MB&F Continues its Decade-Long Race to Perfect the Automotive-Inspired Luxury Watch
Unconventional design is one of our favorite aspects of the independent watch lineup we have carefully curated at Stephen Silver. And of all our brands, MB&F is the undisputed master of this kind of creativity.
We’d like to offer you a closer look at the independent Swiss watchmaker’s just-released horological marvel, the HM8 Mark 2. The timepiece follows the brand’s decades-long quest to fuse high-octane automotive inspiration and high-performance horology and is in fact, the fourth such watch the brand has created.
All the brand’s watches bear the personal stamp of founder Maximillian Büsser, and it’s no wonder so much energy has been devoted to automotive themes. As a youngster, Max dreamed of becoming a car designer, but while this particular ambition never came to pass, he has made up for it with his watches. The brand’s new HM8 Mark 2 once again draws on Büsser’s appreciation for automotive lines to inspire a wholly modern three-dimensional timepiece.
Race Ready
The exterior of the HM8 Mark 2 showcases the same meticulous craftsmanship of its inner workings. Rather than the monobloc chassis employed for the HMX and HM8, HM8 Mark 2 features a water- resistant chassis to which the body panels of the watch are affixed.
The robust Grade 5 titanium chassis has been crafted in CarbonMacrolon® body panels in a choice of white or British racing green CarbonMacrolon® with matte finishes on top and high polished sides. The British racing green version (limited to just 33 pieces) boasts a red gold rotor and balance wheel with turquoise minute markers, while the white version features a green CVD rotor and light green minute markers.
CarbonMacrolon® is a super-strong, highly rigid new composite material designed specifically for MB&F, composed of a polymer matrix injected with carbon nanotubes. Carbon nanotubes offer superior tensile strength and stiffness than that found with traditional carbon fiber reinforcing, and this ultra-hard, super- strong materials offers endless design applications and finishes – while weighing eight times less than steel.
Milling and processing super-strong materials-CarbonMacrolon® and titanium- presented the MB&F team with the ultimate challenge, as did the creation of the double-curved sapphire crystal and the 22-karat gold battle axe rotor blades.