acquiring a pre-owned timepiece. Over the last few months, we ran into some rather unfortunate incidents: three well-known collectors sent us a timepiece for service… and those timepieces appeared in our files as stolen! As you can imagine, we have no choice in such cases but to seize the piece and hand it over to the police.

To the best of our knowledge, there have only been about 10 stolen MB&F pieces in the last 12 years, but in your own interest, never purchase a pre-owned MB&F timepiece without checking the serial number with us first. Especially if it’s without box and papers! Every single one of our Machines is on file, and we will instantly tell you if the piece is OK.

Will we have the pleasure of seeing you at one of the watch shows MB&F will be attending over the next few months? Starting at the end of September, we’ll be at Taipei’s International Watch & Art Salon (IWST) on September 26-30. In October, the team travels to the WatchTime fair in New York (October 13-14), followed by Mexico City’s SIAR (October 17-19). In November finally, we’ll be at Salon QP in London (November 2-4) and the Dubai Watch Week (November 16-20). Please don’t hesitate to drop by to say hello and see the latest Machines!