Reuge x MB&F announce the MusicMachine 1 Reloaded!

Back in 2013, MusicMachine 1 opened the floodgate for MB&F to collaborate with external creators on projects outside the scope of the wristwatch; it initiated a new category – “Co-creations” – that invited MB&F to a world beyond that of miniaturized horology. And it did not tell the time: rather, it was a music box created with REUGE that uprooted everything we thought we knew about music boxes, from the design all the way to the music. MusicMachine 1 featured all the traditional, timehonoured elements of a superlative high-end music box, but configured in MB&F’s individualistic manner. It was a music box for today.

“How you make a music box is still something that is mind-boggling for the mere mortal,” says MB&F founder Maximilian Büsser, who remains awestruck by the mechanics of the machines. High-end mechanical music boxes share many similarities with their horological counterparts, both technically and aesthetically, with similar fine finishing techniques. For MusicMachine 1 Reloaded, energy is derived from coiled springs and transferred by gear trains; the unwinding speed is carefully regulated, thanks to fan regulators similar to those found in traditional minute repeater watches. This puts in motion two cylinders, which contain the “scores” of the melodies, materialised by 1,400 precision-placed pins. When the cylinders revolve, the pins pluck the teeth of steel combs, each containing a bespoke selection of 72 hand-tuned notes. Each comb forms a unique pair with its corresponding cylinder; neither can play properly without the other.

REUGE was founded in 1865 in Sainte-Croix, Switzerland and is today the premier manufacturer of music automatons on the planet with more than 155 years of expertise and experience. Between 2013 and 2015, MB&F and REUGE released three MusicMachines, each playing different songs – untraditionally, modern music – and each model was a success. Maximilian Büsser and his Friends decided it was time to redesign the first MusicMachine and issue another edition.

“The original design was done by young Chinese designer Xin Wang,” says Büsser. “But we had Maximilian Maertens, who is designing a lot of new crazy cool stuff with us, work on this one with the idea of being a little bit more streamlined, a little bit more open. ”

With its dual propellers and twin silver cylinders mounted on sleek outrigger landing gear, MusicMachine 1 Reloaded still looks like a spaceship hailing from a galaxy far, far away. Just slightly different than before.

Like the original version, each of the cylinders on MusicMachine 1 Reloaded plays three tunes, all personally selected by Maximilian Büsser. The left cylinder plays the Star Wars theme, “Imperial March” from The Empire Strikes Back, and the theme from Star Trek. Back on earth, the right cylinder plays Pink Floyd’s “Another Brick in the Wall,” Deep Purple’s “Smoke on the Water,” and John Lennon’s “Imagine.”

“When it comes to design and creativity, MB&F is the specialist,” says REUGE CEO Amr Alotaishan. “However, when it comes to execution and excellence of product – the technical, engineering, and manufacturing side – we are comfortable. The ability to have a creative design that can reach out and touch people is amazing, while we know that we can produce the complementary quality when it comes to the technology. ”

MusicMachine 1 Reloaded is a limited edition of 33 pieces in blue, 33 pieces in red, and 33 in black.

REUGE created MusicMachine 1 Reloaded based on a futuristic spaceship design proposed by MB&F whose founder, Maximilian Büsser, is a keen fan of all the great sci-fi films and TV series. In collaboration with ECAL design graduate Max Maertens, MB&F evolved Xin Wang’s original spaceship design while cleverly incorporating all the essential music box features such as musically tuned combs, pinned cylinders, winding mechanisms, mainspring barrels, regulators, and an acoustically optimised case. “What we have designed now is more complex than the original MusicMachine,” Max Büsser explains. “Nine years later, with what I’ve learned, how I’ve evolved, and my tastes have changed, we basically reworked some of the details to have it become what I would want today. I’m not saying that I don’t like what we previously did, it’s just that being the creator I am today, this is what I would find cooler. ”

What Büsser and Maertens have created is more visually organic than the original MusicMachine, with the young Berlin-based designer additionally introducing the concept of what he calls “more airflow.”

The MusicMachine series is really important for Max Maertens, even an inspirational steppingstone of sorts. When he first saw the original MusicMachine back in about 2015 as a design student, it inspired him to change his direction and way of thinking. So it was something of a dream come true for him to work on a redesign of precisely this piece. “But I made it into something that is more aerodynamic, more like my own design language,” he explains. This involved Maertens using more science as a base and looking to aerospace engineering. “The entire piece is in kind of a flow,” he says. This is especially visible in the wings, which now look as if they are in a wind tunnel with invisible airflow around them.”

“I took the existing idea of how and where we place the mechanics and changed everything else about the MusicMachine, without losing the main essence of the previous piece – so that it really looks like a ‘reloaded’ version,” Maertens says.

The main structure of MusicMachine 1 Reloaded is essentially the same, but Maertens rethought several key elements. One big change is that the entire body is now made of anodized aluminium, in contrast to the wood of the original MusicMachine. “The process of machining aluminium is so appealing, so precise, and its surface is so beautiful,” he says. But the main point is that Maertens wanted to ensure that each individual piece of MusicMachine 1 Reloaded looks as if it were one fused piece.

“And I never hide the mechanics,” he says. “That is something really important for me as well.

MusicMachine 1 Reloaded doesn’t just look like something from a science fiction film; three of the melodies have been beamed directly from sci-fi classics.

MusicMachine 1 Reloaded’s left cylinder plays the theme from Star Trek by Jerry Goldsmith as well as the theme from Star Wars and the “Imperial March” from The Empire Strikes Back, both by cinematic music maestro John Williams. While the first two are stirring anthems evoking heroism and adventure, the latter will have you battening down the hatches and raising the shields as it signals the imminent arrival of the villainous Darth Vader.

But MB&F is much more than sci-fi; the brand’s creations are edgy and iconoclastic relative to the rest of the high-end watch world. This rock ‘n’ roll attitude is neatly symbolized by the three melodies of the right cylinder: John Lennon’s classic anti-war anthem “Imagine,” Deep Purple’s riff-tastic “Smoke on the Water,” and Pink Floyd’s memorable social commentary “Another Brick in the Wall.”

Büsser drew on his youth when choosing these for the original MusicMachine, and the selection was a daunting task as he related at the time. “In addition to the science fiction themes, I wanted to include three songs that were important to me during the first 20 years of my life. From a long list, I managed to whittle it down to three, but it was quite an ordeal!.”

With the 20/20 vision of hindsight, he hasn’t changed his opinion on why he chose them much. “Remembering it was my first co-creation, it was also an era where everything was still about my youth, my childhood, etc. And it was also about – and it still is about – creating something I would like to own. What I would like to listen to is of course themes from Star Wars and Star Trek (in my youth I was a cinema usher). I thought it was so cool to have Deep Purple’s “Smoke on the Water.” Going to see traditional maker REUGE and saying I want to have Deep Purple on my music box, that’s priceless.”

FAITHFULLY CREATING MUSIC… MECHANICALLY REUGE recreated the melodies mechanically. Firstly, a REUGE musician examined the pieces of music and identified the most recognizable passages from each. The musician then set about recreating these passages for the music box, keeping in mind that one cylinder would contain the three rock melodies, and the other cylinder would have the three sci-fi inspired melodies, and that each cylinder’s pins would pluck one 72-note comb.

Working out two groups of three arrangements, each one limited to approximately 35 seconds, and the multitude of notes that these songs entail (some notes are used by all three melodies, while some are exclusive to just one melody) represents a considerable technical and artistic achievement in which the musician’s brain, sense of expression, and emotional dexterity top any computer.

MusicMachine 1 Reloaded has two independent movements, each comprising a winding propeller; a mainspring barrel (looking like a piston under the propeller); a horizontal cylinder with pins creating three melodies; and a vertical comb with individual hand-tuned teeth sounding each note. While it would have been much easier to duplicate the two movements and just change the melodies, MB&F’s original concept called for perfect symmetry, and if the movements were identical the comb on one cylinder would not be on the outside. So REUGE took the unprecedented step of configuring the two movements as mirror images of one another, which meant completely inverting the design of the movement components and architecture.

THE COMBS The two vertical combs look like air vent grills on either side of the vessel’s main body. Each comb contains the bespoke selection of 72 notes chosen by the REUGE musician according to the three melodies that cylinder will play. The combs are hand-tuned from a unique steel alloy specifically selected for its acoustic impact. For bass notes, the weight of the tooth is extended at the back by the traditional method of adding lead. A machine then tests the frequency of each tooth and minute amounts of material are removed to accurately tune each note. The hand-operated tools that REUGE uses in this process have all been developed inhouse.

Tiny transparent, synthetic feathers are added behind the bass note teeth, acting as dampers so that the note resonates optimally. The comb is finally attached to a brass ‘vibration plate’ passing through the main hull, with six heatblued screws. The vibration plate transfers the sound to the case, which in turn amplifies the sound even more. Once the comb is fitted, the musician’s ear is required again for the final fine tune. “Looking at that in action is just beautiful,” says REUGE CEO Amr Alotaishan. “It adds to the complexity of what’s being done, and it adds into the perceived value. You don’t want to hide that. People really like to see the engine.”

THE CYLINDERS The beautifully hand-finished cylinders gleam like a pair of imposing reactors atop MusicMachine 1 Reloaded’s main hull. The cylinders essentially contain ‘the scores’ of the melodies, with as many as 1,400 precision-placed pins that pluck the teeth of the comb as the cylinder revolves. The REUGE musician determines precisely where to place every single pin. The pins are shaved then polished to ensure uniformity of length. Finally, a special hot resin is applied inside the cylinder, which, when hardened, rigidly fixes the pins to maximise sound quality.

Once one melody is played, the cylinder moves slightly along its long axis, and this change of position aligns the right pins with the right teeth to play the next melody. Each melody lasts approximately 35 seconds and corresponds to one complete revolution of the cylinder. The cylinders are linked via visible gear trains to MusicMachine 1 Reloaded’s rear engine room.

FAN REGULATORS On either side of the propeller-like winding levers are distinctive vertical circular panels. While these look as though they may be radar dishes to navigate an asteroid field or force field generating devices to repel enemy proton torpedoes, they are actually the cylinder speed regulators. When fully wound, the main springs tend to turn the cylinders faster than when nearly unwound. To compensate, these circular fan air regulators provide exponentially more resistance when rotating faster than slower, allowing for a constant revolution.

FUSELAGE, STRUTS, LANDING PODS AND LANDING PLATFORM Crafted in blue, red, or black anodised aluminium, MusicMachine 1 Reloaded’s sleek fuselage amplifies sound transmitted from the brass vibration plate centrally housed within the case. This plate also conducts the vibrations along the curved, lateral struts and outrigger-style landing pods in bead-blasted, anodised aluminium, which in turn carry the vibrations down to MusicMachine 1 Reloaded’s landing platform.

“I think it’s cool. If I had nothing to do with this company, I would consider buying it,” Amr Alotaishan summarizes the emotion MusicMachine 1 Reloaded brings up in him. “We bring traditional crafts to a younger, up-and-coming world by magically transforming them so that they find the fascination as well. ”

TECHNICAL SPECIFICATIONS

MusicMachine 1 Reloaded is a limited edition of 33 pieces in blue, 33 pieces in red, and 33 in black.

CASE, FRAME AND PLATFORM

Main body: anodized aluminium

Outriggers: Bead-blasted and anodised aluminium; black matte-anodised for black version

Dimensions: 381 wide x 476 long x 140mm high; total weight: approx. 3kg

Acoustically-enhancing platform: black wood matt finish

MOVEMENT AND FINISHING

MusicMachine 1 Reloaded features two 3.72 movements (3 refers to number of melodies on each cylinder; 72 refers to number of notes on each comb); one movement is “right” configured; one movement is “left” configured (they rotate in opposite directions).

Mainplate: nickel-plated brass, decorated with Côtes de Genève. The mainplate holds both movements; each movement includes a mainspring, cylinder, comb and regulator.

Mainsprings: wound via propellers.

Barrels: stainless steel; each with 6 heat-blued screws on top; grooved “piston” sides

Regulator: fan in stainless steel Cylinders: brass

Start/stop and continue functions

Cylinder supports: nickel-plated brass

One melody = one revolution of the cylinder

Three melodies per cylinder

Length of each melody: approx. 35 seconds

Power reserve per cylinder: approx. 10 minutes

Pins hand-applied and hand-polished

Length of pins: 1mm; diameter of pins: 0.3mm Pins per right cylinder: 1,279; pins per left cylinder: 1,399

Combs: steel alloy and lead; 72 teeth per comb; each comb attached to brass vibration plate by six heat-blued steel screws

MELODIES

Right cylinder – extracts from:

“Another Brick in the Wall” (1979) written by Roger Waters and originally performed by Pink Floyd

“Smoke on the Water” (1973) written and originally performed by Deep Purple

“Imagine” (1971) written and originally performed by John Lennon

Left cylinder – extracts from:

Star Wars (1977) main title by John Williams

“Imperial March” (1980) by John Williams

Star Trek (1979) main title by Jerry Goldsmith

Retail price is CHF 18,500 + VAT.

To purchase a MusicMachine 1 Reloaded, please visit: MAD Gallery

MB&F M.A.D.Gallery: "URBIS" by James McNabb, skyline-inspired wooden sculptures

Creativity doused with intensity and passion. American artist James McNabb uses his extraordinary artistic skills and limitless imagination to morph wood into imaginary urban landscapes. At the M.A.D.Gallery in Geneva, we are thrilled to present URBIS, a collection of six abstract cityscape sculptures by James that are downright cool.

“I’m an intense person. Everything I do, I do with all my energy. I’m also cautiously curious and very sensitive,” expresses James. “I want to capture my passion within the work, charge the objects with my energy and emotions, so observers can feel my experiences when viewing the work.”

Looking from the outside in, it is easy to get lost in the details of these abstract fantasy cities and contrive imaginative stories of a futuristic life along the streets of each vertical urban environment.

URBIS

The URBIS collection reveals intricate architectural structures imagined by James, from towering skyscrapers and office buildings to high-rise apartment buildings. Behind these intricate cityscapes is a tremendous amount of time and talent. Each towering wooden skyscraper is skilfully carved out with a bandsaw and then carefully assembled piece by piece to create impressive urban landscapes.

In the City Square sculpture, James visually transforms a skyline into an urban block by inverting each tower in such a manner that the antennas are practically touching in the centre while the outer edges are squared off. The composition compromises 102 unique structures in American Black Walnut, each laboriously sanded and varnished to an exquisite finish to complete the look. This contemporary piece measures 66 x 66 x 6 cm.

ACK CTY WHL

ACK CTY WHL is a work of art that bends a modern metropolis into a sophisticated sphere due to the precise placement of each elongated wooden tower. The gentle rondure and simplicity of the perimeter contrast with more than one hundred highly ornate superstructures arranged inside. One can visualize the bustling momentum of city life happening within this circular world. The negative space creates a glowing sun that adds to the complexity and depth of this architectural wonder. This eye-catching work of 91 cm in diameter incorporates a variety of wood types, including cherry, oak, mahogany and maple.

URB CTY WHL

In a similar design, URB CTY WHL maintains the round construction of ACK CTY WHL though the interior is modern with clean structures crafted from American Black Walnut. The streamlined design of this rolling metropolis eases thoughts and draws on a simpler way of life.

Disposition

Disposition is a sculpture balancing a bustling city filled with distinctive architecture at varied elevations. The sleek skyscrapers are composed in American Black Walnut and assembled to create a 46 x 46 x 51 cm modern metropolis. One has a bird’s-eye view into the streets of this city on the edge, and it’s easy to imagine an uphill climb or sliding down – or perhaps just hanging on.

Each unique piece is signed by James McNabb and comes with an accompanying quality certificate.

Composure

Hive

Creation Process

Working similarly to the fast pace of city life, when an idea strikes, the creative process begins and James hits the road running. The initial notion is realized in a quick sketch followed by a more detailed drawing that is then digitized. If the concept passes the necessary tests, a production plan is developed and a stack of locally sourced raw lumber quickly arrives at the Pennsylvania-based workshop. And construction begins.

Hours upon hours are logged to process the material with steps that include milling and dimensioning. Applying his unique skillset, James builds out the joinery for the structure and personally overviews each step in the assembly.

The primary tool used to create his works of art is the bandsaw. This piece of machinery provides the ability to manipulate wood and make a variety of cuts and mark makings. “To me, it’s a very expressive machine, responsive to its user in a very sensitive way,” explains James. “I’m sensitive to how the material behaves with the machine, and how my behaviour impacts the resulting forms. If we (maker, material, machine) can dance together, the results are often beautiful.”

James designs each tower in his mind’s eye and uses his hands to freely guide the lumber, cutting out every detail of the structure with the bandsaw. “I like to spend most of my time cutting the wood pieces on the bandsaw. It requires patience and focus as each piece is cut one at a time by me,” he explains. Once all the architectural structures are finished, James assembles each individual component, piece by piece. The entire sculpture is then sanded to an impeccably smooth texture and finished with varnish to enhance the wood grain.

Due to the large number of individual components transformed from raw lumber to finished pieces, these works of art require about 10-12 weeks to complete.

About the Artist

At the young age of 16, James McNabb found his creative niche during a high-school woodworking class, which guided his path to becoming an artist. In 2008 James graduated from Rochester Institute of Technology’s School for American Crafts, where he learned the fundamentals of woodworking and furniture design. It was during these years he developed a passion for the craft. Simultaneously, James became fascinated by nature, trees, and wood as a material for making objects. Over time his objects began to evolve, becoming less utilitarian and more expressive – he found himself crossing over to the land of an artist. In 2012, he went on to earn a master’s degree from Indiana University of Pennsylvania where he developed his signature body of work called “The City Series,” a collection of wood sculptures that explore the limitless possibilities of the urban landscape and our relationship to it.

Today James McNabb is best known for his one-of-a-kind skyline-inspired wood sculptures. His work combines traditional woodworking with experimental art to create new visions of the urban landscape.

Based in Philadelphia, his studio is adaptive to his needs and filled with both finished pieces and projects in the works. “I can see my new ideas come to life with old ideas in the background, and together they can inspire future ideas,” shares James. “It’s always a dynamic space, often moving and rearranging to make more room for a new project.”

Making art is an extremely effective method for coping with the ups and downs of life for James,  and it brings him a sense of peace. Art has affected his life in both positive and negative ways. “When life is moving in chaotic ways, I revert back to my place of peace. It gives me a sense of purpose when I’m feeling lost,” he says.  

‘TOM & T-REX’ MB&F + L’EPEE 1839 FOR ONLY WATCH

Only Watch, the world’s most high-profile charity watch auction, returns in 2019 in its eighth edition to continue raising awareness of Duchenne muscular dystrophy and pursuing a cure for this genetic disorder primarily affecting male children. MB&F is participating in the Only Watch charity auction for the fifth time, donating one of its creations to be sold in support of the Association Monégasque contre les Myopathies.

 All previous MB&F Machines created for Only Watch were unique pieces from existing collections that incorporated visual elements related to the auction. For this 2019 edition of Only Watch, MB&F and L’Epée have made the unprecedented choice to contribute a previously unreleased piece, highlighting the special nature of the auction.

 ‘Tom & T-Rex’ will be the first – and a unique – example of the T-Rex clock co-created by MB&F and L’Epée 1839, which is planned for general release at the end of August 2019.

 What sets ‘Tom & T-Rex’ apart from the main T-Rex collection to follow? A sculpture mounted atop the body of the hybrid beast, shaped like the figure of a young child. The rider of T-Rex – who MB&F and L’Epée have named Tom – is both companion and ward of his redoubtable steed.

 Tom specifically represents the children living with the degenerative disease that is Duchenne muscular dystrophy, which causes the gradual loss of basic motor functions, including the ability to walk. Tom, who spends his waking days tethered to an unfavourable reality, has found in T-Rex a friend who can take him on adventures beyond his wildest dreams. Measuring only 4.3cm high, the sitting rider is less than a fifth as tall as the 26.5cm T-Rex; in real-life proportions, it could easily look right into the second floor of an average apartment block. Cross-legged in a particularly youthful, tranquil yet vulnerable pose, Tom stares down into a transparent blue marble of Murano glass nestled in his cupped hands, perhaps imagining a different world…

 Children are capable of great imaginative feats, and especially so in the case of those limited by illness or disability. T-Rex offers an escape for elastic minds, carrying its little companions away into fantastical realms with the earth-shaking strides of the mightiest of dinosaurs, under the fierce protection of an all-seeing cyborg eye. Made of hand-blown Murano glass, the “eyeball” also functions as a clock dial, indicating hours and minutes via two curved hands driven from the centre of the hemitoroidal component.

 T-Rex is a metaphor for the factors that sustain the daily existence of a sick child: the flights of imagination that nourish the spirit and the scientific advancements that will one day effect a long-awaited cure. These symbolic elements are without a doubt what strike at first – but they are substantiated by the mechanical nature of the clock, crafted according to highest-quality clock making tradition. Beating within the 201 finely finished components is a hand-wound mechanical movement conceived and manufactured entirely in-house by L’Epée 1839: hours and minutes are regulated by the balance wheel beating at 2.5Hz (18,000vph), powered by a single barrel offering no less than 8 days of power reserve. Time is set with a key, fitted through the centre of the Murano glass dial, while the power reserve is separately maintained with the same key at the rear of the movement.

T-Rex is crafted primarily from palladium-plated brass, bronze, stainless steel and Murano glass, the contrasting strength and fragility of the materials providing a challenge to balance when executing the bold design. Despite being completely fixed in position, the jointed legs of T-Rex are deliberately posed to suggest energy and a sense of motion. A combination of sandblasted and polished surfaces directs the way that light interacts with the body of T-Rex, so that the clock seems light and agile, ready to run off with its diminutive passenger to a land where disease has ceased to exist.

Announcing the MB&F Legacy Machine N°1 (LM1) Final Edition

After six years of the Legacy Machine N°1, MB&F have launched the last in the series. To honor this legacy (pun intended), this is the first time the watch has been available in a stainless steel case, a very rare occurrence from MB&F. The dial of the 18 piece limited edition is in a rich dark chocolate brown, and includes the new balance bridge that was featured in the LM101 and LM Perpetual.

The 44mm case comes with the usual high domed sapphire crystal which floats over the movement and bridges. The three-dimensional horological movement was developed exclusively for MB&F by Chronode, with bridge design and finishing specified by Kari Voutilainen. Power reserve is 45 hours.

Legacy Machine No.1 is available in 18k red gold, 18k white gold, a limited edition of 33 pieces in platinum, a limited edition of 13 pieces for the M.A.D.Gallery Dubai in titanium and the final edition in stainless steel. The LM1 was also the base for two Performance Art editions with artists Xia Hang and Alain Silberstein.

After a total of approx. 435 Legacy Machine N°1's it's bittersweet, but these will be the last new pieces in the series. 

I'm holding my breath for what comes next!

WT'MB&'F?

Holy Horological Machines Batman!! I was expecting something amazing when MB&F teased us with the movement for their HM7, but this one just blew me away. 

Looking like a cross between a spaceship and a submersible, the design was actually inspired by jellyfish. Eric Giroud is the designer of the striking piece, and along with a team of 49 people, the first water resistant Horological Machine was conceived.  

Not to be content with just the shape of the watch, with a unidirectional rotating bezel that seems to orbit around the edge of a see through spaceship, the watch also contains a central flying tourbillon and a vertical movement between its domed sapphire top and bottom. Super lume comes courtesy of Black Badger creator James Thompson.

The MB&F HM7 Aquapod comes in two variations, 33 pieces in titanium, and 66 in red gold, both are delivered on rubber straps. 

Another one for the shopping list!

MB&F to Debut the HM7 at SIHH 2017

MB&F has announced they will release a new horological machine next week for SIHH in Geneva. In anticpation of this, here is a sneak peek of the movement and an insight on what is to come.