Tag: MBF

MBF and L’Epée : DestinationMoon

Post author By ukwatches
Post date April 21, 2017

The latest MB&F and L’Epée collaboration, Destination Moon, uses the latter’s eight-day movement to power a rocket. Developed specifically for Destination Moon, L’Epée’s eight-day movement follows the basic engineering of a real spaceship.

the power for Destination Moon comes from the oversized winding crown in its base. It has a vertical regulator (protected by a panel of mineral glass) underneath the time display, as well as a time-setting knob at the top of the movement.

Hours and minutes are displayed by large, white numerals on stainless steel disks at the very top right below the tip of the rocket. You set the time using a knob at the top of the movement.

Just like on the launch pad of the MB&F Caran d’Ache Astrograph Pen released last year, there is also a small astronaut that comes with the clock, called Neil (not Tintin). Clad in a space suit of silver and stainless steel, he has a magnet at the front which allows for him to be attached to the ladder connecting the crown to the movement.

Powered by a single barrel, the clock’s movement is composed of 164 parts, with mirror polishing, bead blasting and satin brushed finishing. It is made of palladium-plated brass, stainless steel and nickel-plated stainless steel. The rocket’s body is stainless steel, and the hour and minute indications stamped on rotating stainless steel discs

The clearly close relationship that has developed between MB&F and L’Epée over the years of their partnership, which blossomed in sometimes whimsical, sometimes unexpected, but always highly creative ways, was born this time at L’Epée. Movement designer Nicolas Bringuet dreamt up and created the movement, and MB&F intern designer Stefano Panterotto came up with the body in which it could reside.

If you look at all their co-creations there is no mistaking the partnership. Their creations have developed their own identity and creative signature involving stainless steel sometimes punctuated by colour, and a ‘skeletonised’ type of look. In a way it has almost become its own brand.

Along with the base silver model, the MB&F Destination Moon clock is also available in three different colours variants for its palladium-plated brass landing pods (PVD-coated black, blue, and green respectively), each of which is available in a limited edition of 50 pieces each. Size wise, it is 41.4cm tall and 23.3cm wide at its base, and weigh 4kgs. The RRP is 19,900 CHF.

Tags Baselworld 2017, Clocks, Limited Editions, MBF, PVD

Hands-on MBF Replica Sport Watch Technical Watch

MBF Presents LM1Silberstein

Post author By ukwatches
Post date June 27, 2016

Once inside the meeting room we saw today’s replica watches, which are not only the latest Performance Art pieces to be launched by MB&F, but also their second partnership with Silberstein.

Known for his primary colour dominated playful replica watches of his eponymous brand, which ceased in 2012, you may be familiar with his 2009 MB&F Performance Art collaboration, called the HM2 Black Box.

The Legacy Machine series, whilst commencing with more conservatively styled aesthetics, has grown into a horological playground for partnership, notably with Xia Hang with his endearing Mr Up/ Mr Down, and now with Silberstein and the LM1.

So I was at Baselworld 2016 waiting for my appointment when I noticed a familiar looking person. I stood there wracking my brains, trying to match a name. Then I glanced down at his wrist.

It was Mr. Alain Silberstein, of course.

The dual time zone and vertical power reserve indicator are where Silberstein has left his mark, with the use of the red, yellow and blue trio he is known for, and the triangle, square and circle, all shapes which are prominent features of his own replica watches. However, you will also note that the bridge is sapphire, which not only adds an interesting visual contrast from a material point of view, but also grants an unobstructed view of the balance wheel.

Powering it all is of course the now familiar manual-wind movement developed for MB&F by Jean-François Mojon/ Chronode and Kari Voutilainen with its (newly styled) 14mm balance wheel floating high above the movement and two dials.

Another thing you will notice is that the sub dials are now concave, making them look like small metal bowls, almost.

The first MB&F Alain Silberstein collaboration is very difficult to track down. Even then, there is little getting around the fact that it’s a replica watch of proportions that don’t suit every wrist. This new threesome in rather more ‘user friendly’ proportions now gives a new opportunity for fans of the first, Silberstein fans, and MB&F fans, to scratch their ‘watch itch’.

Each of the three versions of this new Legay Machine are in a 42.5mm case with a thickness of 17mm. This is in contrast to the original LM1, whose measurements are 44mm and 16mm high.

Engraved in French between the lugs of LM1 Silberstein is something special to him : “Le vrai bonheur est d’avoir sa passion pour métier” (“Making a profession of your passion is true happiness”).

This new LM1 Silberstein timepiece comes in three variants with a limitation of twelve pieces per model as per below :

Grade 5 titanium (79,000 CHF + VAT)
Grade 5 titanium treated with black PVD (79,000 CHF + VAT)
18 carat red gold (88,000 CHF + VAT)

Strap-wise, you will get a black hand-stitched calfskin strap with black top-stitched seams with the red gold model and straps with red top-stitched seams for both titanium case models.

Tags Baselworld 2016, Hands-on, Limited Editions, MBF, Switzerland, Watch Profile, watches

MBF Replica

Replica MBF Legacy Machine Perpetual, The First QP Of The Brand Reveiw

Post author By ukwatches
Post date November 3, 2015

And the saga continues… After a first timepiece to launch the concept, the Legacy Machine 1, with a super-clean design and great elegance, followed by a second and more complicated replica watch, the Legacy Machine 2 and finally the “value proposition” of the brand, the recent Legacy Machine 101, available in two editions, including the so-cool Frost, it’s now time for MB&F to explore one of the finest complications available on the market. Without loosing the whole concept of the Legacy Machines – replica watches that MB&F could have manufactured 100 years ago – the brands goes into serious replica watchmaking, with the brand new MB&F Legacy Machine Perpetual (featuring, as you’ve probably guessed, a perpetual calendar complication).

Reminder about the Legacy Machine collection

When launching the first replica watch of the Legacy Machine collection – alongside the other collections of cheap and best replica MB&F, the Horological Machines (from HM1 to HM6 and HMX) and the Music Machines – the goal of Maximilian Büsser was to imagine the replica watches that he could have created if he was born in 1867 instead of 1967, but still with the same spirit of innovative, bold and somehow crazy design. The result was the Legacy Machine 1, launched in 2011, a replica watch deeply vintage but at the same time modern, with a strange steampunk feeling, a sort of Nautilus for the wrist (the vessel from Twenty Thousand Leagues Under the Sea, not the replica watch from Patek Philippe). The Jules Vernes inspiration is clear. It’s like science-fiction from the late 1860s. The replica watch in question, the Legacy Machine 1, is inspired, clean, architectural and features a massive balance wheel flying over the dial – something that will later be the hallmark of the collection.

2 years later came the second iteration of the collection, in the name of the MB&F Legacy Machine 2, a replica watch inspired by some of the greatest replica watchmakers, Ferdinand Berthoud (a name resurrected a few weeks ago) and the contemporary Philippe Dufour, with the concept of a dual balance wheel equalized by a central differential. The replica watch, even more complicated and more architectural, remained close in the design and the concept, something that also goes for the little sister, the Legacy Machine 101, a sort of Value Proposition, with a more reasonable size (40mm), a more reasonable price, but still with a flying balance wheel and movement finished by Kari Voutilainen (same as the two other editions by the way). Superbly designed and finished for sure, but horologically-speaking, these replica watches were quite simple, displaying only the time and the power reserve (on the LM1 and LM101) – even if the mechanics are not that simple. With the Legacy Machine Perpetual, MB&F plunges into something more traditional and more technical, the perpetual calendar.

The brand new MB&F Legacy Machine Perpetual

As said, it’s one of the first attempt from MB&F to go into proper horological complications. Previously, the replica watches made by Max Büsser and Friends were complicated because of their display rather than displaying complications. Let me explain, with the example of the HM3. The movement is complicated not because of the indications (only minutes and hours) but because of the position of these indications. Same goes for the recent HM6, with time-indicators perpendicular to the movement – and with an extra-tourbillon. However, MB&F replica watches yet never came with real, traditional complications, until today with a QP on this MB&F Legacy Machine Perpetual. For this replica watch, Max teamed up with Northern Irish replica watchmaker Stephen McDonnell, ex-introductor at WOSTEP (Watchmakers of Switzerland Training and Educational Program) and now independent replica watchmaker.

Before explaining the MB&F Legacy Machine Perpetual in detail, we first have to understand a perpetual calendar. You may know it, but a QP takes into consideration the months with 30 or 31 days, but also the month of February with 28 days and finally the month of February during leap years, when it has 29 days – meaning that it only needs one adjustment every 100 years (if it continuously runs). Most of the perpetual calendars are modules added on the top of an existing, classical 3-hand movement – like it’s the case at Montblanc or Patek Philippe. The calendar indications are synchronized by a long lever (in French “grand levier“) running across the top of the complication and passing through the central axis of the hands. As the date changes, this long lever transmits information to the appropriate components and mechanisms by moving backwards and forwards. Then, in the traditional grand levier system, perpetual calendars assume that, by default, all months have 31 days. At the end of months with less than 31 days, the mechanism quickly skips through the next dates before arriving at the 1st of the new month. Any manipulation or adjustment of the date during changeover can result in damage to the mechanism, requiring expensive repairs by the manufacturer.

In the case of the MB&F Legacy Machine Perpetual, this becomes quite problematic, as the axis of the hour and minute hands is not in the centre and because right in the center of the replica watch, you have the pinion of the flying balance wheel that transmits its movement to the escapement. Thus, the use of a “grand levier” is impossible and the classical architecture has to be reimagined. The solution came in the brain of Stephen McDonnell that imagined “mechanical processor“.

Instead of using a long lever (grand levier), the MB&F Legacy Machine Perpetual relies on a patent-pending mechanical processor composed of a series of superimposed disks. Instead of assuming that every month is composed of 31 days and skipping some when needed, this mechanical processor considers that all the months are 28 days – because, logically, all months have at least 28 days – and then adds the extra days as required by each individual month. This ensures that each month has exactly the right number of days. Instead of skipping (with all the issues that it brings), the MB&F Legacy Machine Perpetual inly adds what is necessary. This mechanical processor also allows the quick setting of the leap year (instead of scrolling through up to 47 months to find the right year and month) and also allows a inbuilt safety feature that disconnects the quickset pushers during the date changeover, eliminating any risk of damage while the date is changing.

The use of this mechanism instead of the long lever system allows a specific design too. As a long lever rotates all over the dial, it prevents to have sub-dials with studs because they would block the motion of the long lever mechanism. A completely skeletonized QP is rather difficult to implement or could only be achieved by having a transparent plate that fully covers the dial over the mechanism. In the case of the MB&F Legacy Machine Perpetual, the mechanical processor permits to have a display fully opened with skeletonized sub-dials and no main dial over the indications, allowing for a complete view on the QP mechanism. The display however remains quite classical for a perpetual calendar, with an off-centered main dial at 12 (for the minutes and the hours), 3 sub-dials displaying the date, the day and the month, and two gauges, one for the leap year (at 7) and one for the power reserve (at 5).

The replica watch itself remains in the vein of the other Legacy Machines, with a 44mm case (actually, a large diameter but the most appropriate size for this collection) available in 18k red gold or in 950 platinum. Hands are blued and sub-dials are made from several layers of whitish lacquer that resemble old enamel or glass – again two classical features of the LM replica watches. The platinum edition features an electric blue main plate and sub-dials circled in silver (like the Platinum edition of the MB&F LM1) while the red gold edition features a blackened main plate, gilded circles around the sub-dials and a gilded balance wheel.

The back reveals the brand new and fully in-house movement. Technically speaking, it has nothing in common with the previous movements used in the LM1 or the LM2 but still features the same overall look and pocket replica watch inspiration. The movement side reveals a double barrel (that provides 72 hours of power reserve) and the hidden escapement module (next to the bridge engraved MB&F). While on the other Legacy Machines we had Kari Voutilainen as a consultant for the finishing, here we don’t have mention of his name anymore. Nevertheless, the finish of the previous editions seems respected, with angles beveled and polished by hand (including some internal angles, even if fewer than before), large Geneva stripes on the bridges or rubies inserted in gold chatons.

The front of the replica watch shares this same attention to details, with all the parts of the QP finished with polished chamfers and straight graining. We also find back the large arch bridge that holds the balance wheel and its superb round pillars with a mirror polishing. We wished to have more time with the replica watches to examine the details and to confirm the quality of the execution. However, from a quick look, it looks respectful of the rest of the MB&F production.

Final words. In fact, the MB&F Legacy Machine Perpetual gains in complexity but looses in purity. We had the same feeling after seeing the LM2 compared to the LM1. The first of the collection was a blast, a slap in the head that stacked in our heads. It was the purest, the most inspired – also because it was the first one. The effect could have been different if the LM2 was came out first. The MB&F Legacy Machine Perpetual leaves us this sort of feeling. It is impressive, complex, mastered and it brings innovative solutions to a traditional complication. The design and the execution are great, there’s not doubt about it. For those who think the LM1 is too simple or not limited enough, the MB&F Legacy Machine Perpetual will be the perfect choice and they’ll enjoy it a lot. The thing is that here, at Monochrome-Watches, we have a huge retinal persistence issue and the LM1 can’t go out of our eyes.

The MB&F Legacy Machine Perpetual will be limited to 50 pieces (25 for each edition). Price: 138,000 Swiss Francs (ex. taxes) for the 18k red gold edition and 168,000 (ex. taxes) for the platinum edition. More on www.mbandf.com.

Thank you to our friend Amr Sindi, from The Horophile, for sharing with us these photos of the new MB&F Legacy Machine Perpetual. More of his work on his Instagram account @thehorophile.

Tags MB&F Legacy Machine 2, MBF

MBF Replica

Replica MBF HMX : the most affordable MBF(yet)

Post author By ukwatches
Post date August 26, 2015

A while back replica MB&F told us that one of their 10th anniversary replica watches would be their most price-accessible replica watch to date. This alone was enough to have many waiting patiently to find out not just the price, but also of manner and form this would take.

It turned out to be the HMX (‘X’ for ‘ten’, naturally) and perhaps less predictably, a variant of the HM5, so for those familiar with that replica watch, this green one, at their Australian AD The Hour Glass, is a more price and size accessible ‘version’. In some ways it is a ‘version’, but it feels like very much its own timepiece when seen ‘in the metal’.

The body is stainless steel and Grade 5 titanium, with two sapphire crystal prisms reflecting and magnifying the bi-directional jumping hours and trailing minutes which are in the familiar vertical display so you can just angle your wrist to read the time.

The time display works thus – it is a projection of the two rotating discs on top of the movement. The numerals on the discs are reflected 90° and magnified by two sapphire crystal optical prisms that project’ the time onto the front vertical display.

Also visible through the sapphire crystal are supercar-inspired covers featuring funtional chrome oil filler caps that are unscrewed to oil the jewel bearings for the indicator discs. Bonus aesthetic feature.

This use of stainless steel (versus the full Ti of the HM5) is one of the ways in which MB&F have managed to make this cost so much less than its elder relation. Another significant reason is that it has a Sellita movement as its base, versus the Girard-Perregaux base of the HM5.

Aesthetically they are undoubtedly related but as well as being smaller (apparently the size of the HM5 was a point of concern to many), it is curvier and looks less ‘solid’, for want of a better way of putting it; there is more on display.

The four colours that have been released in limitations of 20 pieces have been, in keeping with the exotic/ supercar-inspired theme, are Lotus Black, Ferrari Red, Bugatti Blue and British Racing Green. The price is CHF 31’400 (including VAT) and for Australia, go to MB&F’s authorised dealer The Hour Glass for all enquiries.

TECHNICAL SPECIFICATIONS

-Limited edition of 4 x 20 pieces in grade 5 titanium and stainless steel
-Movement: Three-dimensional calibre composed of a jumping hour and trailing minutes module developed in-house by MB&F, powered by a Sellita gear train.
-22K gold automatic winding rotor
-Power reserve: 42 hours
-Balance frequency: 28,800bph/4Hz.
-Number of components: 223
-Number of jewels: 29

FUNCTIONS/INDICATIONS

Bi-directional jumping hours and trailing minutes, displayed by dual reflective sapphire crystal prisms with integrated magnifying lens

CASE

-Grade 5 titanium and stainless steel with detailing in Lotus black, British racing green, Bugatti blue or Ferrari red
-Dimensions: 46.8 x 44.3 x 20.7 mm
-Number of components: 44
-Water resistance: 30 meters
-Sapphire crystals on top, front and display back treated with anti-reflective coating on both faces
-Dual reflective sapphire crystal prisms with integrated magnifying lens.

Tags Hands-on, MBF, Sydney, Watch Profile, watches

MBF Replica

Replica MBF’s HM6 ‘SpacePirate’

Post author By ukwatches
Post date November 29, 2014

A little while back Horologium introduced MB&F’s latest Horological Machine, the Space Pirate. A little while after its launch replica fashion MB&F Head of Communications Charris Yadigaroglou came to Australia with the new HM6 for its Australian launch, and I had the opportunity to see handle the replica watch ahead of its local launch.

If you want the specs, you can click on the link above to read my first post. This post will concentrate on the all-important ‘in the metal’ experience, which I had for an hour or so at The Hour Glass, and then that evening at a Sydney launch dinner with local collectors.

One of my recurring themes is how important it is to keep an open mind about pieces that you have read about and seen many photos about, even those for which you may have seen up to a hundred press and live images. Even the best of us may have a preconception about a replica watch based on what we see and read on our screens, but too often, the reality of handling the replica watch is different to the pixels of it.

As I discussed with a few people during the Sydney HM6 launch dinner, most of whom were handling MB&F replica watches for the first time, it can be a divisive brand, designwise. As with a number of independent brands, perhaps with the exception of the more classically styled Legacy Machine replica watches of recent times, MB&F pieces are not replica watches that are intended to have broad appeal. When I first saw the photos of the HM6 I confess that I wondered whether this would fall into the ‘unwearable’ category, with its large size, protrusions even on the caseback, and general bulk. Was the HM6, I pondered, so totally out of even the MB&F ballpark that I simply would not ‘get’ it?

The Space Pirate is inspired by a part of Max Busser’s childhood, the Japanese cartoon Capitaine Flam, so it was this thought in my mind when I picked up the replica watch. This is where the first surprise hit me.

Something that had I had not fully grasped when reading about it, even with the knowledge that the case is made of titanium (the parts of the case are, in fact, made from a single block of the stuff), is how light this piece is. I believe that I may have look startled when I picked it up, and deeply clichéd though the expression may be, I may have said something at the time about it being as light as a feather. My friend the#watchnerd had seen the HM6 at Salon QP and told me that it was very wearable and light, but it appears that I need to experience this for myself. Not only is it incredibly light but also extraordinarily comfortable, surprisingly so. The bumps on the back about which I had reservations went unnoticed when I had it on my wrist, the size of the replica watch somehow became irrelevant because it sits so comfortably. So much so in fact, that one is in danger of not remembering that it’s there (always a fear for those of us who worry about dings on our replica watches).

It is a far more engaging replica watch than I had expected it would be, a far more comfortable replica watch than I had thought it would be, and I was reminded about why it is important to not let the often dominant exterior of MB&F replica watches dominate one’s thoughts about them. The HM6’s movement is not to be sneezed at. Recall that it is a new automatic movement for them, that it has a sixty-second flying tourbillon. The movement, of which there will only be one hundred made, has 475 parts, and took three years of development. The winding battle-axe rotor is Pt 950.

In each of the four corners of the case is a 360° sphere, capped top and bottom by transparent sapphire crystal domes. A non-watch person, upon seeing a photo that I posted and perhaps confounded by its design and not knowing where to look, couldn’t immediately tell where the time indicators were, but they are easily found – the two spheres at the front with their semi-sepherical indicators that rotate in a circle, displaying the hours and minutes. The two turbines at the back, which balance the design, spin horizontally, regulating the winding system.

In my earlier post I wondered whether the twin turbines were a nod by Max Busser to the HM5’s louvres, and I still ponder this. What was fascinating was that the longer the time that I spent with the replica watch, the more time I spent looking at it, the more it seemed to take on different identities. It started off very much as a machine (which, after all, is that to which the ‘M’ in ‘HM’ refers, quite apart from the Capitaine Flam references) but then, as the rather addictive (and hypnotic, but repetition tends to do that, I find) ability to open and close the toubillon’s retractable cover (which as an ingenious safety mechanism so that you do not accidentally go too far and ‘force’ the closure or opening) took hold of me, the Space Pirate gradually became less machine and more a live creature.

At some times I saw the tourbillon cover as a mouth, at other times an addition ‘eye’ to those of the turbines. Perhaps I was seeing some of the protrusions from other MB&F replica watches as I interacted with it. Perhaps it was becoming almost like a cyborg in my mind’s eye, but with the organic parts hidden from view. In looking at MB&F’s own description, they call the case ‘biomorphic’, and whilst I may not have agreed with this before I saw the piece, after having handled it I can see and recognise this biomorphism.

This is not a replica watch that you simply look at and say ‘wow’ to, although this is very likely the initial impression that is aroused in most of us. It is a replica watch to be touched, worn, and examined quietly. It is also much more wearable than, for example, the HM4. When I saw it with Charris at The Hour Glass, who are MB&F’s authorised dealer in Australia, I was with a long time collector and enthusiast who started ruminating aloud about how really, does he need somewhere to live? I’m not encouraging living in a car in order to get a replica watch, but yes, the Space Pirate that kind of effect on people.

Tags Hands-on, Limited Editions, MBF, Sydney, watches

Swiss Replica

NEWS :Replica MBF Performance Art Piece collaboration with XiaHang

Post author By ukwatches
Post date February 27, 2014

MB&F have just announced their latest ‘Art Piece’ – a collaboration with Chinese artist Xia Hang (about whom you can read more at the M.A.D. Gallery website), some of whose thoughtful whimsical sculptures featuring an E.T.-like creature can be viewed at the M.A.D. Gallery in Geneva.

I was able to preview this new Performance Art piece when I visited M.A.D. Gallery at the end of January.

This new Performance Art Piece is an adaptation of the highly successful Legacy Machine 1, about which you can read here. The nature of Xia Hang’s adaptation of this piece is both inspired and deeply engaging – the power reserve indicator is a miniaturised version of his creature, just 4mm in height. He droops despondently when the (45 hour) power reserve goes down, and rises more cheerily when it goes up.

The small automatons are made in Switzerland and not by Xia Hang, who is used to creating on a somewhat larger scale. They are aluminium (chosen for lightness of weight) which is first crafted and machined, then polished, and then hand-finished. If you look at them under a loupe (I used a Loupe System), you can see the care that has gone into them.

This new Performance Art piece has the LM1 movement in its 44mm case (height of 16mm) and features independent dual time displays; the time on the left dial is set by a crown at 8 o’clock and for the right, at 4 o’clock.

There will be twelve pieces in rose gold and twelve in white gold, priced at CHF 92,000. The creatures are informally called ‘Mr Up’ and ‘Mr Down’ depending on how his power reserve status is going. Each swiss cheap replica watch sold will come with larger models of Mr Up and Mr Down which are numbered and signed by Xia Hang on the base.

The MB&F “Performance Art” pieces are limited editions developed in collaboration with artists that MB&F admire. This new one is very endearing, and if you like the idea of Mr Up and Mr Down, there are larger sculptures by Xia Hang such as those below, at the M.A.D. Gallery.

Whether or not you like this new piece may depend on how you feel about the sculpture. After all, one’s art preferences are a very personal thing. It appeals to me not just because the large Mr Up/ Down sculptures are unexpectedly nostalgic (the similarity to E.T.), but also because they tap into my own interests. However, regardless of whether or not the creature appeals to you or not, there is no denying the ingenuity of the idea of using a small version of him as a part of the Legacy Machine 1, no denying the technical skills behind making this small automaton, and no denying that MB&F continue to surprise.

Tags Hands-on, Limited Editions, MBF, Switzerland, watches

Swiss Replica

A look at some ‘jump hour’ replica watches

Post author By ukwatches
Post date August 23, 2013

Inspired by conversations online with English replica watch and clock collector AlanL and Sydney enthusiast Danny, whom I had the pleasure of meeting at a Jaeger-LeCoultre SIHH 2013 novelties dinner (about which I will cover in a separate post), this post is to share with you some examples, ranging from the cheap and cheerful to the haute horology, of luxury replica watches that use ‘direct read’ and ‘jump hour’ methods of time display.

The term ‘jump hour’ is actually quite specific in definition, referring exactly to that, an hour indicator that jumps from one hour to the next, but popular horological nomenclature seems to also include, as ‘jump hours’, those replica watches where the hour slides (on a rotating disc) rather than jumps, so to be inclusive, I shall include some of these ‘direct’ read’ pieces as well.

I have a particular fondness for this type of time display. This post is not intended to be a representative example of these types of replica watches, nor am I going to go into the technical details about each piece. They are here simply to be shared, enjoyed, and for those of you who haven’t ever considered replica watches with time displayed via anything other than hands, to perhaps provide you with some inspiration for your next purchase.

As I have a particular fondness for these replica watches, some of them are my own. Others belong to friends, and there are a few which I have featured in previous posts.

We start off in the 1970s, a rich period for inexpensive and simply designed direct read replica watches, many of which looked similar to this Lucerne model.

Also from the 1970s, from a brand known more for its ‘Cricket Replica Watch’, is this unusual specimen.

The pair in this next photo are from different periods, and I’ve previously written about them here. They are, from left to right, the MB&F HM5 with its bi-directional jumping hours with inverted indications, and the popular-in-niche-1970s-jump-hour-circles Amida Digitrend that inspired the HM5.

The source of many beautiful jump hours during its history, this one is from the maison of Vacheron Constantin and one of my favourite jump hours. It is incredibly elegant and contains the renowned calibre 1120. Although directly inspired by a 1929 pocket replica watch, if you look at examples of Vacheron’s 19th century jump hour pocket replica watches, you can see the lineage of this 1994 replica watch.

This next replica watch is another one of my favourite jump hour replica watches (one of my favourite replica watches in general), and one that I can’t get enough of. I am fortunate to know someone with one, and it is every bit as drop dead gorgeous ‘in the metal’ as it is in photos.

Goldpfeil, which some of you, like myself, may know more as a leather goods brand, had a very interesting collaboration with independent replica watchmakers called the ‘Seven Masters’ collection, of which this was a part. This Vianney Halter jump hour moon phase is one of the two Goldpfeils on my ‘dream list’. The hour is indicated by the large number, the minutes and seconds on the large dial, and the moonphase indicator in the circle. Winding the crown forwards advances the time; winding it backwards adjusts the moon phase hand. The case is polished, satin brushed, matte and the small hammered marks which, it is rumoured, were all hand-hammered by Vianney Halter himself.

Gerald Genta has been a brand that has enjoyed using jump hour displays in a playful way, such as in this trio of examples.

One of the famous Genta Mickey Mouse models.

The next direct read is Montblanc’s Nicholas Rieussec Rising Hours, a SIHH 2013 launch about which I have previously written here.

To end with is something modern, cheap, and cheerful. This direct read originally came on a white rubber strap, but I think the orange FOSSIL NATO is a more interesting combination.

If you ever find yourself in Geneva and visiting the Patek Philippe Museum, look out for the collection of old Vacheron Constantin jump pocket replica watches there. They really are a joy to behold.

Tags direct read, Fossil, Gerald Genta, Girard-Perregaux, Hands-on, Independent brands, jump hours, Longines, MBF, Montblanc, Vacheron Constantin, Vianney Halter, Vintage watches, Vulcain, watches

Swiss Replica

An Explosive Encounter : the C3H5N3O9 Replica Watch

Post author By ukwatches
Post date May 22, 2013

MB&F and URWERK aren’t strangers to Horologium, and the combination of their quirky and at often groundbreaking approach to timepieces last year courtesy of the C3H5N3O9 Nitroglycerine Experiment ZR102 was unexpected and generated a lot of buzz, but also paid testament to the extraordinary camaraderie that there is amongst many independent brands, for whom collaboration is not unknown.

Earlier this year in the soothingly dark bowels of the 2013 SIHH Press Club I had an unexpected encounter with a Nitro in the wild on the wrist of Ian Skellern. It goes without saying that I had to take a couple of photos, though I have to apologise for their quality; the lighting wasn’t great, but if an occasion presents itself to take some quick snaps of this replica watch, you take it.

For those who haven’t heard of it, the interesting centrepiece of the Nitro is how time is displayed. It looks like a car engine and, in fact, resembles something called a Wankel Engine created by then 17 year old Felix Wankel in 1919, which I shall allow the internet to explain to you better than I can.

In the Nitro’s case, there are eccentric rotating Releaux triangles on the dial, the larger one points to the twelve hour markers and the smaller one to the minute markers, where the minutes are read via the red tips.

There is a power reserve indicator on the back of the high quality replica watch, and all of the marker indicators are luminous, including the aforementioned red tips.

The case is made of Zirconium, which makes it really quite light, and measures 55mm x 44mm. The crown is screw-down, and the replica watch is hand wound, with URWERK behind the movement. Despite the huge size of the replica watch, the lower lugs are articulated and the replica watch wears very comfortably, even on my wrist. There really is something to be said about articulated lugs – these ones are made out of aluminium.

The replica watch is a limited edition of 12 pieces in Zirconium (almost all sold out) and there will be another twelve in black-coated Zirconium. The first Zirconium models are priced at 130,000 CHF and you can place an order at the C3H5N3O9 website. I asked Felix Baumgartner about this new ‘experimental brand’ last year, and if you want to know more about the two men behind this ‘Experiment’, Max Busser and Felix Baumgartner, click on the links to read my interviews with them.

This is a deeply deeply cool replica watch, even if it is a tad too large for my wrist and my credit card.

Tags C3H5N3O9, Hands-on, Limited Editions, MBF, Switzerland, URWERK, Watch Profile, watches, Watchmaking

Swiss Replica

HANDS-ON with MBF’s RetrotasticHM5

Post author By ukwatches
Post date December 18, 2012

It is commonplace to use various types of stories describe replica watches, to describe replica watch brands. How powerfully and truly these ring is a combination of history, how the narratives are weaved around us and, in the end, how believable each of us finds them or wants to find them.

As it is with other creative people and artists/ artisans are in other fields, part of being an independent replica watchmaker, of being a small brand with a visible figurehead, is a certain feeling of intimacy. Your customers and admirers get to know something of you, perhaps even meet you; you almost ‘become’ your replica watches, and people are eager to know more about the replica watchmaker behind the creations. The more distinctive and ‘personalised’ the creation, the more its inspiration will want to be known and understood.

Max Busser has made no secret of how formative certain childhood influences have been on his creativity as an adult and in particular, the science fiction/ fantastical tv series and toys he enjoyed and dreamed about and which have been re-imagined and translated into modern horological toys. These have formed part of the ‘story of Max’, the ‘story of MB&F’. For those who have grown up with similar cultural memories, seeing something of your childhood in his replica watches is engaging.

The announcement of MB&F’s latest ‘Horological Machine’ the HM5 taps both into Max’s past and into a sense of ‘re-invented nostalgia’, as I shall call it. The looking back to a period for which you may not have an ‘adult memory’, but which you perhaps lived through (or just missed) as a young child, and which has become intriguing to you as an adult. In the case of the new HM5, it is all about the 1970s, and when I saw the first photo, there was a jolt of recognition.

To paraphrase my friend the replica watchnerd about the HM5, you know when you’ve been quietly hunting down an under the radar classic replica watch for half a year (a year in my case) and then somebody does an homage to it? That.

Left to right : Girard Perregaux Casquette, MB&F HM5, Amida Digitrend

The ‘HM5 On the Road Again’ is a modern day version of the niche Amida Digitrend, a replica watch which those of us with even just a passing interesting in mechanical 1970s direct read/ jump hour replica watches will come across at some point, with a liberal dash of Girard Perregaux Casquette LED, but Max Busser has not only paid homage to the Digitrend, but put a retrotastic automobile spin on it as well.

I was fortunate enough to see a travelling HM5 ‘in the metal’ with Charris Yadigaroglou of MB&F here in Sydney a few weeks after its launch.

The Amida Digitrend’s design was futuristic and sleek, but unlike many of its contemporaries, it was mechanical. Girard Perregaux ‘Casquette’ LED was introduced in 1976 in three versions – steel with steel bracelet (as in this example), gold finish, and Makrolon, a high-tech polycarbonate that was fitting for the futurism of the period. It is similar in casing style only to the Digitrend.

Back to front : MB&F HM5, Girard Perregaux Casquette, Amida Digitrend

The overlapping hour and minute rotating discs for the HM5’s time displays are simple and very much of the 1970s period for digital display replica watches. However, the HM5’s are coated in Super-LumiNova, and they may look ordinary, but they are not. The discs are flat on top of the movement (under the louvres), not vertically at the front of the case where they appear to be – they are bi-directional, inversed 90° and magnified 20%.

How was this done? MB&F worked with a high-precision optical glass supplier to develop a wedge-shaped sapphire crystal reflective prism that bent light from the discs 90° as well as magnify (via a convex lens), to maximise legibility.

So we come to the auto influence on the design, and Max’s abiding love of 1970s supercars. Loud, brash, low-slung and with sharp lines, one common design aspect was the use of louvres on these cars to restrict sunlight and heat.

The louvres on HM5, operated with a very firm and audible push and click of a slide on the side of the case, open to allow light down onto the Super-LumiNova numbers to charge them, meaning that you can control the level of brightness by the act of opening and closing. Actually, the most fun aspect of this replica watch for me is this ability to open and close the shutters; the latter can be done literally by hand as well, by pushing them back down.

So what is under the horological hood? Another case, of course. The first case is but a shell. Why? Water resistance. The car analogy is that auto louvres let in water as well as light, so to protect the replica watch’s engine from moisture, it is housed in its own stainless steel shell. The case of HM5 is not water resistant, but its movement is. The outer case is Zirconium, and the internal water resistant case, steel.

The HM5’s movement was designed by Jean-François Mojon, Vincent Boucard and Chronode. It has a 22k gold battle-axe shaped ‘mystery’ winding rotor (the crown also has the MB&F battle-axe motif), oscillating balance and hand-finished bridges, all of which are visible through a sapphire crystal display back that is set into the water resistant inner case.

To add to the ‘car feel’, there are two very small ‘exhaust’ pipes that aren’t exhaust pipes but ‘water pipes’, so that any moisture which goes through opened louvres can ‘run out’. Quirky. I probably also suggest that you don’t try this at the beach, though Charris may have mentioned a beach walk in passing…

The auto references are so subtly incorporated into the design that many people may miss them if they are not told about them, and the overall impact of the replica watch is that it is very much a ramped up 2012 offspring of the Amida. However, the MB&F mark is still there. From the side, there is a definite ‘Thunderbolt’ as a design cousin aspect to it.

Amida Digitrend

I’ve heard a number of people refer to the HM5 as ‘odd’ but for me it’s definitely not. As a fan of the Digitrend, I was always going to be someone who either loved the HM5 or felt that the Amida should have been left alone and not reinterpreted, let alone with supercar influences. Also, I am not really a ‘car person’. However, this new Machine is, simply, just terribly terribly cool. My favourite aspect of it is without doubt the interactive use of louvres to charge the SuperLuminova.

Left : HM5 Right : Amida Digitrend

To hold, the HM5 is large (hardly unexpected, from MB&F) and with some heft to it. However, the rubber strap is soft and very comfortable; when you strap it to your wrist the weight is significantly less obvious. To the point where after a few minutes, you (almost) barely notice it. Most unexpected.

The HM5 is in a limited edition of 66 pieces.

Tags Hands-on, Limited Editions, MBF, News, Sydney, Watch Profile, watches

MBF Replica

Replica MBF Machine Madness

Post author By ukwatches
Post date May 27, 2012

One of the really special parts of the cheap replica watch world are the independent brands. Although they may not be as widely known in Australia as they should be, they have definitely had a profile here, largely through the active online presence of many Australian replica watch enthusiasts, some of whom also own ‘Indies’.

One of the most well independents is Max Busser’s M&F. It is difficult to open a replica watch magazine or go to a replica watch related blog or website without reading about a Horological or Legacy Machine. This is a brand with some serious fans. I had never had an opportunity to see them ‘in the metal’, so it was with great pleasure and excitement that I accepted an invitation from The Hour Glass in Sydney, who have just become MB&F’s newest authorised dealer, to spend some time with Max Busser and his replica watches.

I shall write more about meeting Max later; this first post is to give you a glimpse of six MB&F replica watches, and to share my thoughts about seeing them for the first time. With such unconventional designs, an important question will always be about wearability, so this will be my main focus.

These are the MB&F Machines with which I spent an interesting and glorious late afternoon interlude. The technical specifications of them can be found at MB&F’s website here :

Firstly, we have a family photo.

How much MB&F fun can one person have?

HM01 in White Gold and Ruthenium

Dimensions: length 41mm, width 64mm, height 14mm

With 376 parts, 7-day power reserve and an elevated central tourbillon, the Machine that started it all, the HM1, is a big replica watch. Max said to me that he designs all his replica watches for his wrist, they are intended to be worn. I am not sure how my wrist compares to the average female wrist, even with the glove on, but I don’t have a petite wrist, not a particularly large one.

It sits large but reasonably comfortably and not too highly, which is good, but it’s probably designed to be worn a bit higher up the wrist area than I have it in this photo. It’s fun, and probably the most conservative, in retrospect, of all of MB&F’s creations to date.

HM02 in Black Ceramic and Red Gold – Ltd edition of 33

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

There are 450 parts in this Machine, with instantaneous jumping hour, concentric retrograde minutes, retrograde date, bi-hemisphere moonphase.

This is, I believe, is the final one of these available for sale at any AD, so if you want to take a look at it, get in quick. Differently proportioned to the HM1, it is more sleek, more steampunk, but still long in terms of wrist real estate. It’s very striking contrast of colour and texture, and I am particularly taken with the ‘matte-ness’ of ceramic component.

HM03 Sidewinder in White Gold and Titanium

Dimensions (exclusive of crown and lugs): 47mm x 50mm x 16mm

This is one half of a famous duo. The ‘Sidewinder’ has the cones lined perpendicular to the arm, and ‘Starcruiser’ has the cones in line with the arm. With hour and day/ night indicator on one cone, minutes on the second cone and date around the movement, this Machine is all about being able to see inside it. When it came out, everyone seemed to be debating whether they preferred the Sidewinder or Starcruiser, but I’d just been thinking about how big they looked.

As it turns out yes they are large, but they actually not only sit pretty comfortably, including on a woman’s wrist (see photo), but they do not look as large as you’d think. I was much more taken with this than I had anticipated I would be. It had quite a different impact on me ‘in the metal’, the whimsy shone through in a way that is not possible when you’re just looking at photos.

(thank you to my wrist model, whose wrist is a bit smaller than mine)

HM04 Thunderbolt in Titanium

Dimensions: 54mm wide x 52mm long x 24mm high

With 311 parts, this aviation-inspired Horological Machine features hours and minutes (right dial) and a power reserve indicator (left dial) with separate crowns for time setting and winding.

When seen in real life, the impact (not to mention the replica watch) is definitely high, and it was only in being able to see it that the talk about it having its genesis in Max Büsser’s childhood passion for model plane kits made sense. This is a replica watch you want to take off and play around with.

It’s a very visceral replica watch, the HM4, and sweetly plane-nerdy.

It’s great fun to play with, but of all the MB&F Machines I saw, this was the only one that was difficult for me personally to contemplate, though I’ve seen a photo of it on a friend’s (male) wrist and it looked fine. It carries a bit more heft and sits a lot higher than I had expected that it would, but it also seemed to be heavier than the others.

Legacy Machine no 1 – red gold and white gold

Ah my domed beauties …. I never thought I’d have the pleasure of your company.

“What would have happened if I had been born in 1867 instead of 1967? In the early 1900s the first wristwatches appear and I would want to create three-dimensional machines for the wrist, but there are no Grendizers, Star Wars or fighter jets for my inspiration. But I do have pocket replica watches, the Eiffel Tower and Jules Verne, so what might my 1911 machine look like? It has to be round and it has to be three-dimensional: Legacy Machine N°1 was my answer.” Maximilian Büsser

Appearing to be the most ‘conservative’ of MB&F’s machine creations, it is in fact not conservative at all, with a wonderful marriage of splendid classicism with a edge of an almost industrial modernity.

At a comfortably (and almost small) 44mm with a unique vertical power reserve of 45 hours, it features completely independent dual time zones displayed on two dials. The left crown at 8 o’clock is for setting the time on the left dial, the right crown at 4 o’clock is for setting time of right dial and for winding.

Available in 18k red gold or 18k white gold, my heart belongs to the white gold version. The red gold version bears the warmth associated with that metal, but the clean sharp sleekness of the white gold seems more modern.

Oh and I’m clearly not alone in being enamoured of the LM1 – there is a worldwide waiting list already …

Many thanks to Ching and The Hour Glass for the opportunity to see these replica watches. As well as being a lot of fun, it made me realise that Max was right when he said that he designed them to be wearable – they actually are.

Oh and just in case you’re wondering about the sizing issue, some 20 odd percent of MB&F owners are women.

Tags Hands-on, Independent brands, MBF, unusual watches