Deserved Winner at GPHG - MB&F Legacy Machine Perpetual

The Legacy Machine Perpetual was launched in 2015 and what an impact it made.

Max and his friends certainly know how to make the complicated look as good as it does. Clean, uncluttered yet sophisticated. I can’t put my finger on it, but despite the high complication of the mechanism, the look just works for me. A gorgeous art piece in my humble opinion.

This year, the 2016 edition of the Grand Prix d’Horlogerie De Genève honoured Max Busser’s Legacy Machine Perpetual with the Calendar Watch Prize. And what a field that was competing in this category - LM Perpetual, H Moser & Cie’s Endeavour Perpetual One Concept Funky Blue, Chopard’s L.U.C Perpetual Chrono, Bovet’s Virtuoso VII Retrograde perpetual calendar just to name a few. Strong field but the LM Perpetual came out tops. Not surprised…

The beauty of the LM Perpetual is the fact that many perpetual calendar timepieces use the sub-dial layout but while MB&F adopted a similar sub-dial layout, he also designed it with an “open work” concept. Brilliant!

Congrats to Max Busser and the talented Stephen McDonnell for the win! Thoroughly well deserved.

28 is the new 31 - Legacy Machine Perpetual by MB&F

As we all know by now, the latest incarnation of the Legacy Machine is perhaps one of the most beautiful perpetual calendar around. And with all things MB&F, there is always a lovely story behind how this came about.

The LM Perpetual was four years in the making but the collaboration went back nine years when Max started MB&F and was working on the HM1. As Max would tell you, they were facing some very uncertain future as the movement maker had backed out. With the help of Peter Speake-Marin, they managed to round up some independent watchmakers amongst which was a "relatively" unknown but talented Stephen McDonnell. The team went on to complete the HM1, made deliveries and the rest they say is history.

Fast forward five years and Max is now is much better shape and it was time to payback a favour. In all of MB&F's timepieces, regardless whether it was the HM or LM series, they always started with Max having a particular vision of wanting to create something close to his dreams. But with the LM Perpetual, that was a different story altogether. Irish born and Oxford educated McDonnell was given the free reign to design and develop the timepiece - when asked what he wanted to create, he knew immediately the perpetual calendar was what he had wanted to do.

Max explained that in "traditional" perpetual calendars, the number of days in the month is controlled primarily by using modules built on top of the base movement. However, Stephen McDonnell had devised a new mechanism (patent pending). He argued that no matter which month and regardless of whether it was a leap year or not, every single month has 28 days. From this point when the mechanical processor is activated, it will guide the date to 29, 30 or 31 depending on the month in question. Here is Max explaining the processor...

Four years later, the "baby" was born and the result a stunning perpetual calendar named LM Perpetual. 25 each will be made in Platinum and Rose Gold every year and according to Max, 90% of the first year's production has been snapped up!

The layout of the perpetual calendar is somewhat "usual" with the sub-dials but has every hallmark of the Legacy Machine with the overhead balance wheel. And in this case, the escapement had to be at the rear of the movement. One of the pain points was how to "connect" the balance wheel with the escapement. And the result was a 12mm long steel shaft just 0.16mm in diameter. But what I really like about the LM Perpetual is the legibility of the sub-dials.

The balance wheel if you are curious is 14mm in diameter.

Max also explained that the built in pushers, which are found on the side of the case are done in such a way that they will not be activated during the "sensitive" time between the hours of 10pm and 4am. Pushing those pushers will not jam the movement.

The dome sapphire gives the LM Perpetual a different feel and gives it a three dimensional look too.

On the movement side, another magnificent movement - one of the best finished movements around.

The double barrel provides 72 hours of power reserve and the movement consists of 581 components. Movement beats at 18,000 BPH and the movement is signed Stephen McDonnell.

What I like about the LM series is the dial - super glossy finished dial. And MB&F partner Serge Kriknoff told me that it is not enamel, not even lacquer but a for of "stressed varnish". A trade secret but it gives the LM the signature "Glossy Lacquer" finish on every LM dial.

And every piece comes with a deployment buckle with the signature MB&F logo.

Truly a beauty - well proportioned and definitely legible. The "lack" of a dial gives the timepiece that raw look... definitely a plus for me. Shows the mechanism in full view and not hidden below a dial. The blue brushed base lends a classy feel to this platinum piece.

There are perpetual calendars and then there are Perpetual Calendars... LM Perpetual qualifies as a must have (if pocket is deep enough) and the other is the Moser Perpetual One. So if money is no object, make sure you book your LM Perpetual soon. Available exclusively in Singapore to The Hour Glass.

Pictures taken with iPhone 6S. Thanks to the folks at the Hour Glass for the invite.

Max Busser Unveiling HM6 - Space Pirate

We were hosted by The Hour Glass on the day of the unveiling of the new Horological Machine Number 6 from Max Busser & Friends.

The venue was a private room at the Grand Hyatt Mezza9 restaurant and hosted within the wine cellar! Cool stuff for a cool timepiece launch.

Max explained how the timepiece was inspired by his childhood character of Captain Future and the space station in that series. See how the HM6 "time capsules" resembles the space station capsule?

But not only that, he also spoke about how he was influenced by BioDesign and the works of Luigi Colani. The form and the flowing designs of Colani is evident in the HM6 and Max paid tribute to that influence.

As with many engineering feat, the engineers have more say but with the HM6 Max and the design team was adamant on what needed to fit into the timepiece. Otherwise, it will be all to easy to make the watch a lot larger than the final product.

The final product is breathtaking. Looking like a vehicle straight out of a sci-fi movie, the HM6 is ultra light being that it is made of titanium. The first piece was delivered to Singapore already.

The timepiece sits nicely on the wrist. And I think it is an instant hit - not only with the men but also with the women who probably see this as a high jewellery art piece. I like it! No, I love it!!! What do you think?

Thanks to The Hour Glass for hosting the event. More detailed report on the HM6 to come.

Watch Friend GTG @ Diamond Kitchen

How time flies as more than two months have lapsed since we last had our Get Together. It is the month of May and we met at Diamond Kitchen for our GTG.

And the theme this time was around non-round case watches and round case watches. Every time we meet, we want to be double-wristed and hence the double theme. We made a booking for two tables at Diamond Kitchen at Laguna Park (Marine Parade Road) and a total of 17 turned up.

Diamond Kitchen as I was told is opened by people from the diamond trade and the bosses are super fussy eaters - good news for us patrons. We started with the salted egg yolk sotong. Not too salty and cripsy on the outside, the squid is juicy on the inside and done just nice. Not too tough and just the right amount of salted egg yolk.

Next up was the clam broth bee hoon (vermicelli) which IMHO is always the highlight of the meal at Diamond Kitchen. The broth is thickened but very tasty - real taste of clams. The clams were fresh and rather juicy. And the way they cooked it, the bee hoon does not get soggy even after 10-15 minutes in the broth.

Another must try is the steamed sea bass. I was told that the sea bass comes from the sea and not from seafood farms. The meat was succulent and the fish was definitely fresh. Well done! What we had ordered but not featured here in picture is the champagne pork ribs. Another great dish - more so for the children. Tender pork ribs marinated in champagne, floured and lightly fried to seal in the juicy bits. Unfortunately, I was too busy eating I forgot to take a picture of the dish.

Superior chicken soup - boiled for a few hours and not always available (I suggest you order ahead), the soup has lots of dried mushrooms and probably one whole chicken in the pot. Tastes like chicken tonic soup - good for health and the soul too.

Of course one can't do without vegetables and my personal fav is the three eggs spinach in broth. Cooked with three kinds of eggs - century egg, salted egg and the "normal" egg in a delicious broth.

Next up was the cereal chicken. A rather unusual iterate of the dish. Most restaurants will do cereal prawns but this is the first time I had cereal chicken. Done pretty well - not fantastic but the chicken was tender.

Two more dishes - the gan xiang fried rice and the or nee (yam paste). The fried rice was rather normal other than the fact that this is a spicy version fried rice. Nothing special to me.

Another winner for me that night was the or nee (yam paste). Smooth and fragrant, the or nee came with ginkgo nuts and steamed pumpkin. Thumbs up for this one. And then the highlight of the night.

Table shot of the watches present. See anything familiar? As you can seem the left side is all the round case watches including two pocket watches and the right side are the non-round case ones.

A closer look at what was there… The round ones.

The not so round ones… and some interesting pieces I might say. Two JLC Reverso Grande Dates - one in steel and one in gold. First off, some interesting round ones.

An unusual piece - the Urban Jurgensen. Someone said this resembles Kari Voutilainen and it was promptly pointed out that Kari had some connection to the man and the brand.

Next an old Minerva pocket watch. The movement was cleaned by Sean and now working well. In fact, he had done some work on the case - had it polished.

And as usual, we tend to find an IWC pocket watch courtesy of one of our friend.

The Omega Speedmaster Pro made its appearance and in a Nato strap. A wonderful iconic timepiece.

Another unusual piece from Blu. Revolving hour and a rather nice complication.

Not only is this not round, it is eight sided. The Audemars Piguet Royal Oak City of Sails.

Next the Panerai Radiomir PAM 231. Not my favorite brand but unusual anyhow as they don't make many gold pieces. They are more well known for their steel pieces.

And two very interesting pieces - one from Roger Dubuis and the other from Lange & Sohne. The Roger Dubuis is the Sympathie three handed watch with central seconds.

This is one of the unique piece of the evening - unique for a few reasons. This is the white gold great dial version. Only 25 pieces were made for the Lange Owner's Group (LOG) and this is piece number One! Elegant and definitely worth it if you can get your hands on it.

And this must surely be one of the highlights of the night - other than the Lange Cabaret LOG. The Limited Edition HM2. On picture, the watch looks big but on the wrist, the watch is rather wearable. And the moon phase and date display on the left with the time on the right. Readable.

The back of the movement featuring the battle-axe automatic winding rotor. And a very unusual rectangular IWC vintage piece below.

We talked a lot more this time around which meant I had less time to take pictures and post them. I would have loved to photograph the two JLC, the Rolex Explorer 2 and the other Habring, Movas, Reed and Seikos.

Next time my friends, I promise more photos. but first things first - when are we going to have the next GTG?

Back to Basics - LM101 MB&F

So Max Busser was in town recently to launch the new Legacy Machine named LM101.

Back to basics is what the LM101 is - the "least" complicated piece by Max Busser and Friends. And what a beauty the 101 is. First. let's start with a comparison - the LM2 versus the LM101, side-by-side.

The LM101 is a very wearable 40mm bearing the hallmark of the LM series - a domed shaped sapphire glass and a suspended balance wheel.

The crown is at the four o'clock position and the dial displays the time and a power reserve. As with all LM art pieces, the dials are beautifully shiny and resembles enamel. But Max says they are not enamel but rather a special form of lacquer.

A closer look at the watch - the bottom dial is the power reserve.

And the case back - the hand wound movement signed by Max and Kari Voutilainen. Level of finish is what you would expect from an MB&F.

Another look at the watch - sorry for the poor quality of the pictures as it was taken in restaurant lighting. The timepiece is in white gold.

A final look at the LM101 in B&W. Understand the pricing is sub 90k SGD. A very beautifully crafted piece and one for the ladies too. Kudos to Max and his back to basics! Thanks to the Hour Glass for hosting the dinner.

That is Max unveiling the LM101 from his pouch. Congrats to a new wonderful art piece by MB&F!