Bloomberg Businessweek Europe - 02.03.2020

(Nandana) #1
63

THE 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 McClure

A 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 blue

titanium 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
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