BY MICHAEL THOMPSON
On the edge of the watchmaking universe, the aerodynamic MB&F
Horological Machine No. 9 ‘Flow’ channels mid-20th-century automotive
and aeronautic design.
THE WILD CREATIVITY MUST
NOT HINDER OUR QUALITY
AND PERFORMANCE.”
Maximilian Büsser
WITH SO MANY OF ITS PREVIOUS HOROLOGICAL MACHINES
ALREADY CRUISING THROUGH THE TIME/SPACE CONTINUUM AT
UNIMAGINABLE SPEEDS, MB&F’S LATEST MODEL, THE HM9 FLOW,
HAS TO TRAVEL LIGHT YEARS TO CATCH UP TO ITS FOREBEARS.
BUT, SINCE THE HM9 FLOW IS ESSENTIALLY A JET ENGINE, IT WILL
UNDOUBTEDLY REACH THE MB&F HM4 THUNDERBOLT AND THE
MB&F HM6 SPACE PIRATE VERY SOON.
MB&F founder Maximilian Büsser also frequently battles with watchmaking
convention. Because of HM9’s unusual aerodynamic shape, Busser and Friends
needed to divide the 57mm-wide titanium case along two axes and devise an
unprecedented three-dimensional gasket for the watch.
“Our own MB&F engineers initially said the whole project was not feasible
– for one because there is no way such a design could be made water-
resistant,” explains Busser. “Six months later, they had worked with our gasket
Launched just a few months ago from deep within the bowels of MB&F’s Geneva manufacturer to create the first-ever 3-D water-resistance gasket. It may
HQ, Horological Machine No.9 Flow clearly recalls aeronautic jet propulsion seem like a little detail, but it is an incredible step forward for contemporary
with its two satin-finished air scoops seamlessly mounted alongside two balance watchmaking.” This patented innovation, a world premiere, makes the HM9 case
wheels ensconced in sapphire-topped pods. Between them, the movement’s water resistant to thirty meters.
prominent (and unusual) planetary differential gear ensures that the dial,
showing hours and minutes, remains precise, even though the dial is set at a THE MOVEMENT
90-degree angle to the movement. The engine within this dramatic case took two years to develop. It could very
Of course, MB&F is well versed in creating time machines that seem to likely only have been devised by the team that has created fourteen unusual
defy gravity and the laws of physics. But this latest watch demonstrates that movements, at least one of which (Legacy Machine No. 2) also utilized a double
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