MB&F HM4 Thunderbolt

As I recently held MB&F’s latest twin-engine HM4, aptly dubbed Thunderbolt, I recalled the first time I saw the prototype for MB&F’s HM1 (Horological Machine Number 1) in a Geneva café before the nascent brand’s debut piece launched in 2006. Max Büsser took a huge risk by investing in a boutique brand that embodied his radical vision of watchmaking, and it has paid off with a devoted fan base enamored with the concept of wearing futuristic machines rather than watches. Though the Thunderbolt’s functions are straightforward—hours and minutes with power reserve—the design is anything but simple. Inspired by the model airplanes he assembled as a kid, Büsser’s titanium and sapphire crystal instrument was three years in the making, given the complexity of its specially designed 300-plus components.

Büsser’s renegade tendencies had been readily apparent for years during his tenure at Harry Winston Fine Timepieces where he spearheaded the Opus Collection, which featured limited-edition pieces produced in partnership with various star watchmakers. Büsser credits the Opus project as the seed for MB&F, an avant-garde collection produced through collaborations with Büsser’s many talented horological friends (MB&F is an acronym for Max Busser & Friends). The audacious Thunderbolt was developed in collaboration with Laurent Besse and Beranger Reynard from Les Artisans Horlogers in Le Locle, Switzerland.

Urwerk UR-110

Though it started out rather traditional, Opus veered onto an unconventional path in 2003 with the technically-plagued Opus 3 by Vianney Halter. For 2005’s Opus 5, Büsser partnered with Urwerk’s Felix Baumgartner on a piece utilizing Urwerk’s unique satellite hours mechanism. By then, Urwerk was already established as a pioneer of the new-school watchmaking movement, having launched its first piece, the UR-101, at Baselworld way back in 1997. This year’s UR-110 sports a mechanism that marries the concepts of the UR-103 and UR-202. The brand’s signature satellite hour indicators maintain a level horizontal position, thanks to a planetary gearing system, as they sweep down along the linear minutes indicator, which recalls last year’s UR-CC1. The minutes are positioned on the right side of the asymmetrical case, designed to show the time even when peeking from beneath a shirt cuff. “We always try to present time in a new way,” explains Dominique Buser, head of R&D for Urwerk. “We don’t develop just for the client. We do what we like to do.”

This sentiment is echoed by Stephen Hallock, North American president of MB&F. “There is an extraordinary bunch of people—Max, Felix at Urwerk, David and Denis at DeBethune—who are living creators with a real vision,” he says. “These are actual people making what they think is amazing, just like watchmakers did 100 years ago. The people are the company, and they are making what they think is supercool—that’s the goal, it’s not driven by numbers.”

Harry Winston Opus Eleven

This year’s Opus Eleven stole the Baselworld show. Harry Winston tapped Denis Giguet, founder of the niche brand MCT. Giguet constructed a sic-fi timepiece with 566 components arranged in mind-blowing puzzle of gears, wheels, and satellites that  twist and turn to form the hour digit with placards at the center every 60 minutes. Minutes are displayed with with two discs in a circular window on the periphery of the main case. The oversize titanium balance wheel is revealed in another window at 4 o’clock. All this elaborate engineering is employed to simply show hours and minutes.

Richard Mille RM038

While aesthetics make the loudest statement, today’s time machines don’t only appear innovative, they leverage advanced technologies and state-of-the-art materials. Since launching his namesake brand in 2001, Richard Mille has applied his passion for Formula 1 racing in daring watches that draw on high-performance materials used in automotive racing and aerospace. Mille’s watches are fabricated from exotic metallic and non-metallic alloys, carbon nanofiber, silicon, and ceramics. This year’s RM030 incorporates the novel caliber RMAR1 with a declutchable rotor system that prevents overwinding by automatically disconnecting the winding barrel from the rotor’s winding mechanism when the power reserve hits 50 hours and re-engaging when the power reserve reduces to 40 hours. And much like the RM027 tourbillon, which Rafael Nadal wore while winning the Grand Slam last year, the new RM038 Tourbillon Bubba Watson (named for new brand ambassador, American golf star Bubba Watson) is designed for the rigors of sport with an ultralight and robust Magnesium-Aluminum AZ91 case. The advanced alloy is treated with Titalyt II—an electro-plasma oxidation treatment used in aerospace, medical, and automotive industries—that endows the watch with its whitish color and incredible scratch and corrosion resistance.

DeBethune DB25T back

DeBethune, another new-millennium brand, has made big technical strides in movement development since 2004 when it unveiled its first piece, the classical DB15. Since then, the brand has dedicated itself to groundbreaking movement design. While classical codes are still in evidence in some pieces, others evoke the forward-thinking character of the engines inside. Referencing the design codes of 2006’s DBS, this year’s titanium DB28 is distinguished by the hallmark delta-shaped polished steel mainplate, which is the focal point of the dial. The Calibre DB2115 is equipped with De Bethune’s self-regulating twin barrel and a regulating organ featuring a new silicon/palladium balance wheel with a flat terminal curve protected by the brand’s triple pare-chute shock-absorbing system. Recalling the early DB15, the DB28’s platinum and blued steel spherical moon phase display is accurate to within one day every 122 years.

While some big brand presidents have criticized the amount of editorial coverage devoted to these comparably Lilliputian watchmakers, who log production in the hundreds rather than tens or hundreds of thousands of pieces, the attention boils down to sex appeal—the wow factor that gets a large number of watch enthusiasts excited, even though only a small number will ever don one. Nevertheless, some major brands including Cartier, Montblanc, and TAG Heuer recently have invested heavily in projects that have yielded thoroughly unconventional timepieces in the same spirit of invention, with the goal of staking their own claim on the new frontier of watchmaking. Of course a watch must tell the time, but how it does so is what makes an emotional connection with the craft’s most ardent fans. “If you’re going to spend a lot of money on a watch, it’s because that watch hits you in some way, it says something about your personality,” says Hallock. “Of course some people with money may want a Patek Philippe, but people who really get what we’re doing love it.”