BY MICHAEL THOMPSON
MB&F Launches its First Collection for Women
MB&F HELPED KICK START THE RISE OF INDEPENDENT
WATCHMAKING FOURTEEN YEARS AGO creating retro-futuristic time
machines as envisioned by company founder Maximilian Büsser. Among
their traits, MB&F’s space age watch designs have always featured dramatic
case heights, which are typically worn most comfortably on larger wrists.
The debut of the round-cased 44mm Legacy Machines seven years ago
offered a more moderate case size to those with smaller wrists, while the
2014 Legacy Machine 101, at 40mm in diameter, is perhaps MB&F’s most
forgiving for those with smaller wrists. But, despite its size, the LM101 wasn’t
specifically made with feminine design refinements.
MB&F this year addresses its many female fans as it debuts the Legacy
Machine Flying T, the first MB&F watch collection made specifically for
women. The new watch is not only MB&F’s smallest-diameter model, at
38.5mm across, but it’s also the first MB&F horological art piece designed
with what historically have been considered feminine touches, including a
generous helping of diamonds.
DOMED TOURBILLON
The Legacy Machine Flying T is made with a round white gold case, a
cambered bezel and long thin lugs set with diamonds. And while the case
itself is thinner than those found on past Legacy Machines, the watch’s
height and extensive use of clear sapphire recalls the previous LM models.
Here, a high convex sapphire dome protects and focuses the eye on a
dramatic, slow beat flying tourbillon – the Flying T in the collection’s name.
Three versions will be made. Thus, the namesake flying tourbillon towers
above either a galaxy of baguette diamonds, a field of brilliant, round
diamonds or a sea of dark black lacquer.
That tourbillon tower is itself unusual and a technical challenge. The
shape of the upper tourbillon cage creates more mass on one side of the
tourbillon than the other, MB&F reports. To ensure that the tower doesn’t
topple (or, more specifically, doesn’t become unbalanced) MB&F places a
(hidden) counterweight under the tourbillon carriage opposite the dramatic
upper cage.
One of three MB&F Legacy
Machine Flying T models.
Here, the dial plate and case
are both fully set with
baguette-cut diamonds.
82 | INTERNATIONAL WATCH | SPRING 2019