MB&F unveils MoonMachine 2
The horological creation of MB&F and Stepan Sarpaneva, the MoonMachine 2 is the world’s first projected moonphase display that hovers between illusion and reality
As strange as it might sound, moonlight doesn’t exist. It is an illusion, and even the word “moonlight” is misleading. The moon gives off no light of its own, but only reflects light from the sun. Moonlight is actually sunlight, projected onto Earth via the moon.
Stepan Sarpaneva – the independent Finnish watchmaker whose work is synonymous with the moonphase display – understands this very well, and his second collaboration with MB&F has resulted in the world’s first projected moonphase display.
MoonMachine 2 comes housed in the case of Horological Machine Nº8, the first MB&F creation to possess two design icons of the Horological Machine collection: the battle-axe rotor and the heads-up time display first seen in HM5. The stripped-down case construction of HM8 emphasised the illusory nature of the projected hours and minutes, and MoonMachine 2 uses the same mechanism to highlight the visual impact of a moon disc appearing in a space too small to fully contain it.
The projection is accomplished via an optical prism, which refracts the hours, minutes, and moon discs in their flat positions to appear as if they are perpendicular to the engine. The prism is cut to magnify the hours and minutes by 20 per cent for greater readability, but not for the moonphase display, which is at risk of distortion if magnified. The case of MoonMachine 2 is 0.5mm thicker than that of HM8, to accommodate the additional moon disc, and has a pusher on the side for quick adjustment of the moonphase display.
The battle-axe rotor of HM8 has been transformed into an open-worked radial web of titanium, echoing the design vocabulary of Stepan Sarpaneva’s best-known work. The sapphire crystal pane framing the top of the MoonMachine 2 engine has been metallised in a similar pattern and draws focus to the variable sheen of the brushed titanium rotor as it rotates.
MoonMachine 2 is available in three limited editions of 12 – one in full titanium with white gold moons and a light-blue sky; one in blackened titanium with white gold moons and a dark-blue sky; and one in red gold and titanium with red gold moons and an anthracite sky.
