63THE ONE Bloomberg Pursuits March 2, 2020
There’s magic behind
the dial in this eye-
catching watch from the
mad scientists at MB&F
Photograph by
Joanna McClureA Crinkle
In Time
Every year or so,
Maximilian Büsser
& Friends produces
a new timepiece
in a line it calls the
“Legacy Machines,”
which are an
exercise in upending
horological tradition.
The watchmaker
may twist dials into
a vertical angle that
offers a different
view than the usual
flat face or bend the
bridges that secure
the movement
into dreamy,
wishbonelike arches.
For the $280,000
Legacy Machine
Thunderdome,
unveiled in
December, MB&F
joined wunderkind
movement inventor
Eric Coudray
and perfectionist
designer Kari
Voutilainen to create
a tourbillon that
rotates on three
axes at the quickest
speed on the market.
THE COMPETITION- If a bulbous,
attention-grabbing
piece of wrist bling
is what you’re
after, the Jacob
& Co. Astronomia
Flawless is the most
audacious you’ll
find. Featuring a full
rotating Earth and
a pea-size yellow
diamond, it’ll set
you back a galactic
$1 million. - Breguet can
lay claim to the
invention of
the tourbillon
itself, which the
company’s founder
patented in 1801. Its
Double Tourbillon
5347 ($444,000 in
platinum) displays
two of them working
in tandem set into a
hand-engraved dial. - Coudray also
designed the
mechanism at work
in the unorthodox
Cabestan Triple
Axis Tourbillon,
inspired by a sailing
catamaran. Only
50 all-sapphire
versions will be
made; each retails
for 265,000 Swiss
francs ($270,000).
THE CASE
With a high dome
and a dial that
lifts away from the
wrist, this timepiece
isn’t one for the
subtlety-inclined—
yet it’s elegantly and
minimally designed.
From above, the
Thunderdome
appears to hold
a tangle of bluetitanium and brass,
but up close its
delicate complexity
revolves into view.
Rivulets carved
into the guilloche
face emphasize the
relative simplicity
of the dial, with
its plain hour and
minute hands.
(The tourbillon
rotates on its
three axes in 8, 12,
and 20 seconds,respectively, if you
need to keep track of
smaller increments.)
MB&F will make only
33 of the watches in
the current platinum
model, which means
it’s a collector’s piece
that will stand as a
testament to what
elite watchmaking
is capable of at
this moment in
time. $280,000;
mbandf.com