DECOMMISSIONING THE SPACESHIP

With the HM6 Final Edition, MB&F has put an end to a well-loved collection just four years after its debut. Jamie Tan takes a closer look at the watch, the series and MB&F’S penchant for limited production

MB&F has unveiled the Horological Machine No. 6 ( hm6) Final Edition. This is the fifth in a growing list of the brand’s timepieces – which include the hm2, hm4 and Legacy Machine No. 1 ( lm1) – to have got their Final Edition models. For the uninitiated, the announcement of a Final Edition for any Horological Machine or Legacy Machine signals the beginning of the end; no further iterations of a model will be produced after its Final Edition watches are sold and delivered. In other words, once the Final Edition of a model sells out, the secondary market becomes the only place to procure any of its references.

The hm6 Final Edition is offered in a limited run of eight pieces, which brings the number of hm6 watches produced to a final total of 100.

THE LAST SPACE PIRATE SHIP

The hm6 was first introduced in 2014 as the hm6 Space Pirate in titanium or red gold. It has since undergone different iterations sporting various materials, albeit with the same movement and general design.

The watch’s case is unusual to say the least, and clearly reminiscent of a spaceship. Indeed, it draws its inspiration from the biomorphic spacecraft featured in Captain Future, a late-1970s Japanese anime series. In the hm6, a central spherical “pod” is surrounded by four smaller ones, with curved surfaces joining them together into one cohesive whole. The closest two house the hour and minute indications that are printed on hemispheres oriented perpendicular to the movement’s plane. These two displays are driven by conical gears and rotate with the passage of time. The arrangement keeps the time visible at a glance, whatever the wearer’s wrist position.

The two remaining ones across from them house turbines with curved fins that spin to generate air resistance. This ostensibly creates a buffer to slow the movement’s oscillating weight, lest it rotates too violently, but we’re partial to them simply for the visual interest they provide, as well as the symmetry they create.

Meanwhile, the large central “pod” houses the movement’s flying tourbillon and other regulating organs to anchor the watch both visually and mechanically. Like previous versions of the hm6, the hm6 Final Edition has a second crown with which its wearer can extend and retract a “shield” to cover the tourbillon. According to mb&f, this physical barrier protects the regulating organs’ lubrication from

uv degradation. We’ll settle for the fun that it provides – and the thematic consistency of protecting a spaceship’s crew when it enters hostile environments.

Lest it isn’t obvious enough, the hm6 Final Edition’s sapphire crystals themselves require much work. The challenge here is posed by their shapes. Unlike regular watch crystals, their contours demand that the supplier starts with larger blocks of sapphire blanks and spends more time machining each one. By the way, a total of 10 sapphire crystals are fitted in each hm6 Final Edition – nine of them are curved for various sections of the “pods”, while the last is flat and functions as a display case back. Incidentally, the hm6 Final Edition’s central “pod” is noticeably larger than the original hm6 Space Pirate’s despite their general similarities, in a nod to the hm6 Alien Nation’s design.

Quirky case and movement design aside,

mb&f’s attention to detail also deserves mention here. This is especially obvious in the hm6 Final Edition’s case finishing. Note how polished grooves have been worked into the satin-finished case to accentuate its biomorphism, or how the screw holes feature a finely grained satin finish instead of their adjacent surfaces’ linearly brushed ones.

To give the case’s contours and finishings the due attention they deserve, mb&f has opted for just blue accents on the watch, in areas such as the time indication and platinum oscillating weight. The Super-luminova that’s been applied for time indication glows blue too. Finally, this is topped off with a matching alligator strap for a worthy send-off to a unique timepiece.

END OF A LINE

In an industry where underperforming models and lines are quietly dropped by their brands, mb&f’s modus operandi of openly discontinuing its timepieces is unusual, to say the least. After all, it isn’t just foregoing

revenue, but also the opportunity to spread its fixed costs ( r&d, tooling, etc) over a larger number of watches. Why limit the hm6 to just 100 examples, when its movement alone had taken more than three years to develop?

The brand’s reasons for this are two-fold. For a start, mb& f’s founder and ceo Maximilian Büsser has opined that he considers “a strong pre-owned market... one of the measures of greatness” for a brand. Producing any timepiece ad infinitum will obviously create a healthy supply of it in the secondary market – and depress its prices accordingly. On the contrary, a limited production run doesn’t just prevent this dilution, but also assures existing owners of their watches’ value. mb& f has even started its own program to acquire, restore and sell its own watches to support this.

The brand’s limited production capacity is also a key consideration. Keeping a line active entails dedicating resources to movement assembly and other such work, which prevents new models from being produced and delivered. Short of expanding, which Büsser has expressed reluctance for, discontinuing existing models is the best way to free up capacity to offer new models.