It is easy to mistake technical triumphs for mere cold calculation, yet MB&F has always cherished the beating heart within the machine. With the arrival of the Legacy Machine 101 EVO, the Swiss maison celebrates its twentieth anniversary in a fashion as evocative as it is technically profound. The LM101, first unveiled in 2014, was always about essentials – the hypnotic dance of the balance wheel, the quietly reliable power reserve, the passing of hours and minutes on an eccentric stage. Now, with the EVO treatment breathed into its sinews, this timepiece rises anew: tougher, more daring, and ever more romantic. It stands not as a cold monument to MB&F’s past, but a poetic celebration of resilience, artistry, and the joyous ritual of winding a mechanical soul each morning.
CVD treatment: salmon and green
Looking into the sapphire expanse of the LM101 EVO is like peering through a portal suspended between tradition and vibrant modernity. Two editions emerge this year, sculpted in titanium with dial plates coloured by chemical vapour deposition, one resplendent in shifting peacock green, the other blushing with the rarest shade of salmon. These colours are not superficial, the dials forming an integral structural element of the movement thanks to the advantages of the CVD technique. As light caresses the peacock green dial, hues of blue and violet shimmer, transforming even a momentary glance into a lingering gaze.
Floating above the main dial, two black subdials, now ringed by finely executed circlets, provide vital information. The hours and minutes, both supremely legible and elegantly poised at the top right, display themselves via newly designed white gold hands. Below, the power reserve indicator whispers a promise: sixty hours of autonomy, a significant increase inspired by the EVO’s robust character. And yet, nothing prepares the heart for the spectacle of the 14mm “flying” balance wheel, hovering as if suspended in air, cradled by a twin-arched bridge of breathtaking finish. This is horological theatre at its most emotionally resonant.
Bespoke 14mm balance wheel
Beneath the dial hums a calibre that encapsulates MB&F’s ethos: radical, but with reverence for historic watchmaking. This is the first movement entirely imagined and engineered in-house by MB&F, with finishing specifications guided by the legendary Kari Voutilainen. Manual-winding by its very nature, the movement offers sixty hours of reserve through a single slipping barrel, its energy modulated by a bespoke 14mm balance topped with the esteemed Straumann® double hairspring. The slow cadence of 18,000 vph imbues each oscillation with a lyrical sense of time’s passage.
This engine is assembled from 233 components and 23 jewels, including lustrous gold chatons sunk into the plate. The execution of the movement is poetry in motion: internal bevel angles trace the artisan’s patient hand, while Geneva waves undulate across the plates like the memory of water in moonlight. Polished bevels catch the light with every wrist motion, and countersunk, blued screws add a flash of quiet drama. Bridges and plates have been treated with NAC blackening, an EVO signature, giving the movement a shadowed allure visible through the box sapphire caseback.
Every surface encountered by the eye reveals superlative nineteenth-century finishing. Engravings are applied by hand, as are the sensually curved bevels, maintaining a living dialogue with pocket watches of a bygone era. The movement now includes the MB&F FlexRing system, a circular shock absorber nestling the calibre inside the case, engineered for protection against daily affronts while preserving delicacy and nuance.
The EVO effect
The LM101 EVO’s case, wrought in titanium, is the very antithesis of fragility. Measuring 40mm across and 16.5mm high, every contour is designed with ergonomics in mind. The absence of a traditional bezel not only modernises the silhouette but amplifies the crystal’s domed clarity, providing an unobstructed view into the mechanical tableau within. Pressed against the wrist, the case is anchored by an integrated rubber strap, offered in sleek white or elegant grey, to ensure a seamless fusion of performance and comfort.
The architecture is fortified by an impressive 80 metres of water resistance, an unusual achievement for such a sculptural watch, enabled by a robust screw-down crown and thoughtful case sealing. The aforementioned FlexRing sits, unseen yet ever vigilant, conferring shock resistance for today’s busier, more adventurous times. Both crystal faces are box sapphire, each doubly anti-reflective for a limpid, distortion-free perspective, whether admiring the darkened movement or the animated dial above.
Such structural mastery is not achieved by accident: the case comprises 42 individually manufactured components, all hand-finished and assembled under the strictest standards, echoing MB&F’s relentless pursuit of innovation layered with sensuality.
A luminous sense of joy
As the LM101 EVO takes its place in MB&F’s pantheon, it does so not in the spirit of self-congratulation, but as a heartfelt overture to those who dream, who collect, who wind a watch to feel the world breathe. It is a timepiece that absorbs the intelligence and decades-honed hand of over thirty partners, artisans, and engineers, from Kari Voutilainen’s finishing wisdom to the artisanal engravings and the high-tech contributions of CVD dial makers and titanium case artisans.
In this anniversary year, what resounds is not just MB&F’s technical prowess, but a luminous sense of joy, a time-honoured cadence where love of the mechanical meets love of the ephemeral moment. The LM101 EVO is not limited in the usual sense, yet as with all truly rare works, only a few dozen will ever emerge each year from the workshops, ensuring each owner a seat in MB&F’s unfolding romance. As British dusk melts into midnight, slipping the LM101 EVO onto the wrist is like clasping the hand of horological history – warm, unexpected, and ineffably alive.
MB&F Legacy Machine 101 EVO Technical Specifications
Functions
- Hours, minutes and power reserve indicator
- Large balance wheel suspended above the dial
Movement
- Three-dimensional horological movement developed in-house by MB&F
- Movement aesthetics and finishing specifications: Kari Voutilainen
- Manual winding with single slipping mainspring barrel
- Power reserve: 60 hours
- Balance wheel: Bespoke 14mm balance wheel with four traditional regulating screws floating above the movement
- Balance spring: Straumann® double hairspring
- Balance frequency: 18,000bph/2.5Hz
- Number of components: 233
- Number of jewels: 23 jewels
- Chatons: gold chatons with polished countersinks
- Fine finishing: superlative 19th century-style hand finishing throughout; internal bevel angles highlighting hand craft; polished bevels; Geneva waves; hand-made engravings, NAC black bridges.
Case
- Material: Titanium with “FlexRing” shock protection system
- Diameter: 40.0 mm
- Height: 16.5 mm
- Number of components: 42
- Lug-width: 17 mm
- Lug-to-lug: 49 mm
- High domed sapphire crystal on top and box sapphire crystal on back, both with anti-reflective coating on both sides
- Water-resistance: 80m / 8ATM / 270 feet
- Screw-down crown
Strap
- Grey or white rubber strap with matching titanium folding buckle.
MB&F – GENESIS OF A CONCEPT LABORATORY
Founded in 2005, MB&F is the world’s first-ever horological concept laboratory. With over 20 remarkable calibres forming the base of the critically acclaimed Horological and Legacy Machines, MB&F is continuing to follow Founder and Creative Director Maximilian Büsser’s vision of creating 3-D kinetic art by deconstructing traditional watchmaking.
After 15 years managing prestigious watch brands, Maximilian Büsser resigned from his Managing Director position at Harry Winston in 2005 to create MB&F – Maximilian Büsser & Friends. MB&F is an artistic and micro-engineering laboratory dedicated to designing and crafting small series of radical concept watches by bringing together talented horological professionals that Büsser both respects and enjoys working with.
In 2007, MB&F unveiled its first Horological Machine, HM1. HM1’s sculptured, three-dimensional case and beautifully finished engine (movement) set the standard for the idiosyncratic Horological Machines that have followed – all Machines that tell the time, rather than Machines to tell the time. The fiercely unconventional Horological Machines have explored themes as diverse as space and science fiction, aviation, supercars, the animal kingdom and architecture.
In 2011, MB&F launched its round-cased Legacy Machine collection. These more classical pieces – classical for MB&F, that is – pay tribute to nineteenth-century watchmaking excellence by reinterpreting complications from the great horological innovators of yesteryear to create contemporary objets d’art. Certain Legacy Machines have also given birth to EVO editions, featuring increased water and shock resistance compatible with collectors’ active lifestyles. MB&F generally alternates between launching contemporary, resolutely unconventional Horological Machines and historically inspired Legacy Machines.
As the F stands for Friends, it was only natural for MB&F to develop collaborations with artists, watchmakers, designers and manufacturers they admire.
This brought about two new categories: Performance Art and Co-creations. While Performance Art pieces are MB&F machines revisited by external creative talent, Co-creations are not wristwatches but other types of machines, engineered and crafted by unique Swiss Manufactures from MB&F ideas and designs. Many of these Co-creations, such as the clocks created with L’Epée 1839, tell the time while collaborations with Reuge and Caran d’Ache generated other forms of mechanical art.
To give all these machines an appropriate platform, Büsser had the idea of placing them in an art gallery alongside various forms of mechanical art created by other artists, rather than in a traditional storefront. This brought about the creation of the first MB&F M.A.D.Gallery (M.A.D. stands for Mechanical Art Devices) in Geneva, which would later be joined by the M.A.D.Gallery in Dubai – along with MB&F Labs, which showcase a more compact selection of artists in locations like Singapore, Taipei, Paris, Beverly Hills and Silicon Valley.
There have been distinguished accolades reminding us of the innovative nature of MB&F’s journey so far. To name a few, there have been no less than 9 awards from the famous Grand Prix d’Horlogerie de Genève, including the ultimate prize: the “Aiguille d’Or”, which rewards the best watch of the year. In 2022, the LM Sequential EVO was awarded the Aiguille d’Or, while the M.A.D.1 RED won the ‘Challenge’ category. In 2021, LMX won the Best Men’s Complication and the LM SE Eddy Jaquet ‘Around The World in Eighty Days’ was awarded in the ‘Artistic Crafts’ category. In 2019, the prize for Best Ladies Complication went to the LM FlyingT; in 2016, LM Perpetual won the Best Calendar Watch award; in 2012, Legacy Machine No.1 was awarded both the Public Prize (voted for by horology fans) and the Best Men’s Watch Prize (voted for by the professional jury). In 2010, MB&F won Best Concept and Design Watch for the HM4 Thunderbolt. In 2015 MB&F received a Red Dot: Best of the Best award – the top prize at the international Red Dot Awards – for the HM6 Space Pirate.