Inspired by Women the Legacy Machine FlyingT
Watch & Bullion
4 August 2023 | 4 min read
Often, life’s most fascinating patterns emerge from its unpredictable nature. For Maximilian Büsser and MB&F, this ebb and flow manifest in their creativity, forming seven-year cycles. Following this rhythm, the seventh year marked the birth of the Legacy Machine collection, the inauguration of the first M.A.D. Gallery in Geneva, and the unfolding of MB&F’s co-creations.
Fast-forwarding to the 14th year, MB&F introduced an evolution in horological exploration, extending their creative horizons with the Legacy Machine FlyingT. This timepiece, first unveiled in 2019, holds the honour of being MB&F’s first three-dimensional horological artwork inspired by women.
Design
The Legacy Machine FlyingT exudes elegance with its round case, crafted from gold or platinum, its bezel designed with a steep camber, and slender, elongated lugs, often bejewelled with a glittering array of diamonds. The watch’s extravagantly convex sapphire crystal dome rises gracefully from the bezel, sheltering an array of beautifully crafted dial plates.
What’s Inside
The heart of the Legacy Machine FlyingT is a flying tourbillon, majestically housed within an asymmetric ventricular opening in the dial plate. This cinematic horological marvel, beating at a tranquil 2.5Hz (18,000vph), projects proudly, almost reaching the apex of the sapphire crystal dome. This kinetic feature, topped with a brilliant diamond, rotates in sync with the flying tourbillon, emitting an incandescent fire typical of high-quality gemstones.
Tucked at the 7 o’clock position lies a time display, highlighting the numeric theme of the FlyingT. This dial, dressed in black or white lacquer or studded with gemstones, provides an intimate interaction with the wearer, emphasizing the personal nature of the watch.
The reverse side of the timepiece reveals a rotor shaped like a three-dimensional sun, casting an impression of a red-gold sun with sculpted rays. This dynamic component ensures the FlyingT holds a power reserve of four days.
Female Inspiration
Every detail of the Legacy Machine FlyingT is imbued with elements inspired by the women who significantly influenced Maximilian Büsser’s life. As Büsser puts it, “I wanted the LM FlyingT to capture the epitome of femininity, reflecting the vitality and elegance of the women in my life, particularly my mother. The pillar-like structure of the flying tourbillon symbolizes women as the pillars of humanity. At the same time, the sun-shaped rotor embodies the life-giving element that we gravitate towards and around.”
Editions
The Legacy Machine FlyingT first took flight in 2019, with three editions donned in white gold and adorned with diamonds. Fast forward to 2023, the FlyingT family welcomes a beautiful new member: the FlyingT Coeur de Rubis. A limited-edition masterpiece, its moniker reflects its delicate pink-toned dial made from a Tanzanian gemstone known as anyolite – or ‘Cœur de Rubis’ in French. This series, exclusively created for PMT The Hour Glass in Bangkok, is limited to five pieces, marking their 15th birthday and their unique bond with MB&F.
Over the years, the FlyingT collection has grown, adding:
- Two editions in 18K red gold or platinum, boasting guilloché dial plates sans diamonds;
- Four diamond-set editions with gemstone dial plates, available in 18K white gold cases with lapis lazuli or malachite dial plates, 18K yellow gold with a tiger eye dial plate, and 18K white gold with a ‘Cœur de Rubis’ (anyolite) dial plate.
An Insight into the Making of Legacy Machine FlyingT
For Büsser, creating the Legacy Machine FlyingT was about celebrating the women in his life. This timepiece is a token of appreciation for the feminine influences that shaped him. It wasn’t about resizing a masculine watch and giving it a fresh colour to brand it as a women’s watch; it was about crafting a novel, aesthetically cohesive piece that embodied femininity and simultaneously showcased MB&F’s horological ingenuity.
The LM FlyingT’s case was redesigned to emphasize its highly convex sapphire crystal dome. The lugs were slimmed down and shaped into deep bevels for a more elegant profile. Throughout the design process, the focus remained on refining the lines and tempering the defined edges to highlight its femininity. This led to the incorporation of an asymmetrical design, further emphasized by the ventricular dial-plate aperture that frames the emerging tourbillon.
The FlyingT’s engine draws its ancestry from the Horological Machine collection, particularly the HM6 series and HM7 Aquapod. In a departure from conventional watch movements, the FlyingT employs a vertical and co-axial approach. Its flying tourbillon, projecting beyond the dial plate, is a spectacular example of a rotating escapement. In an audacious move, the LM FlyingT proudly showcases its flying tourbillon without confining it within the watch
All images and accompanying graphical materials in this article have been used under the copyright of MB&F.