Independents

The HM2 is shaping up to be a platform for Max to express various designs. Looking forward to seeing this in the metal in Geneva.

- SJX

Press release:

Horological Machine N ^o 2- SV (Sapphire Vision)

 

MB&F presents Horological Machine N^o 2-SV, featuring a room-with-a-view crystal-clear sapphire case with titanium back. With its totally transparent case, HM2-SV offers unprecedented visual access to the painstakingly hand-finished, 349-component engine powering the indications on its iconic twin dials.

 

Sapphire's hardness is second only to diamond, which makes the whole top half of the case (the most exposed half) extremely scratch-resistant. This is a timepiece that will keep its good looks for a very, very long time.

While wristwatches have long featured synthetic sapphire crystals, its use in watchcases has been much more limited, and with good reason. Sapphire retains its strength at high temperatures, has zero porosity and only reacts with acids above 300°C. However, the very properties that make it so attractive as a potential case material also make it immensely difficult to work, requiring sophisticated diamond tools to machine, and then it needs to be very carefully polished to turn the naturally opaque surface transparent. The process would have been very difficult for even a plain plate of this size, but the complex, three-dimensional form required for HM2-SV, with its bevels, mounting holes, crystal cut-outs and gasket track, pushed the extreme limits of sapphire crystal technology way beyond what was thought possible.

 

Surprisingly, because it is largely unseen, the sapphire is a substantial 3.6mm thick. Thanks to anti-reflective treatment on both sides - in itself no small technological feat to uniformly apply - the case becomes virtually invisible and allows for full appreciation as the eye is drawn into appreciating a myriad of sublime nuances that are revealed in the intricate movement. Eight mounting bolts, traversing the sapphire plate like pillars and passing through the bright blue gasket sealing the two case halves adds to the architectural nature of the three-dimensional case. The eye-catching blue of the gasket is echoed in the hour disk and moon phase, and also the blued 22k gold Battle-axe automatic winding rotor is arrestingly visible through the display back.

To ensure maximum light and visibility through to the movement, the two dials - minutes and date - are also in sapphire, sapphire disks lightly brushed to a perfect translucency ensuring full legibility of the polished silvered numbers while allowing maximum light through to the engine beneath.

 

While Horological Machine N^o 2-SV is a highly engineered 21st century timepiece in every sense, the quality and execution of the hand finishing showcases the very best in traditional craftsmanship. It is craftsmanship that is brought to the fore as the sapphire case allows uninterrupted light to enter, bounce and scintillate off the highly polished surfaces and perfectly hand-bevelled edges, bringing vivacity to the rich combination of colours, materials, shapes and textures.

The engine, developed by award-winning master watchmaker Jean-Marc Wiederrecht, features the world's first mechanical movement offering: Instantaneous Jump Hour, Concentric Retrograde Minutes, Retrograde Date, Bi-Hemisphere Moon Phase and Automatic Winding. One highlight (of many) of the HM2 complication is the highly energy-efficient Jump Hour/Retrograde mechanism developed by Jean-Marc Wiederrecht, which uses his exclusive (and patented) asymmetrical-tooth gear wheels to ensure high precision and play-free functionality.

 

HM2-SV – Technical Specifications

 

Horological Machine N ^o 2-SV is a limited edition of 25 pieces only

 

Movement:

Jean-Marc Wiederrecht/Agenhor designed functionality regulated and powered by a Girard-Perregaux oscillator and gear train

Balance oscillating at 28,800 bph

Blued 22k rose gold Battle-axe automatic winding rotor

 

Number of components: 349 including 44 jewels

 

 

 

Functions:

Left dial: Retrograde Date and Bi-Hemisphere Moon Phase

Right Dial: Jumping Hours and Concentric Retrograde Minutes

 

Case:

Sapphire/titanium limited to 25

Dimensions (exclusive of crown and lugs): 59mm x 38mm x 13mm

Water resistant to 30 meters (3 ATM)

Number of parts: 120 (case only)

 

Sapphire crystals :

Sapphire case top and crystals over the dual dials treated with anti-reflective treatment on both faces. Display back with anti-reflective treatment on single face. 

 

Dials:

Brushed sapphire and metallic blue disks

 

Strap & Buckle:

Black hand-stitched alligator with 18k white gold & titanium folding buckle

 

Presentation box:

Precision engineered aluminium and leather instrument case featuring an integrated Rüeger thermometer

This message has been edited by SJX on 2010-01-12 01:23:38

its well worth the wait. This one is literally BEGGING for a look-see and TOUCH in the metal. Doing so might be difficult given its ultra limited numbers though. Another winner by MBF! Thanks again for sharing...

I ain't a fan of iterations but this skeleton sapphire view of the insides...  Will you change my case?

Very nice Max and MB&F!

Can I have my case changed too

Shashi

the man and  the brand, are light years ahead of the current time, i wouldn't use the word futuristic to describe it, that would put it in time frame, which is the opposite to the fact that WHOLE MB&F is in timeless frames.

 

 Faisal

 

 

the most beautiful version of the HM2...Bravo Max!

the watch case might look something like this






this HM2 is damn pretty! does its dimensions change? if i have to pick on anything it ll be the blued torsion bars to add rigidity to the case rim, i would preferred a more curvy/fancy design or simply making it matt/silver/chrome so it blend in with the background, instead standing out with lighting blue~

Cheers,
Ed~






 

This message has been edited by lien on 2010-01-12 04:21:17

Fantastic version of an amazing piece.

Thanks.

Vte

No message body

Great idea from Max to end the HM2 series... I hope I will get the chance to see it in the metal.

see in it the metal?? more like glass!!!

 

best looking HM2....when i i ever afford one...sigh

That's a good one, you are right

I too will have to save for decades to buy one, but it does not matter: I see these objects as pure art, and luckily we can appreciate pieces of art without owning them. I will be very happy just to see it in the glass and handle it for a while. And my personal congratulations to the lucky owners of this gem.

I'm smitten.
*CL

Very beautiful indeed. My favorite HM2 thus far!

Great job Max!

Hope to see it in person one day.

Jon (Z3)

And not 100% surprising, it's the logical step after the all sapphire face of the Only Watch

A

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A few esteemed PuristS will be visiting with us in Geneva next week.  Hopefully they will be able to get great pics of it!

process for the sapphire glass is also extremely intense given the incredible difficulty of craftsmanship on that sapphire top plate and over 55 hours of machining and polishing is required for just for one base plate - with approximately 3 out 4 breaking in the process!

You stuck to your guns and that has paid off.  Great job MB&F!

thanks for sharing this info. Makes me eager all the more to see this one in the metal/crystal

Congrats to all of you at MB&F.  Pretty freakin' spectacular, Steve -- and now I finally know what the "SV" stands for!  Great seeing you last week!

Cheers,

Daos

No matter if one owns another HM2...these HM2 platforms are incredibly aesthetically pliable.

I can love the many variations...I am biased...but these pieces really work.

The "feel good factor" and the "feeling of peace" in owning them....I can only share in the abstract.

They are not Pateks or Dufours or De Bethunes...but they deliver that 'owning a motorcycle" experience...or driving a convertible with the top down along a desert road with NO PEOPLE around. The feeling that you are alone, or there are just very few people, it is not the "exclusivity"  that gives it the feeling, but the fact that very few will understand it. The feeling of being alone in a 1% minority...it gives peace.

These feelings come at my age of 52. I don't know how I would have felt 10 years younger...but these days, I value a certain quietness inside.

The MBFs all deliver that.

Aestically "loud" but internally very quiet.

This message has been edited by bernard cheong on 2010-01-12 19:58:31

looks like year will see you taking possession of at least 2 very interesting pieces!

I believe i will never sell these pieces as they form a greta portion of my own social memories and life.

Today, a great poet and medical doctor Goh Poh Seng passed away. The memories of the lounge he set up in Singapore and the restaurant in the 80s were so much a part of my younger days.

They are all gone and closed down.

These watches...20 years from now...I want to sit back and remember these days. And all of the purists and my friends.

They are unique enough..rare enough...but at least a few dozen have been made so that they have points of reference.

I don't make any watches, but it feels as though some of these are so much a part of the fortunate owners.

I have felt it with EVERY MB&F.

Bernard that you derive so much from watches.  I must steal a "5 minute on the wrist" from you when you receive this.

I am totlaly happy for MB&F and what they have done with the SV.  Maybe a bit of a downside for me is that I think it is nicer than my HM2 RG iteration :-(

Just last week...I had to decide between a Porsche Carrera and a Carrera s or a Turbo.

For those not living in Singapore, these cars are taxed to the tune of $230,000 usd minimum.(..and we have to pay a tax every 10 years). Very painful especially to watch collectors.

The thing is..like the HM2 RG and this newer ones...the platform 911 is full of models...but each has its "own" niche value which it delivers to the owner. In your case, the HM2 RG is no lesser than this new one. Unlike my choice of a Carrera, which is not as fast as the S or the Turbo. The base  car is already too much for me...I am not at all a 'good driver type", and I spend 99% of the mileage driving at 60mph max. I bought the car simply because I want to keep it as "my" car...till I retire. A classic.

 

Congrats on that too!

And a familiar visitor from an old friend of ours!

 

 

Remember Irin from Ulysse Nardin and Harry Winston?

She is doing well...and looks as great as ever!

But I digress...the Porsche 911 wristwatch.

I got this as a part of the car, plus a great cool Porsche tool kit, and the funny thing about cars..you don't get the box ...but you get the papers.

bernard,

 

congrats on the car...again. do u have the singapore porsche club Anonimo club watch?

singapore porsche club Anonimo  watch...I think that's maybe for the earlier Porsche owners.

I have only had these cars since 2007.

Remember that your piece was the original design.  The original concept was to create the world's most complex case (over 100 components in the case alone) of modular design inspired by the Meccano sets that Max played with as a child.  This sapphire piece is an amazing evolution, but would not make sense without the original.

Max created MB&F so that he could be as creative as possible.  That means producing whatever amazing idea and challenge is in his head, which necessarily means creating multiple small editions.  It is our nature to look at things in the short term and view each latest piece as better than the last, but with the perspective of time we will see that they are all amazing creations in their own right, and each offers something different.  MB&F will never be about creating limited editions for a race car driver or a different colored dial.  The point is for every machine to be a creative expression - something which we personally think is so cool that we have to attempt to make it.

I am very glad that you love the SV, but I sincerely hope that it does not make you love your amazing HM2 any less.  And, if you need more comforting, you can always remember that the HM2-SV will be considerably more expensive than the gold piece (the sapphire plates are VERY expensive to make).

Best,
Steve