In the effervescent chalice of horological innovation, MB&F has birthed the Horological Machine No. 11, an opus that fuses the artistry of a watchsmith’s soul with the solid grace of structural design. Max Busser, the visionary behind MB&F, acknowledges a kinship between the delicate craft of watchmaking and the grand edifice of architecture, a parallel that’s manifest in this timekeeping marvel birthed from introspective deliberations since 2018.
In the HM11 Architect, one discovers more than a mere instrument of chronology; it is a domicile for minutes and hours, where time’s persistent passage finds elegant abode. The revelation that a timepiece can envelop one as radiantly as an exquisite building has led to an appreciation of wristwatches as bijou architectures unto themselves. Max Busser, alongside Eric Giroud, his maestro of design, have harvested inspiration from the vintage vault of 1960s futuristic habitats, where modularity and malleability reigned supreme and organic forms married the built environment.
Tracing celestial orbits, the HM11 dons a dial resembling sixties wall clocks, where hours are perched upon rods like miniature constellations, vying for the awe of the beholder’s gaze. Adorning the wrist, the HM11 astounds with a pivoting case, a design conjuring the escapism of amorphous space, serving both aesthetic engagement and the utilitarian zeal of high-torque winding. With every turn, the wearer cavorts with kinetic sculpture, imbibing the mechanical rapture of the ninety-six-hour power reserve.
Peer into the HM11’s heart and encounter a tourbillon of fantastic architecture, a floating clover housed within the quadrant’s embrace, bespoke of 364 components. Each part, a testament to MB&F’s commitment to an balanced synthesis of the ornamental and the utilitarian; all within a fortress safeguarded by eight gaskets and a ball-bearing citadel designed to thwart the relentless siege of temporal erosion.
Lastly, the HM11 enchants with its rare mechanical thermometer, nodding to an era when the internal climate of time’s engine foretold its performance. A functionality harkening back centuries, yet thriving in modernity, it complements the architectonic philosophy of HM11—a temperature gauge resonant of a home’s heartbeat.
The Horological Machine No. 11, encased in titanium’s sturdiness and sapphire’s clarity, with a retail ascension to $230,000, resides in the ultra-limited constellation of just 50 celestial bodies—split into twin families of blue and red gold. MB&F has not merely crafted a watch but an artefact, where every glance is an odyssey through time’s cunning architecture.
