Limited Edition of 33 Pieces in Titanium with Blue Bezel, and 66 pieces in 18kt Red Gold with Black Bezel
After pushing the boundaries of horological exploration by blasting into outer space (HM2, HM3, HM6), launching into the sky (HM4), and powering down the road and around the track (HM5, HMX, HM8), MB&F plunges into the water with Horological Machine N°7, aka HM7 Aquapod.
The organic jellyfish-inspired design of HM7 Aquapod is counter-balanced by the very mechanical horology within: a central flying tourbillon tops the concentric vertical movement architecture, with indications radiating out from the centre like ripples in a pond.
HM7 Aquapod began its gestation as a horological jellyfish, and the architecture of its Engine is appropriately biomorphic. Jellyfish are radially symmetric, Aquapod is radially symmetric. Where a jellyfish generates power from food caught in its tentacles, HM7 generates power from its tentacle-like automatic winding rotor.
Where jellyfish have a radially symmetric ring of neurons for a brain, Aquapod has radially symmetric rings displaying hours and minutes. Where jellyfish have a hood or bell on top, HM7 Aquapod has an imposing flying tourbillon regulating the power generated by the rotor, and transforming it into the display of time.
The winding rotor's tentacles are crafted from a solid block of titanium; their very three-dimensional nature makes machining and finishing extremely challenging. Underneath the tentacles, a platinum mass ensures powerful and efficient winding.
And then there's that ceramic bezel. While Horological Machine N°7 is not a dive watch, it is a timepiece comfortably at home in the water so MB&F added the one element that all serious aquatic watches possess: a unidirectional rotating bezel. However, unlike every other dive watch on the planet, Aquapod's bezel isn't attached to the case, but floats apart like a life buoy.
The 303-component, 72-hour power reserve HM7 Engine was developed in-house by MB&F. Spherically three-dimensional, all its mechanisms from the winding rotor at the bottom, past the mainspring barrel and hour and minute displays, to the flying tourbillon on top rotate concentrically around the centre. The curves of the high-domed sapphire crystal are mirrored in the shape of the time display rings, which are not simply flat and angled, but are mathematically
precise, curved spherical segments.
And, like many jellyfish, HM7 glows in the dark. It glows where you would expect it to on the hour and minute numerals but also around the inside of the movement, to light up that flying tourbillon at night... and in addition, along the tentacle-like winding rotor so that its operation, too, can be appreciated in the dark.
Technical Specifications:
The case, spherical construction comprised of 95 parts, is done in titanium or in 18kt red gold, and measures 53.8mm x 21.3mm. It has double AR-coated sapphire crystals and it is water resistant to 50 meters. Unidirectional rotating bezel for elapsed time measurment.
Movement is a Swiss automatic with three-dimensional vertical architecture, conceived and developed in-house by MB&F. It has 35 jewels, 18,000 vph and a power reserve of 3 days. Central flying 60-second tourbillon. Three-dimensional winding rotor in titanium and platinum. Functions are: hours and minutes displayed by two aluminium/titanium spherical segment discs rotating on oversized central ceramic bearings. Numerals, markers and segments along the winding rotor in SuperLumiNova. 3 panels of AGT Ultra (Ambient Glow Technology) lume around the flying tourbillon. Two crowns: winding on left and time-setting on right
It comes on a black rubber bracelet moulded in aircraft-grade fluorocarbon FKM 70 elastomer with folding buckle in titanium or 18kt red gold.
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