Elizabeth Doerr On How Independent Watch Brand MB&F Is Taking Innovation To New Heights

Bazaar’s watch columnist Elizabeth Doerr unpacks how the independent watch brand MB&F continues to keep the industry on its creative toes with innovative designs and unexpected collaborations

At Baselworld 2019, MB&F introduced the perfect marriage of technology and beauty in the sexy and mechanically interesting Legacy Machine FlyingT. This watch dedicated specifically to women is an uber-successful marriage of jewellery, high mechanics, and – surprisingly – collaboration.

The relatively petite powerhouse – the case comes in at 38.5 mm in diameter, an amazingly compact size in which to house so much inventive technology – stars a unique vertically constructed flying tourbillon movement captured under a high dome of sapphire crystal that simultaneously protects the watch and acts as another element of the artistic whole. Complex gears are stacked at the centre of the dial, half hidden by what seems like an incidental display of time shown by tiny serpentine hands, and topped off by a flying tourbillon crowned by a largish brilliant-cut diamond endstone. Thanks to the tourbillon’s constant motion, the valuable gemstone consistently reflects an impassioned, fiery light.

This three-dimensional mechanical oeuvre is conveniently (but surprisingly given the level of mechanical complexity) automatically wound using the motion of the wrist; the ingenious calibre with vertical architecture boasts a practical four-day power (100-hour) reserve. Winding is achieved by what is perhaps the most beautiful oscillating weight in watchmaking: an artistic sun sculpted in red gold.

At the time of its debut, MB&F introduced three variations of the Legacy Machine FlyingT with varying degrees of gem setting featuring flawless brilliant-cut or baguette-cut diamonds paired with a striking black lacquer dial and white gold case. Each of the three models in this edition highlighted both the watch’s extreme, innovative mechanics and wondrous decorations: one features 168 diamonds for a pleasant balance between technical appeal and jewellery, while a pavé diamond-set edition utilizes 558 precious brilliant-cut stones to transform the Legacy Machine FlyingT into a bona-fide haute joaillerie creation. The third edition features baguette-cut diamonds boasting more than double the carat weight of the pavé diamond-set edition, including the dial.

But that wasn’t the end of the FlyingT: subsequent editions featuring= changes in appearance due to use of different materials included tiger’s eye, malachite, and lapis lazuli dials as well as non-gem-set variations in 2020 housed in red gold and platinum cases featuring black and sky-blue guilloché dial plates with radial patterns of scalloped arches crafted by long-time MB&F collaborator Kari Voutilainen’s dial facility, Comblémine.

Collaboration with a capital M, B, and F

What founder and CEO Maximilian Büsser next had in store for the FlyingT was rooted in the idea of collaboration that caused him to leave his lofty position as CEO of Harry Winston Rare Timepieces 20 years ago and risk founding MB&F entirely according to his own vision. An important component of this vision is the brand’s extreme transparency regarding the people and organisations who help create the watches. MB&F makes all its creations with “friends” – “MB&F” stands for “Max Büsser and Friends” – and the objects they create together are meant to push the envelope in every technical and aesthetic sense.

The next two FlyingTs therefore should not have surprised me as much as they did, but a collaboration between a boutique brand and a major group-owned conglomerate is probably about as rare as an intelligent wristwatch like the FlyingT itself: the MB&F x Bvlgari LM FlyingT Allegra of 2021 came about thanks to a friendship between Büsser and Bvlgari’s product creation executive director, Fabrizio Buonamassa Stigliani. Converging on the shared platform of jewellery making and mechanical audacity, this 40-piece edition’s case was slightly redesigned by Buonamassa Stigliani, a far less obvious element than the jewels of various volumes and cuts adorning both case and dial that those in the know recognise immediately as Bvlgari’s house style: tourmalines, tsavorites, diamonds, rubellites, amethysts, tanzanites, and topazes form an exceptional composition around the movement. The serious dial entirely paved with snow-set diamonds provides a dazzling backdrop.

The latest FlyingT, though, is an extraordinary collaboration with a young, cutting-edge French jewellery designer named Emmanuel Tarpin: LM FlyingT Ice and FlyingT Blizzard were introduced in late 2022. Tarpin was only 25 years old when he set up his own eponymous business in Paris, crafting one-of-a-kind pieces for private clients drawn to his unique style. Signature elements of his creations include volume, lightness, texture, and movement, which he achieves by using unusual materials like aluminium, bronze, and copper combined with precious and colourful gemstones. Tarpin created a blue-and-white colour scheme to represent icy winter conditions on “his” pair of FlyingTs, which includes the use of rare Paraíba tourmalines on the crowns and to top off the mechanical tourbillon assembly, the focal point of the watch. Tarpin and MB&F also eliminated all gold-coloured movement elements that would have clashed with the icy theme and had the visible balance wheel tempered blue.

“We are not jewellers, we are watchmakers,” Büsser simply states. “So I started to see jewellers, great jewellers, to ask them if they would like to put their artistry and jewellery into our FlyingT – much like giving them a blank canvas to paint.” And together they have created something extraordinary.

Elizabeth Doerr is the editor-in-chief of QuillAndPad.com, a digital publication that keeps a watch on time.

Lead Image Supplied

From Harper’s Bazaar Arabia’s February 2023 issue.