The Robot Watch – MB&F: HM12 The Guardian

The horological machine

MB&F has unveiled the Horological Machine 12, almost twenty years after the launch of the HM1 in 2007. The starting point for the project, which was developed over more than four years, was the first Horological Machine conceived entirely by Maximilian Büsser and Maximilian Maertens, without the involvement of long-standing design collaborator Eric Giroud.

The result is a robot whose head also works as a wristwatch, with its indications arranged to form a face: two eyes looking straight ahead, a mouth below and, above it all, visible through the sapphire, an exposed mechanical brain. All told, the watch comprises close to 1,500 components.

Technical specifications

The HM12 case is made from grade 5 titanium and measures 49,3 mm long, 43,6 mm wide and 13,8 mm thick, with three sapphire crystals and an integrated mechanical system that acts as eyelids, operated from the crown on the left-hand side of the case. The dial combines jumping hours on the left, retrograde minutes on the right, a flying tourbillon at 12 o'clock and a micro-rotor visible from the dial side. The movement is an automatic caliber developed entirely in-house, with a double-sided micro-rotor, flying tourbillon, 646 components, 86 jewels and an 84-hour power reserve.

It also features a mechanical thermometer as a heart, a magnifying glass built into one of its arms and a removable UV torch in the other to activate the Super-LumiNova on both the watch and the robot itself. It measures 22 cm in diameter by 38,2 cm in height and weighs approximately 15 kg with its base. The piece is produced in three colours: green, blue and purple. Each is limited to 12 pieces, priced at CHF 280.000 plus taxes.

The why

MB&F has built its identity on the idea of turning childhood memories, be they spaceships, robots or racing cars, into watches. The collaboration with L'Epée 1839 had already produced sculptural clocks such as Melchior, Balthazar and Grant, but always as table pieces separate from the wristwatch. The HM12 The Guardian goes one step further, bringing both worlds together at the same time, as its head is removable via a quick-release system so you can wear it on the wrist.

The facial shutter mechanism is the conceptual heart of the piece, as it is a system completely independent of the movement, with more than 200 components dedicated solely to sliding the eyelids, allowing the wearer to stop them in any position to create different expressions. It is a complication with no function whatsoever, yet executed with the same rigour of finishing and engineering that MB&F demands of its most serious complications, such as the flying tourbillon or the double-sided micro-rotor.