MB&F’s newest Horological Machine, HM12 The Guardian, took more than five years to complete.
Maximilian Büsser & Friends founder Maximilian Büsser originally intended to launch the HM12 last year as part of the brand’s 20th anniversary. But the new Horological Machine’s development took longer than expected. “In typical MB&F fashion, it had other plans,” the brand said in a statement. It was worth the wait.
Büsser’s “mad” idea of making a watch that could be a robot’s head started about five years ago. Since he founded the brand, his designs have been influenced by the robots of his childhood, and the new HM12 is no exception. “HM12 The Guardian is not a watch; it is a complete horological concept—and a deliberate return to MB&F’s roots,” the brand said. The Guardian robot’s body was developed by L’Epée 1839, a world-renowned Swiss clockmaker and a long-standing partner of the brand. The robot is delivered with the watch. The Guardian comes in blue, green, and purple and 12 pieces will be made of each color.
The Guardian robot has 755 separate components and, including the base, it is 38.2 centimeters (15 inches) tall, with a diameter of 22 centimeters (about 8½ inches). With a weight of 15 kilograms (33 pounds), it’s an imposing sight in real life. A magnifying glass is integrated into the robot’s right arm and resembles a shield. It can be removed and used as a loupe. A UV flashlight is integrated into the robot’s left arm and can be removed to illuminate both its and the watch’s extensive Super Luminova.
The timepiece’s movement is highly complex and has a total of 646 components. It features a flying tourbillon, a double-sided micro-rotor, jumping hours and a new face shield complication. The watch “reads immediately as a face, the head of the robot it sits on,” the brand said. The robot’s eyes are its time display in the form of two rotating discs, with jumping hours on the left and trailing minutes on the right. The watch face’s mouth is depicted with one side of its micro-rotor, and its flying tourbillon represents the brain. Most of the watch head is crafted of sapphire crystal, allowing for both a front and side view of the tourbillon.
Mechanical face shields that open and close on demand via the crown further cement the watch’s robot-like qualities. The shields can stop at any point desired between fully visible and concealed. This complication alone has more than 200 components and is not connected to the movement.
The new HM12 timepiece was designed and developed by Maximilian Büsser and Maximilian Maertens, MB&F’s creative director of watches and clocks. Maertens, a long-standing MB&F collaborator, was appointed to the position last year. The HM12, as the first product of Max and Max, bodes for an exciting future as the brand enters its third decade.