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One of MB&F's most daring watches performs its swan song with a final version in stainless steel.
The story of the HM6 started in 2014 with the inaugural titanium edition. A year later, it was followed by a red gold version. In 2016, the brand introduced the Sapphire Vision model, with the upper and lower sections of the case in transparent sapphire crystal, sandwiching a centre segment of platinum or red gold. In 2017 came the HM6 Alien Nation with a bunch of passengers onboard. But it’s now time to say goodbye to what certainly was Max Büsser & Friends’ boldest watch. Here is the MB&F HM6 Final Edition in Steel.
92 pieces of the HM6 have been manufactured to date, and with the 8 stainless steel pieces of this Final Edition, there will be a total of 100 watches released into the wild. The HM6 is exclusive and will remain so. It was a bold watch with a daring design and a complex piece of mechanics. Certainly the most complex and boldest watch ever created by Max and his friends. Certainly their most disruptive piece but also an exercise of design. But all good things come to an end and just like HM2 (2008-2011), HM3 (2008- 2015), HM4 (2010-2013) and LM1 (2011-2017), HM6 is about to receive a final edition to formally mark the end of its production. But it’s not a sad farewell, rather a sweet goodbye.
With the Final Edition of Legacy Machine N°1, stainless steel was established as the material that would distinguish future editions, a choice that has been perpetuated in the HM6 Final Edition. But besides the new material used for the case, the HM6 Final Edition also integrates several other updates.
What doesn’t change is the overall concept of this watch. Inspired by 1970s comics – hence its nickname the “Space Pirate” – in our very first hands-on coverage we described it as “strange, radical, never-before-seen and complicated.” The watch was directly inspired by the famous 1970s cartoon Captain Future or Captain Flam (depending on where the show was broadcasted). Captain Flam had a spaceship called The Comet that consisted of two spheres joined by a connecting tube. Using this idea as a launch pad, the MB&F HM6 used sapphire spheres linked together by a central tube or ‘fuselage’. The HM6 has something in common with the HM3 Frog – the domes – and with the HM4 – the overall architecture – which is overall more organic than the previous highly mechanical watches (and that gave ideas for the creation of HM7 and HM9).
Following the case material precedent set by the LM1 Final Edition, the HM6 Final Edition is presented in stainless steel with new decorations on the fuselage. The body of HM6 Final Edition is now deeply grooved with polished lines that stretch from the turbine pods to the hour and minute spheres. Attached to it is a blue alligator strap (with the usual comfy articulated lugs) matching several accents on the watch itself.
The domed dials, as well as the platinum rotor, are now blued. For the rest, HM6 Final Edition retains the same technical base, with a rather insane movement and display, visible through nine domed sapphire crystals. The movement is, of course, quite complicated: a regulating organ on the top, a winding rotor on the back, hours and minuted indicated by semi-spherical aluminium domes on a vertical axis when the movement is classically horizontal.
Right on top of HM6 is the one-minute flying tourbillon, which completes its rotations underneath a shield with six overlapping, curved blades that can be opened or closed with the left crown – the right crown is traditionally used to wind and set the movement.
There are also two other domes on the back of the MB&F HM6 Final Edition. The two spherical turbines – composed each of 15 curved vans, machined in solid aluminium blocks – are used to regulate the winding efficiency. These turbines are driven from the rotation of the winding rotor by a gear train designed to amplify the number of rotations – the air friction on the turbines will slow the winding and protect the movement.
The MB&F HM6 Final Edition in steel will be a limited edition of 8 pieces only – making the whole HM6 collection a 100-piece series. Price will be CHF 210,000 (excl. taxes) and the watch will be shown during SIHH 2019. For more information, please visit www.mbandf.com.
