MB&F Celebrates Porsche 918 Spyder With HM8 Mark 2 Watch
The $78,000 stunner features a speedometer-style display, “double de-clutch” crown and a spinning gold rotor.
Avant-garde watchmaker MB&F frequently puts forth wildly unconventional designs that draw inspiration from a founder Maximilian Busser’s many interests, including panda bears and fighter jets.
But his earliest interest was automobiles, which explains why the new MB&F HM8 Mark 2’s shape is inspired by the 2010’s-era Porsche 918 Spyder supercar.
In fact, Busser had spent his entire childhood sketching cars before ultimately going to school for engineering at the prestigious Swiss Federal Institute of Technology Lausanne (EPFL)
“I lost my way, I lost my marbles, and ended up in the
watchmaking industry,” he said in an MB&F statement. “So,
when I decided to tackle car design in a timepiece, this
was humungous for me. It was everything I had ever
dreamed of.”
That first effort resulted in 2012’s HM5, which included opening and closing light slats inspired by those of Marcello Gandini’s Lamborghini Miura by Bertone. The second, the HMX, was inspired by Italian coachbuilder Touring Superleggera and featured miniature caps that could be unscrewed and filled with “watchmaking oils.”
The third was the HM8 Can-Am, featuring a sapphire crystal that allowed a view of the spinning rotor, plus design cues from Canadian American Racing Championship Cars, including titanium roll bars.
Which brings us back to the HM8 Mark 2. Instead of the first iteration’s monobloc design, the Mark 2 features an independent water-resistant titanium chassis to which tiny body panels made from CarbonMacrolon—a rigid composite material comprised of polymer and carbon—are attached.
These panels combine to create the distinct look of the Porsche’s roll bar, which runs behind the driver and passenger seats. They also house the speedometer-style side display, which is designed to be easily viewed while driving.
The watch also boasts a double-curved sapphire crystal, which MB&F claims is up to 40-times more expensive than a dome sapphire. The crown is also secured by a “double de-clutch” system that requires a push-in and a three-quarters turn to release.
The mechanism not only harks to the automotive world, but optimizes space and provides additional security and protection for the HM8 Mark 2’s “engine”—a Girard-Perregaux base unit composed of a jumping hour and trailing minutes module with an automatic winding rotor that’s so thin, it had to be stamped.
Priced from $78,000, the HM8 Mark 2 is available in two colorways—British racing green with a 22-karat gold rotor and turquoise minute markers, or white with a green rotor and light green minute markers. Total production is limited to 33 units.