(Click image for gallery - 13 photos)

Max Büsser says:

MB&F Horological Machine No4 is here! For the last three years I could not talk about this amazing piece of machinery, and it is truly a great day that I can finally share with all!

After the 311 part Engine which was unveiled in March during Basel, here is probably the most complex case in the history of horology to protect and magnify it.

Titanium and Sapphire - 150 hours of machining and polishing just for the central Sapphire case (that is close to four weeks of machining for one piece !), over 60 hours of machining and finishing for the titanium case back, etc, etc... In our twenty years of horology, this is the greatest challenge Serge Kriknoff and I have been up to.

So what is the Thunderbolt ? A tribute to Aviation... Why ? Because from the age of 8 to 12-13 I spent every free minute crafting model airplanes... They were everywhere in my room. Hanging from the ceilings, accumulating on the shelves, in the cupboards. I would spend hours assembling, modifying, painting anything which had two wings. HM4 is a very personal interpretation of what would happen if you crossed a piece of ultra high end horology with the world of aeronautics.

View all other MB&F timepieces.

Retail $158,000

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Max Busser says:
"As amazing as it could seem, I have always felt that our HM3 was a very elegant piece. So when the prototype came out two years ago, I immediately itched to create a really "whacky" version of it.

Two sketches later, the Frog was born... well in concept at least. The hour and minute gears as well as date system had to be entirely modified in the 304 part engine, the sapphire domes needed to be perfectly machined on both sides so as not deform the numbers and most difficult was to create the lightest aluminium domes possible - in this case we managed to hit 0,58g by machining them down to a thickness of 0,28mm.

The Frog is special, the Frog is rare... we will only craft 32 movements this year: a limited edition of 12 pieces in black titanium (with green gold rotor) and 20 pieces of a non-limited titanium version (with blue gold rotor)."

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The Dream Factory was a four brand exhibition space located in the Palace Hall, during Baselworld last month (floorplan). The four brands that exhibited in the Dream Factory were Christophe Claret, Urwerk, MB&F and Speake Marin. All four companies offer high-end, ultra limited quantity timepieces that are more about being unique and artistic, than they are about making complications. Still, the difficulty in creating timepieces of this level is extremely high, even if most of these pieces are not considered to be "complicated" timepieces by traditional definitions. For example, when MB&F makes a watch with a 6mm thick sapphire crystal that acts as the case, it is not considered a complicated watch. However, it is undoubtedly complicated to produce.

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Maximilian Busser, the founder of MB&F, has just sent me the first photos of the newest MB&F watch engine which will power the Horological Machine No4 (HM4). It will be available for viewing, next week, during Baselworld 2010. The MB&F HM4 Thunderbolt timepiece is scheduled to officially be released July 2010. "As this image of the Engine of Thunderbolt reveals, Horological Machine No4 will feature a calibre that is a complete departure from any watch movement known today." The design of the piece appears to be inspired by a Star Wars or Star Trek ship. Whatever the inspiration, as usual, the design is anything but usual.

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I just received an email from Maximilian Busser regarding the new MB&F HM2-SV.

He says, "As promised, HM2-SV is now finally unveiled! SV for Sapphire Vision. A very limited edition of 25 pieces, letting the owner discover the whole movement and the construction of the titanium case supporting it. Honestly, when you have the piece in hand it is astounding. The whole movement in its three dimensionality just looks like a suspended city.

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Maximilian Büsser, the owner of MB&F, just sent me a teaser of his newest timepiece, the HM2-SV. Based on the original HM2, the SV will be available in a limited edition of 25. For now, this is the only photo available, but check back next Tuesday for the official photos and press release.

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What happens when that master of glorious colour, French high-end watch designer Alain Silberstein, is let loose with MB&F's Horological Machine No2? The surprising answer is a new, all-black case that epitomises Bauhaus purity and restraint. The new model, called Horological Machine No2.2, is known affectionately in-house as "the black box". It will be issued in a limited edition of eight watches.

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MB&F and artist Sage Vaughn ready to make a strong statement at Only Watch

There is a butterfly trapped in the movement of the latest watch to emerge from MB&F (Maximilian Büsser & Friends). And it has no hope of escaping, because the complicated movement is wrapped in barbed wire. This emotionally charged piece, a one-of-a-kind interpretation of MB&F's Horological Machine No2, is signed by the American artist Sage Vaughn. It will be auctioned at Only Watch, the charity auction to benefit research into Duchenne Muscular Dystrophy to be held in Monaco on 24 September 2009 under the patronage of HSH Prince Albert II. The auction is held every two years and brings together the cream of Switzerland's haute horlogerie watchmakers. Each contributes a unique watch, or the number one from a limited series, to be auctioned without a reserve price. All the proceeds from Only Watch go to enabling the Monegasque Association against Duchenne Muscular Dystrophy (AMM) to support international research projects into that disease - a field in which the Association has been actively involved since 2005.

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