Dear Friends,

In my last newsletter, we were in the midst of the "first wave" of the virus that has unfortunately had such an impact on our lives... The summer gave us a short and welcome break, but as I write these lines the second wave has hit us: since Monday evening, among other measures, all non-essential shops in Geneva are closed again - including our M.A.D.Gallery. I hope you are coping with these challenging times as best as possible.

I wrote in the previous newsletter that "we are in a crisis, but we feel that life must go on" - and that remains very true today. We were particularly active on the Legacy Machine front these past months - proving that even on this more "classic" side of MB&F, we love creativity and diversity!

Let's start with our most recent launch: announced just 3 weeks ago, the LM Perpetual 'EVO' builds on the groundbreaking and award-winning Legacy Machine Perpetual which you know well already. But the new suffix ‘EVO’ is a lot more than just a new name – it identifies a significant evolution of our story.

How is this new piece a "significant evolution"? Well, for the past 15 years, our Machines have invited you to follow them in their horological explorations – through science fiction sagas, our dreams of supercars and encounters with jellyfish. With EVO, the roles change: you become the navigator and the map is your life.

In other words, for the first time, this new Machine follows you – with a bunch of new features that deliver extra comfort, legibility and reliability. First, we've redesigned a sleeker case, and combined that with ergonomic pushers and an integrated rubber strap, for the smoothest wearing experience of any of our Machines. Second, we’ve enhanced legibility by eliminating the bezel and applying Super-LumiNova to the time and calendar display.

To the best of our knowledge, only 3 weeks after the launch, the three limited editions of 15 pieces each – celebrating our 15th anniversary – are almost sold out: only 4 or 5 pieces remain at our retail partners.

In September, we unveiled a very different type of Legacy Machine: our collaboration with Eddy Jaquet - whom you've probably never heard of! Eddy is an incredibly talented master engraver and one of the many unsung independent subcontractors of our industry. Our friendship with him goes back a decade: he has been engraving the script you find on our Legacy Machines – but that was just a tiny hint of his artistic talent.

Eddy’s magic can turn a watch – in this case, our Legacy Machine Split Escapement – into an incredible storytelling tapestry. The Jules Verne theme came up naturally three years ago, during a brainstorming session with Eddy; the author is one of my inspirations behind our Legacy Machine collection. Coincidentally, Eddy happened to be an expert on the subject! He read (or re-read) about 60 of his novels, selecting eight that he then synthesised into entirely original illustrations. According to Eddy, this is his project of a lifetime – for the first time, a series where he had virtually unlimited artistic freedom.

Each novel is directly engraved on the LM SE movement’s dial plate, modified to 18K white gold for this series of eight unique pieces. Each piece comes in an 18K red gold case, with a redesigned slimmer bezel and openworked subdials offering a fuller view of Eddy’s masterpieces.
 
You’ll find the full story along with a video and high-res pics on our website... even though the eight pieces have already been bought by some of our most loyal collectors!

Last but not least, another Legacy Machine, and yet another collaboration - but a very different one! In June we presented a new form of two-way collaboration with our Friends at H. Moser & Cie., generating not just one but two new collections: a "Moserized" MB&F LM101, and over at H. Moser, an 'Endeavour Cylindrical Tourbillon' with MB&F genes.

The collab was the result of a long-standing relationship with H. Moser & Cie.: their CEO Edouard Meylan and I have been good friends for a while and Precision Engineering, one of their sister companies, has been supplying us with hairsprings for almost 10 years. That essential component sits at the heart of the two new collections: H. Moser’s beautiful double hairspring beats for the first time in an MB&F; and for the first time in an H. Moser, you find the remarkable cylindrical hairspring we featured in our LM Thunderdome.

Next to those hairsprings, the famous fumé dials that have become a signature of H. Moser & Cie. The LM101 MB&F x H. Moser features 4 beautiful fumé dials: Funky Blue, Red, Cosmic Green and Aqua Blue. Each limited to just 15 pieces.

All 60 pieces of the LM101 MB&F x H. Moser sold out in less than a week, making it the fastest sell out in MB&F history – even faster than our HMX anniversary pieces in 2015! A truly amazing result which totally surpassed our expectations and for which we are extremely grateful.

I promised you three very different Legacy Machines - I hope I haven't disappointed you :) ... Having said that, if our more unconventional Horological Machines are your thing, I have good news for you: this coming Monday, November 9th, we release an anniversary edition of one of our most famous HMs... so stay tuned!

As always, the best way to get the news first is via our Instagram or Facebook accounts - I look forward to seeing you there. And I hope even more to see you at a live meeting or event, as soon as this %&# virus will let us get back to our normal lives!