The MB&F Legacy Machine FlyingT, Now with Malachite Dial

After fourteen years of conceiving highly imaginative, complex watches for men, Max Büsser was ready to venture into feminine territory. In 2019, MB&F launched the Legacy Machine FlyingT, the brand’s first women’s watch. With its 3D staging, spectacular elevated flying tourbillon and a protuberant domed showcase, the LM FlyingT was a winning combination of micro-mechanical delights and elegant, feminine touches. Warmly received by women who enjoy mechanical watches, the watch took home the Ladies’ Complication Prize at the GPHG awards that same year. Now in its seventh edition, for 2021, the FlyingT is back with an intense green malachite dial.

Trajectory of LM FlyingT

When the FlyingT made its debut in 2019, it was offered in three white gold editions with different diamond settings. There was the black lacquer dial plate version with a diamond-set case and two more ostentatious versions with full-set baguette-cut or brilliant-cut dials and cases. A year later, MB&F ventured into unisex territory with limited edition red gold and platinum FlyingT’s without diamonds. At the end of 2020, the FlyingT turned up with a gorgeous blue lapis lazuli dial.

The FlyingT is a member of MB&F’s Legacy Machine fleet that celebrated its tenth anniversary earlier this year. In a clear departure from MB&F’s retro-futuristic spaceships, the Legacy Machine was Max Büsser’s interpretation of a watch he might have made had he been “born in 1867, one hundred years before my actual year of birth”. Inspired by the Voyages Extraordinaires of Jules Verne and the engineering miracles of Gustave Eiffel, the Legacy Machine was distinguished by its round case, exposed balance wheel on the dial, high domed sapphire crystal, lacquered registers, Roman numerals and exquisite Haute Horlogerie finishings.

The LM FlyingT flew into the Legacy Machine collection in 2019 in a smaller case size of 38.5mm set with diamonds. Instead of the signature suspended balance wheel, the FlyingT got its name from the mesmerising flying tourbillon rising vertically from the ventricular dial plate in the centre of the dial. With its high domed sapphire crystal (20mm height), you could clearly appreciate the complex column construction supporting the tourbillon and the hallmark double-arched bridge, this time topped with a diamond. Another differentiating factor was the hour and minutes dial inclined at a 50° angle so that only the wearer could consult the time.

Green with envy

Apart from its intense green colour, the value of malachite lies in a phenomenon known as ‘peacock eye’ – the concentric rings responsible for the swirling light and dark green streaks that appear on the gemstone. Used on the dial plate and the inclined hours and minutes counter, the malachite provides a dramatic green background that contrasts beautifully with the white gold diamond-set case. The asymmetric opening in the dial plate frames the tourbillon that rises above the rest of the movement. A large diamond affixed to the top of the cage rotates in time to the serene 2.5Hz rate of the flying tourbillon. Like the lapis lazuli version, the tilted hours and minutes counter at 7 o’clock has no numerals but features the signature serpentine hands. The 38.5mm white gold case is set with 120 brilliant-cut diamonds with a further 26 diamonds set in the crowns. There is also the large diamond on top of the tourbillon and 21 diamonds set in the white gold pin buckle (total 168 diamonds).

The unique automatic movement, conceived and developed in-house by MB&F and which takes solutions from the HM6 series and the HM7 Aquapod, has a sun-shaped winding rotor and an impressive power reserve of 100 hours.

Availability & Price

The LM FlyingT Malachite will retail for CHF 125,000, EUR 118,000 or USD 145,000 (prices do not include VAT) and isn’t limited in production. For more information, please visit www.mbandf.com.