MB&F celebrates ten years of HM3 with FrogX
Ten years after its debut, MB&F’s HM3 Frog makes its comeback, radiantly exposed in a sapphire crystal case, yet still with a hidden message to be discovered. Maverick haute horlogerie brand MB&F recently presented Horological Machine N°3 “FrogX”
In 2009, MB&F was four years into its creative expression of mechanical art. Horological Machines N°1 and N°2 had established the guiding principles of the Maximilian Büsser & Friends collective: audacious design, transformative micromechanics, untrammelled imagination. Then came Horological Machine N°3; HM3 had everything that HM1 and HM2 had before – the design, the micromechanics, the imagination – but its defiant three-dimensional construction shot MB&F into hyperspace.
One year later, in 2010, the vehicle that transported MB&F into a new universe proved its versatility and cemented its place in the hearts of MB&F lovers everywhere, by morphing into the Tribe’s first (and best-loved) mascot: the HM3 “Frog”.
Two globular “eyes” that rotated to give the hours and minutes. A widely grinning “mouth” revealing the occasional bright flicker of the signature MB&F battle-axe rotor as it swept past a date scale. A glistening “skin” of titanium, red gold or exotic zirconium. HM3 Frog may have been small as a specimen of amphibious pondlife, but it was mighty on the wrist as it leapt to iconic status at the crossroads of kinetic art and horology.
HM3 FrogX incorporates the distinctive HM3 engine in its MegaWind Final Edition version. The engine of HM3, built by award-winning master watchmaker Jean-Marc Wiederrecht, is based on a Girard-Perregaux calibre, which has been literally turned upside down to allow for an uninterrupted view of the enlarged 22k gold and titanium winding rotor and the oscillations of the balance wheel.
Time indications are usually located on the top, or dial side, of a movement. As the HM3 engine is inverted to display its operation, an efficient solution was needed to bring power from the bottom of the movement to the time-indication domes at the top.
Instead of standard jewelled pinions, HM3 features two large-diameter (15mm) high-tech ceramic bearings. Because of their large diameter, these bearings minimise the number of friction-inducing gears and, due to the rigidity resulting from their ultra-high precision design and manufacture, they only require support at one end (the base), allowing for a thinner movement.
If the first HM3 Frog was an animal of land and lake, FrogX brings us into the arboreal realms of the transparent-skinned glass frogs of Central American cloud forests. The transparent case of FrogX is entirely of sapphire crystal, one of the hardest known minerals, and must be milled with diamond-tipped tools or special high-tech carbide bits.
Despite MB&F’s experience with the most advanced sapphire-crystal producers (as demonstrated in earlier MB&F creations such as the HM4 Thunderbolt and HM6 Alien Nation), machining the case of HM3 FrogX still provided a considerable challenge. The separate sapphire domes not only needed to be uniform in size, they had to also be exactly uniform and consistent in thickness and curve so as not to create any final optical distortions in the reading of the time.
Those looking at the winding and setting crown of HM3 FrogX, expecting to see the usual battle-axe insignia, will be slightly baffled to find a smooth, highly polished disc (although exceptionally observant individuals may notice a slight irregularity in its reflection of light). At just the right angle, with just the right kind of directional light and just the right receiving surface, the final secret of the fully exposed FrogX is revealed. A secret signal, created by sculpting the metal crown at microscopic levels to allow it to reflect light in highly specific ways, is the key to unlocking the MB&F battle-axe.
The HM3 FrogX 10th anniversary limited editions are available in three versions of 10 pieces each with blue, purple, or turquoise rotors and matching colours of Super-LumiNova and case gaskets.
