Hair-brained horologist MB&F has managed to create its 2018 Horological Machine N°9 Flow in a transparent crystal case.
MB&F founder Max Büsser has consistently described the HM9’s movement as his most beautiful to date, but displaying it from every angle in clear sapphire was a technological and mechanical challenge too far until today.
Now, for anybody with $440,000 to spare, the HM9 can be acquired in one of four styles: two with 18ct red gold frame, combined with a NAC-coated black or a PVD-coated blue engine; and two editions with 18ct white gold frame and a PVD-coated purple or a red gold plated engine.
Each is limited to only five pieces.
HM9 Flow is a tribute to the automotive and aeronautic designs of the 1940s and 50s with their flowing lines and futuristic style.
HM9’s sapphire crystal hull is vacuum sealed with a proprietary combination of patented three-dimensional rubber gasket and high-tech compound bonding.
This exposes the HM9’s manual-winding in-house movement with two independent balance wheels located in their own lateral pods.
Those balances drive a vertical time display via a clever set of conical gears, all within a 57mm x 47mm x 23mm form.
