Founded in 2005 by Maximilian Büsser, MB&F (Maximilian Büsser & Friends) reflects an extremely personal approach adopted several years earlier. While serving as CEO of Harry Winston Timepieces, Büsser had launched a series of Opus watches created in cooperation with independent watchmakers. With MB&F, he wanted to go even further by setting up a concept lab in which each creation would emanate from a collective of talented independent professionals. They integrated innovative Fine Watchmaking movements into 3D constructions so as to give rise to radically different watches called Machines. In 2007 the tone was immediately set with the launch of the Horological Machines (HM) collection, and in 2009 the HM3 stunned observers. It remains to this day MB&F’s most successful creation. When imagining his Machines, Maximilian Büsser finds ideas in the things that fired his imagination as a boy, and particularly the sci-fi universe. Named Starcruiser, the first HM3 stood out by a raised display of the hours and minutes, appearing under voluminous truncated sapphire cones. Such feats would previously have been deemed impossible, given the extreme difficulty of achieving perfect transparency of sapphire when cut this way. MB&F pushed the limits of a technology that it has been exploring ever since. Another spectacular and distinctive feature of the HM3, a consequence of the inverted construction of the self-winding movement, the iconic MB&F battle-axe rotor appears in all its splendour on the watch’s surface. Inspired by Grendizer’s most powerful weapon, it is dubbed a ‘mystery’ rotor because it appears to be symmetrically balanced, hence unable to perform the rotations required by its function. The ingenious trick lies in reducing one of the crescents of the battle-axe to a razor-thin edge. So far, the HM3 has given rise to 20 variations: the Starcruiser has been joined by the Starcruiser Sidewinder with cones that are perpendicular rather than parallel to the arms; the ReBel designed to be worn on the right wrist; the Megawind with oversized rotors; and the Frog models with their frog’s eyes taking the place of the truncated cones, including a sapphire FrogX for the tenth anniversary in 2020. Above and beyond MB&F itself, the HM3 has also inspired the Finish watchmaker Stepan Sarpaneva for his MoonMachines and the French jeweller Boucheron for its stunning JwlryMachines.

• Stunning 3D case, topped by unprecedented sapphire cones • MB&F’s emblematic battle-axe rotor, highlighted on the front of the watch