Dear Friends,

I hope this message finds you in good spirits. As we stride into the latter half of the year, it's time to follow up on a hint I dropped in the conclusion of my previous newsletter: "...new Horological Machines first in June, and then again in the autumn..." The first of those Horological Machines was the HM8 Mark 2: powered by the HM8 engine you already know, but in an entirely new body that changes it completely.

Also, if you couldn't make it to the Geneva Watch Days – which has become one of the best events on the watchmaking calendar – this newsletter will give you a full update: new HM9-SVs, our Pièce Unique for Only Watch, and the M.A.D.1 GREEN.

The connection between MB&F and automotive design runs deep: as a child and teenager, my plan was to become a car designer. When the world's most famous car design school, Pasadena’s Art Center College of Design, opened a European subsidiary just minutes away from my home in Lausanne, my dream seemed within reach... but for reasons too long to explain here, I ended up going to engineering school instead, my first professional steps took me to watchmaking... and you know the rest :)

To truly appreciate the journey of the HM8 Mark 2, we need to rewind a bit and remember our sports car-inspired watches. Like stepping stones leading us to this moment, our previous automotive Machines – HM5, HMX, and HM8 – have each played an essential part in shaping the trajectory of our timepiece design.

Our story with automotive design began in 2012 with the HM5 (have a look at the video above), a Machine fondly nicknamed 'On the Road Again.' The HM5 was a tribute to the Amida Digitrend watch and the sleek supercars of the 1970s, with its aerodynamic wedge shape, ‘dashboard’ time display, and a design language borrowed from the age of Disco.

Next came the HMX (above), celebrating our 10th anniversary in 2015 – and a year later, we unleashed the HM8 ‘Can-Am’. The HM8 (below) was a visual spectacle, with its signature roll bars that embodied the spirit of the high-octane Can-Am racing series from the 1960s and 70s.

The new HM8 Mark 2 takes the best features of its predecessors and fuses them into a very different Machine. From HM5, it takes the external bodywork’s very apparent supercar styling; from HMX, the ergonomic, compact size; and from HM8, the visible mechanics and very “kinetic” nature, with its dial-side winding rotor. Place all this within an aerodynamic sandwich of CarbonMacrolon, grade 5 titanium and hyper-complex sapphire crystal, and you get a true supercar for the wrist.

Like its predecessors, the HM8 Mark 2 is powered by a unique combination of mechanical and optical engineering: the automatic movement’s hour and minute discs, which lay horizontally, are optically magnified and projected 90 degrees to the vertical display thanks to high-precision prisms crafted in sapphire crystal.

The HM8 Mark 2 launches in two editions: White and Green, the latter limited to 33 pieces. If you'd like to enquire please contact your preferred retailer or register online on our eShop.
Just a few days before the Geneva Watch Days, we released  two new HM9-SVs: the White Gold Blue and Yellow Gold Green editions, both limited to just 5 pieces. These editions once again bring together the sculptural nature of Horological Machine No.9 with a combination of precious metals, bright colours... and lots of sapphire crystal.
We first presented Horological Machine N°9, nicknamed HM9 ‘Flow’, in 2018 (see below): a tribute to the beautiful automotive (yep, again!) and aeronautic designs of the 1940s and 50s, materialised in a case that echoed the epoch’s flowing, aerodynamic lines. Inside the insane case – at the time, crafted in titanium – the highly complex and convention-breaking HM9 movement, starring two fully independent balance wheels and a central planetary differential, performing the delicate task of averaging the two distinct heartbeats into one coherent time-pulse.
In 2021 we presented a series of four HM9 ‘Sapphire Vision’ editions – born from the wish to fully display the complex HM9 movement through a transparent shell. Those HM9-SV editions were crafted in very limited editions of only 5 pieces because the sapphire cases are incredibly difficult to craft; if you look closely at other sapphire cases, they are essentially composed of two flat slabs screwed together. The HM9-SV case is anything but flat – it’s all about curves.

And to make things even more challenging, the minimum requirement of any MB&F case is 30m of water resistance. HM9-SV’s sapphire crystal hull is sealed with a proprietary combination of patented three-dimensional rubber gasket and high-tech compound bonding, mastered thanks to an in-house process involving a vacuum and high temperature. Thanks to our many years of experience with sapphire crystals – and with the precious help of our very talented Friends – we are able to machine and polish just a few transparent HM9 cases per year.
Our partnership – and friendship – with Edouard Meylan and his team at H. Moser & Cie. goes back several years: we started using the group’s hairsprings, manufactured by sister company Precision Engineering AG, for our LM1 in 2011. We continue to use their hairsprings today, including their exclusive double-hairsprings, in many MB&F Machines. That friendship gave birth to an extremely successful double collaboration in 2020, with the MB&F x H. Moser LM101 and H.Moser x MB&F Endeavour Cylindrical Tourbillon. Remember those?
During the Geneva Watch Days, we revealed our new collaboration: a Pièce Unique for the famous Only Watch charity auction, the H. MOSER X MB&F STREAMLINER PANDAMONIUM - including a one-off minute-repeater movement, conceived exclusively for this piece! Only Watch has been relentlessly raising funds since 2005 for research on Duchenne Muscular Dystrophy, a fatal genetic disease that progressively weakens children’s muscles.
The Streamliner Pandamonium is a mix of both our worlds, with signature elements from both sides: you’ll first notice H. Moser’s Streamliner case and a fumé dial in a brand-new colourway, stripped of logos and indices, in H. Moser’s typical minimalist style. Their minute repeater complication has been significantly modified to host our unmistakable flying balance wheel, floating under a sapphire crystal dome. And last but not least, the chiming mechanism is led by a miniature DJ panda, a creature that has become a mascot of MB&F creations for Only Watch.
Our original panda was created for Only Watch 2011 – as an allegory about the children suffering of Duchenne Muscular Dystrophy, of those children’s dreams... The panda returned in 2021 before making its third appearance now in 2023, this time inviting those children to escape their condition by immersing themselves in music, losing touch with reality for a few beats.
As shown in the video above, the panda placed alongside the minute repeater hammers seems to be mixing, its turntables rotating as the hammers strike the time. Made entirely by hand from white gold, at a height of just 5.35mm, the miniature figurine took countless hours of precision work to create, from the design and development phase, to modelling then manufacturing, followed by time at the hands of the engraver, the jeweller, the final polishing... and the meticulous painting.
Along with all the other unique pieces, the Streamliner Pandamonium has now embarked on the Only Watch world tour. After Los Angeles and New York, the pieces are headed for Monaco, on September 27-30. Next stops are Hong Kong, Bangkok, Singapore and Dubai, before heading back to Geneva and the auction itself, on November 5th.
 
Thanks for supporting Only Watch!

Before signing off, I have one more update to share - and it's not about MB&F, but about M.A.D.Editions, our separate, significantly more affordable label first presented in 2021. Some of you might already be familiar with this experimental side project, which started as a way to say thank you to the suppliers and clients who made MB&F possible - and has rapidly become a horological phenomenon.

 
After the very first M.A.D.1 - the "Friends and Tribe edition", recognisable thanks to its blue accents, and the M.A.D.1 RED, we just released the new M.A.D.1 GREEN. Like its predecessor, it is available through a raffle system – which remains open for a few more days, until September 26th. Participating in the raffle is obviously free of charge, and winners of the random draw get access to this new edition, at the unchanged price of CHF 2,900 + VAT. If the M.A.D.1 GREEN has caught your eye and you're eager to make it your own, here's your chance. Good luck!
Very best regards,
Maximilian Büsser
Owner & Creative Director