Yesterday, MB&F dropped a new piece – the LMX Paris Edition. This white gold lady was created in collaboration with Laurent Picciotto, one of MB&F’s close friends. The particularity of this watch is the amazing purple dial.
Launched in 2021, the LMX pinpoints ten years of Legacy Machines, one more audacious than the other. Created in a random succession of complications and way of displaying time, the LMXs bear the wish of the unexpected. Max always says that the public and the collector must be surprised and any new piece should be different. And indeed, no one can predict the new pieces, regardless if a Legacy Machines, Horological Machines or co-creations. It is always fresh and new, with a twist… The reason why I and others love the brand so much.
With the present piece, LMX counts four limited editions:
- 18 pieces in 18K red gold with black NAC treatment on plates and bridges;
- 33 pieces in grade 5 titanium with green CVD treatment on plates and bridges;
- 33 “Steel & Brass” pieces in 316L stainless steel with a frosted face.
- And in 2023, a new limited variation of 15 pieces; the LMX Paris Edition, in white gold with a beautiful sunray purple dial.
A design that sticks out!
I think it is impossible to love high-end horology and not instantly recognise a Legacy Machine. The specific round case with highly domed crystal and exposed mechanics is inimitable. MB&F plays with steel, titanium and gold like these metals are plasticine, and everything inside is just cubes to put one on top of the other. MB&F makes everything look so easy in watchmaking. But only M.B. & Friends know exactly that this recipe is not an easy one.
The Paris Edition was manufactured in white gold, an excellent canvas for the inner purple guts. At 44 mm, the case is considered large, and the huge dome adds a lot of volume. But due to the bent lugs, clever ergonomic design, and an excellent strap and white gold folding buckle it is so nice on the wrist. It feels amazing. The feeling of having an MB&F LMX on the wrist is a psychological great experience that could not be possible without the obvious qualities of the watch itself.
You got me blowin’, blowin’ my mind
As Jimi sings: Whatever it is, that girl put a spell on me… the dial is mesmerising to the point you forget about yourself and the surrounding world – you sink deeper and deeper into the purple sunrayed dial. The way it catches the light, it darkens and lightens with any ray or shadow and metamorphoses into that wide range of unexpected shades and colours.
The LMX Paris Edition displays two time zones on two independent dials, each controllable via the corresponding crowns on each side. The power reserve doubles as a weekday indication. The hemispherical complication rotates, adding a new detail to be observed during the day.
Symmetry as a design rule
As with any MB&F calibre, the LMX offers a grade of complication and finishes that makes any hungry-for-detail eyes satiated. But like with any drug, one cannot stop returning, again and again, to study every mm in search of news details and new feelings of satisfaction – and this you get every time.
The top sides split into the independent two times displays with the huge balance wheel governing, like a generous god (taking care that everything runs as… a Swiss clock) above all. The back side splits between the three barrels, winded at once, offering an impressive seven days (168 hours) of energy.
Deep Purple and Purple Hase
Like any other art, the beauty and interpretation are in the eye of the beholder. “If I were to give a name to the LMX Paris Edition, I would undoubtedly call it the ‘LMX Deep Purple’ in reference to the famous 1968 rock group – this piece is definitely rock ’n’ roll!”, says Laurent Picciotto, founder of Chronopassion and owner of the MB&F LAB in Paris.
But I tend to disagree. While I agree this piece is rock’n’roll, I am more inclined to the Purple Hase of Jimi Hendrix. As someone who experienced the LMX Paris Edition on the wrist, the feeling I get is more about the search for the perfect woman: mysterious but revealing, voluptuous and sensual but with a feel of purity and not vulgarity, sweetness not malicious. The Paris edition is all about that positive feeling without experiencing the negative effects of drugs. Horology at this level is a drug that can be consumed without restrictions and regrets (other than, maybe, the financial: EUR 122,000 before taxes / EUR 146,400 including VAT).
MB&F LMX Paris Edition Technical Specifications
15 pieces in polished 18K white gold with a purple sunray dial.
Engine
- Three-dimensional horological movement developed exclusively by MB&F
- Manual winding with three mainspring barrels
- Power reserve: 7 days (168 hours)
- Balance wheel: new bespoke 13.4mm balance wheel with inertia blocks, floating above the movement
- Time display on two inclined dials in stretched lacquer
- Balance spring: traditional Breguet curve terminating in mobile stud holder
- Balance frequency: 18,000bph/2.5Hz
- Number of components: 367
- Number of jewels: 41
- Chatons: gold chatons with diamond countersinks
- Fine finishing: superlative hand finishing throughout respecting 19th century style; internal bevel angles highlighting hand craft; polished bevels; Geneva waves; hand-made engravings; polished arms of the straight bridges exposed on the dial plate, manually finished to a curved “bercé” profile on their upper surfaces; frosted face for the “Steel & Brass” edition.
Functions
- Hours and minutes: completely independent dual time zones displayed on two dials.
- Unique hemispherical power reserve with choice of weekday or 7-day indication; rotates to adjust the preferred power reserve indication.
- Left crown at 10 o’clock for setting time of left dial; right crown at 2 o’clock for setting time of right dial and winding.
Case
- 18K white gold case limited to 15 pieces.
- Dimensions: 44 x 21.4 mm
- Number of components: 27
- Sapphire crystals: High domed sapphire crystal on top and sapphire crystal on back with anti-reflective coating on both sides.
Strap & Buckle
- Grey hand-stitched alligator strap with purple lining and white gold folding buckle.
MB&F – GENESIS OF A CONCEPT LABORATORY
Founded in 2005, MB&F is the world’s first-ever horological concept laboratory. With almost 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 Horological Machines have explored space (HM2, HM3, HM6), the sky (HM4, HM9), the road (HM5, HMX, HM8) and the animal kingdom (HM7, HM10).
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. LM1 and LM2 were followed by LM101, the first MB&F Machine to feature a movement developed entirely in-house. LM Perpetual, LM Split Escapement and LM Thunderdome broadened the collection further. 2019 marked a turning point with the creation of the first MB&F Machine dedicated to women: LM FlyingT; and MB&F celebrated 10 years of Legacy Machines in 2021 with the LMX. 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 followed by M.A.D.Galleries in Taipei, Dubai and Hong Kong.
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.