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MB&F New HM8 Horological Machine 8 Mark 2
The New HM8 is Out!
There's no secret. Here at WatchProSite, many of us are passionate about car design and about timepieces! Thus, when the two combine, it's a great sense of excitement for all.
Here's a post from 2016 that show how the two can have some similarities! Max Busser was always fascinated with car design and as a child he even wanted to be a car designer! Well, I'm sure he would have made a great car designer, but I'm so happy he went with watches instead!
MB&F, a long-time favorite here on WPS, and where many members own an MB&F timepiece - has done it again. The Horological Machine No.8 Mark 2. WPS is not one of the first to break the news on this piece, but we hope that this article gives you a bit of a different perspective about the firm and the Creative Director whom created it.
Here's a quick video of the new piece:
The design resembles a car's instrument cluster and the case of the watch is shaped in the hood of an instrument cluster. The instrumentation is provided courtesy of a custom made MB&F exclusive manufacture movement module that is grafted onto a Girard-Perregaux base movement. MB&F has only a small team of special watchmakers and thus they are unable to make a significant volume of movements and thus production is heavily constrained. However, the focus at MB&F is very much quality over quantity, and these pieces are generally very well finished and well made. A tremendous amount of time is spent on the sapphire glass of every MB&F piece, these pieces of sapphire are cut from a large boule of sapphire glass. Each one is cut individually by a complex multi-axis CNC machine, fed with a liquid to provide constant cooling - each piece takes hours as this process cannot be rushed - rushing would stress the sapphire glass itself making it more prone to cracking on the wearer's wrist. Traditional watches simply have circular pieces of glass sliced from a cylinder of sapphire boule - a simple and efficient process.
Busser's works have been recipients of the GPHG awards many times. In 2022 he won best of show. This picture above is from 2021 where he won two awards that night!
Photo by GPHG of November 2021
MB&F's leader, Monsieur Max Busser, has told WatchProSite many times that he is happy with the size of the company, the revenue, and the headcount and he's not looking for significant increases anytime soon. Not being burdened by public shareholders, MB&F isn't constantly leaning for growth, expansion, nor marketshare - whereas Richemont, LVMH, Swatch, and their shareholders are constantly monitoring this as they assess their dominance of the industry.
MB&F which stands for Max Busser & Friends, is almost structured in a watchmaking co-op-erative structure. Monsieur Busser has an innate talent for design - often inspired by science fiction, childhood fantasy, mid-century modernism, car design (he dreamed of designing cars when he was a young child), and the 1970s - and sits as the brand's Creative Director. Busser, is one of those rare individuals who is genuinely a creative genius and also a genuinely kind hearted soul, decided he wanted to help watchmaking in his own way (not an easy thing as he lived through the Quartz Crisis in Switzerland in the 70s). Over 20 years ago, Busser started creative collaborations during his tenure at Harry Winston Rare Timepieces as its CEO where he started a collaborative series called "OPUS" a series of collaborations between Harry Winston and various watchmakers to express their work as artists and for Harry Winston to be the artist's agency and gallery. For those whom are new to Busser and his works, watch this man, time and time again, he has been seen as a futurist of the watchmaking industry. His pieces are ahead of their time. His business decisions are ahead of their time too - today we're seeing Collaborations of the weirdest combinations Adidas X Rimowa and yet over 20 years ago, Busser was pioneering Collaborations. Busser isn't into trendy things - he shot down NFTs and blockchain stating he didn't see the value add and he couldn't genuinely ask his customers to pay for an NFT without feeling "slimy" because he didn't feel his customers would be getting something of equivalent value. Realizing that watchmaking is also a collaborative effort from the very beginning, and vowing to do business with people he would deem as friends, Busser decided to pay homage to those friends by putting them on the letterhead, hence the name of the company is Max Busser and Friends (as opposed to be "et fils" or "und Soehnes" which indicates "and sons"). Truly a man ahead of his time and a rock star in the industry!
Busser's works have been recipients of the GPHG awards many times. In 2022 he won best of show. This picture above is from 2021 where he won two awards that night!
Photo by GPHG of November 2021
Here's a promotional video about the man (credit goes to The Hour Glass whom produced this video and was one of the early retailers of MB&F) - I apologize for including so much promotional and marketing videos in this post, but this post really shows Max Busser is ahead of his time in so many ways... So many of the world's great ideas are so misunderstood in their beginnings - and are suppressed by the larger powers at be. Even the controversial Elon Musk was misunderstood - but today, he's seen as a visionary for pioneering Electric Vehicles - and yet when one hears him talk, he's not even proud about electric vehicles - he's proud of the bigger picture - sustainable transportation and autonomy within transportation of which EVs are just a tiny step towards his big picture. When Steve Jobs introduced the iPod and the iPhone, they weren't fully understood - and yet now we use a smart phone every day. Here's that video:
Priced at a whopping 73,000 Swiss francs! These pieces are very dear and very expensive. But they are definitely works of art that are made in small quantities and at exorbitant costs. There are two colors available; green cased and white cased. Which one is your favorite?
HM8 Mark 2 is available:
- in titanium and green CarbonMacrolon® body panel limited to 33 pieces; - in titanium and white CarbonMacrolon® body panel.
Engine
Three-dimensional horological engine, composed of a jumping hour and trailing minutes module developed in-house by MB&F, powered by a Girard-Perregaux base movement.
Mechanical movement, automatic winding
22K gold automatic winding rotor
Power reserve: 42 hours
Balance frequency: 28,800bph/4Hz. Number of components: 247 components Number of jewels: 30 jewels
Functions/indications
Bi-directional jumping hours and trailing minutes, displayed by dual reflective sapphire crystal prisms with inte- grated magnifying lens.
Case
Grade 5 titanium with green or white CarbonMacrolon® Dimensions: 47 x 41.5 x 19 mm
Number of components: 42
Water resistance: 30m / 90’ / 3atm
Sapphire crystals
Sapphire crystals on top, front and display back treated with anti-reflective coating on both faces. Dual reflective sapphire crystal prisms with integrated magnifying lens.
Strap & Buckle
Calfskin strap - white for the British green model and green for the white model with a titanium tang buckle.
I like it!
I like both versions, although I do have a slight preference for the white metal on green strap - it's more versatile.... It's definitely among his more practical designs in my opinion........ Thanks for the information 
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Is the green rotor in the white case also made of gold?
The rotor in the green case is obvious, but I can’t tell from the pics or the write up if they’re different materials. I wouldn’t expect them to be.🤔
Yes! It's 22K gold, just coated in green!
I don't know how they do this exactly. Do they paint the rotor? I'm under the impression that the gold material doesn't take anodization well. So it isn't anodized. Hmm. I wonder.
CVD!
I asked the team at MB&F and they got back to me very quickly! It is a CVD treatment. Chemical Vapor Deposition. I'm not an expert in this, I know a bit about plating as a friend of mine owns a plating company and gave me a quick understanding and a chemicals/elements refresher, but I do not know a lot about PVD and CVD. But I read this article which was a bit helpful. www.harveyperformance.com
Wow, thank you 🙏🏽
This article was a great read. I loved chemistry, and the article was entertaining as much as it was educational. It really is impressive to learn how some of these creative teams use chemical techniques to achieve certain effects. DeBethune also comes to mind. Thanks for following up on this question.👍🏽
You are most welcome!
The thanks really belongs to the team at MB&F. They're very receptive to all the nosy questions I pose and stick my nose in! I thank them for their patience in dealing with me!
👍🏽 This is really an attractive and “wearable” MB&F for me…
but unfortunately, given the price level this would be hard to swing. This same point increasingly applies to most brands I’m a fan of. *sigh* I’ll have to live vicariously through everyone else.
I hear you!
Hopefully you'll be able to get one of those M.A.D. Editions. They'll be coming out with more pieces over the years...
Me too!
70,000 Swiss francs is a big piece of change! True, we've got a lot of huge collectors who seem to spend that much on a monthly basis, but it's still A LOT of money! I'm a mere mortal too! This is really a piece for someone who can't live without it. And I strongly suggest to all our members to avoid buying something unless there's a physical or intense mental pain that arises when you don't have it.
Visually I like it.
It’s a definite improvement over what would seem to be the least successful MB&F ever, the earlier auto themed HM5. (I’m not sure if that a fair statement, but my rationale is that the HM5 neither appears technically as interesting as other HM and the design in my opinion hasn’t aged well).
Will this one age better? I feel it will.
It will also benefit from timing, MB&F as with many Indies are still carrying a halo and that will bless all references.
I find them so different that I don't even immediately think they're related...
The two look so different to me that if it wasn't for the naming nomenclature, I wouldn't even think the two were related.
I might be in the minority here, but I might actually like the old HM5 more than the new one. The old one has a nice nostalgic feel to it. And I find comfort in the familiarity of it. The new one is definitely more daring. Modern. I definitely like it. But I still like the old one too. Not sure if I like the new one more than the old one - I might like the old one more. The old one also looks more substantial.
But they're definitely awesome machines. Tamer than some other horological machines from the brand. Easier to be worn on a regular basis.
I agree with the wearability, that’s definitely true for this one and its earlier sibling.
"a halo that will bless all references" - that's a very beautiful metaphor. Hope you don't mind if I use it in future ! :)
Great addition to MB&F's line of driver's watches
The HM5, HMX, HM8, and HM8 Mk2 are the most wearable of MB&Fs Horological Machines. I wonder if the CarbonMacrolon material will age visually over a long period of time, say 50 years. Not an issue, but a curiosity.
I think it will hold up better than the early Carbon Fiber bezels at AP...
Some of the early AP bezels have worn rather badly, giving off little chunks of resin and visible cloth fibers. After a year or so of wear and tear, the watch was in noticeably worn condition. The edge of these look so smooth that I anticipate they'll wear well. I'm not terribly concerned, as I know that the brand will do the right thing if something is wrong.