Horological Machines

The Horological Machines are MB&F's very first line and, at the same time, its most recognizable identity card: they debut in 2007 with the Horological Machine N°1 (HM1), just two years after the brand's founding, and immediately introduce the language that still defines the entire collection today — sculptural cases, almost always not round, that take traditional mechanical watchmaking outside the classic language of dial and hands to turn it into a small kinetic machine to be observed from every angle. MB&F itself describes them as Machines designed "to narrate time, not to tell it": each HM is born from a strong conceptual theme — aviation, space, supercars, the animal world, architecture — that determines not only its outward aesthetics but often also the architecture of the movement and the layout of the time indications.

The HM1 already introduces an unprecedented technical solution, the first movement with four barrels connected both in series and in parallel to guarantee a long, constant power reserve. The following Machines continue along this double track of aesthetic and mechanical research: the HM2 (2008), in a rectangular case with two independent dials, is the first automatic with instantaneous jumping hours, concentric retrograde minutes, retrograde date and bi-hemisphere moon phases; the HM3 (2009) replaces the hands with two cones indicating hours and minutes; the HM4 Thunderbolt (2010), with its double "turbine engine" case, wins the award for best concept and design at the Grand Prix d'Horlogerie de Genève. The thematic vein widens in the following years to ever-different inspirations: the HM5 (2012) recalls 1970s digital watches and James Bond's Lotus Esprit, the HM6 (2014) and the HM7 Aquapod (2017) evoke organic marine forms, the HM8 (2016) is inspired by Can-Am supercars, the HM9 (2018) by the retrofuturist aesthetic of propeller aviation, the HM10 (2020) by the animal world, up to the HM11 Architect (2023), which carries the line's language into modernist residential architecture, and the most recent HM12 (2026).

While remaining the brand's most experimental and conceptual line, the Horological Machines are also the one with which MB&F has built much of its technical credibility: many references incorporate in-house calibers developed specifically with outside independent watchmakers, consistent with the "Friends" philosophy that gives the brand its name, and several of them have been honored with GPHG awards. Each Machine is produced in a numbered and deliberately limited series, often of just a few dozen or a few hundred pieces, reinforcing its status as a collector's object rather than an everyday watch.