Horological Meandering

patrick_y
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MB&F X H. Moser Collaboration Timepieces

MB&F is one of my all time favorite independent watch brands.  Max Busser & Friends was started by Max Busser, the former CEO of Harry Winston’s Rare Timepieces and the brainchild of the “OPUS” line of specialty watches where Harry Winston collaborated with special watchmakers. 

Since its founding fifteen years ago, MB&F has launched its collectors on (figurative) rockets to the stars and beyond while reminding its owners to stay true to their childhood roots.  MB&F even has a fitting motto, “the creative adult is the child who survived.”  I can imagine that Busser’s children must have the most animated father, and whom themselves will become great creators of their time.  As a fan and owner of this brand’s work, all I can say is that it’s been a first-class experience and every year I eagerly await to see the latest products from the brand! 

Enter H. Moser et Cie.  Moser is a brand with a rich Russian history, as it was originally founded in 1828 in Saint Petersburg but quickly found its way back to Schaffhausen.  In fact, Moser even helped IWC get established in Schaffhausen.  The company as we know it today was re-launched in 2002 and is once again based in Schaffhausen, Switzerland.  I don’t personally own a Moser product (not due to a lack of desire, as who can resist a fumé Moser dial…) but I can't wait to one day add one to my collection (they had a star wheel watch with a blue fumé dial I tried to get)!  Moser has very high standards of quality, one such example is they even produce their hair springs in house!  This is very rare for a small manufacture to operate this kind of small volume hair spring facility, as they don’t have the scale to make it economical.  However, since Moser timepieces often have unusual hairsprings (some are even cylindrical instead of flat hairsprings), having your own production in-house does give your brand a lot of flexibility.  To try to achieve scale, Moser does supply other small brands with custom hair springs, other brands such as MB&F.  It was only natural for the two brands to collaborate on a watch (or two watches) one day! 

Thus, two watches are celebrating the partnership between the two brands.  These two pieces are an incredible expression of artistic collaboration between two very interesting brands.  The DNA of each brand has been faithfully integrated at every level, they are genuine products as you can see in the video below…

LM101

MB&F X H. Moser

Like the previous MB&F Legacy Machine 101, this one is another interpretation, steel-cased, and with that beautiful Moser dial and a beautiful MB&F movement.  Kari Voutilainen was involved in the making of this timepiece.  The dial with Moser’s characteristic Fumé quality indicates the hours, minutes, and the power reserve.  The balance wheel is prominently positioned; it’s a large balance wheel, with a high moment of inertia, and a slow 18,000 beat (I like large balance wheels with slow beats because it's more difficult to shock a large balance wheel) and it has a double hairspring! 

Four colors are available and only 15 of each color will be sold!  Sixty total!  Move quickly, as you’re competing with both MB&F collectors and Moser collectors!  Pricing is around $52,000 US Dollars. 

Endeavour Cylindrical Tourbillon

H. Moser X MB&F

The H. Moser X MB&F Endeavour Cylindrical Tourbillon employs a rare cylindrical hair spring tourbillon.  Now, what is the advantage of this special feature?  Cylindrical hair springs are much more difficult to produce but they offer real benefits! 

Flat hair springs exert a large amount of force at their opposite ends towards the pivots even with a Philips curve or a Breguet curve, the stress is heavily concentrated at the ends of the spring where they are not evenly concentric (I know, the entire spring is spiral, not concentric, but I’m referring to the “even spiral” area as being the concentric area). 

This is not so on a cylindrical hair spring; the stress is much more minor at the ends as it is dispersed three dimensionally, furthermore, the stress is distributed through the entire spring rather than concentrated at the ends because the entire body of the spring is nearly perfectly concentric.  This is really something quite rare, only a few very manufactures have made cylindrical hair spring tourbillons.  Only the Jaeger-LeCoultre Gyrotourbillin 3 comes immediately to mind. 

In short, even Patek Philippe’s tourbillons utilize a more traditional flat hair spring layout.  A cylindrical hairspring tourbillon is truly a different level of haute horlogerie. 

The sapphire crystal is also highly domed, and such a sapphire crystal will require significant special machining.  These kind of domed crystals must be cut under oil very slowly to prevent cracking.  Thus, a crystal like this one would probably require more than an entire day of patient machining! 

Only 75 pieces will be made; fifteen pieces in each of five different colors; funky blue, burgundy, cosmic green, off-white, and ice blue.  Pricing is more than reasonable for a high quality tourbillon at $79,000 US Dollars! 

Max Busser (L) and Edouard Meylan (R) two of the coolest gentlemen in the Swiss Watch Industry.  I've had the pleasure of meeting and knowing Max for the past fourteen or so years!  Herr Meylan, I look forward to meeting again soon! 

Special Bonus: I will be sporting a borrowed Moser Endeavour Tourbillon and sharing my thoughts about it in the next few days for the next week or so.  Please feel free to ask questions about this piece! 

We have a lot of Moser owners and MB&F owners here on WatchProSite.  I trust this collaboration will be very pleasing for those existing owners!  No matter which one you procure, you will be owning a very special watch with a very special hairspring. 

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