Swiss watch brand Maximilian Büsser and Friends, also known as MB&F, teamed up with Swiss high-end clock manufacturer L’Epée 1839 to create yet another horological masterpiece. The result of this collaboration, which marks their seventh partnership together, is the new Octopod desk clock (35,000CHF). MB&F’s latest innovation was inspired by key aspects of an octopus such as its eight integrated legs as well as a spherical “head” that harbors its intricate clockwork complications and “face” displaying the time of day.
This nautically inspired timepiece shelters a manual wound movement that extends an 8-day power reserve from only a single barrel running at 18,000 vibrations per hour. Evocative of the Ulysse Nardin Freak, the escapement of the Octopod braces onto the minute hand; headlining an extremely unique feature to the piece.
The Octopod is actually not the first sea inspired innovation from Max Büsser’s firm that centralizes on oceanic life, but the second consecutive timepiece they have produced. MB&F released the acclaimed HM7 Aquapod, a wrist watch sporting a jellyfish-inspired figuration and external diver’s-style bezel, as their first ever nautically influenced timepiece.
The unique nautical design of the Octopod does not merely conclude at its cephalopod contour. The head of the desk clock relates to the device that holds the ship’s gyroscope in place. This bears a similar resemblance to how the ship’s chronometers were originally like in the past, which acquiesces them to concatenate in benefit of the ship’s movement.
MB&F’s new aquatic desk clock received its transparent bubble evoking recollection of the bathysphere from James Cameron’s The Abyss; an 1989 American science fiction film. Because the Swiss watch brand mainly aimed their attention on robots and outer space for inspiration on their timepieces, MB&F are changing their heading and focusing on adapting a far more expansive array of nautically inspired timepieces in the years to come.
The octopod desk clock will be in a limited production of only 150 examples, which include 50 with legs in palladium, 50 in blue, and 50 in black PVD.
MOVEMENT & SPECIFICATIONS
- ● Baseplate in transparent mineral glass, anti-reactive coating both sides
- ● Balance frequency: 2.5 Hz / 18,000 bph
- ● Power reserve: 8 days from single barrel
- ● Components movement: 159
- ● Jewels: 19
- ● Incabloc shock protection system protected by mineral glass
- ● Manual-winding: the double-depth square socket key sets time and winds movement
- ● Palladium-plated brass, stainless steel and nickel-plated brass
For more information about the Octopod: MBandF.com
Photos provided by MB&F
