Credits: Article and images by Ian Skellern @ Quill & Pad. See the original article here - https://quillandpad.com/2024/04/27/new-release-mbf-hm8-mark-2-the-supercar-for-the-wrist-turns-blue/
Supercars like Ferraris, Lamborghinis, McLarens and Koenigseggs are not designed and developed for your daily commute or to do the shopping run, although they can do those (usually boring) automotive tasks, that’s not what they are for: they are made to get your pulse racing, adrenal pumping, and putting a smile on your face.
Similarly, HMB&F’s Horological Machines (HMs) are not designed to tell the time, your phone or a swatch can do that: Horological Machines are designed to get your pulse racing, adrenal pumping, and putting a smile on your face.
MB&F’s HM8 Mark 2 brings both the worlds of extreme cars and extreme watches together: they are supercars for the wrist! And now MB&F has released their latest HM8 Mark 2, and this time it’s blue.
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From the press release
MB&F’s connection to cars runs deep, starting in 2012 with the HM5, followed by the HMX in 2015, and the HM8 in 2016. Each of these iterations is linked by its instantly recognizable speedometer-style display on the side of the case that recalls the daring and futuristic design of the 1970s.
A decade after the first automotive-inspired MB&F Machines, MB&F revealed the supercar-inspired HM8 Mark 2 in 2023.
After a successful introduction of two editions in 2023 – with white or green body panels, the latter limited to 33 pieces – the HM8 Mark 2 comes back with a new 2024 limited edition featuring glossy sapphire blue bodywork, again limited to 33 pieces.
Thanks to their metallic pigments and a translucent material, the blue body panels recall luxurious car paints, both technically and aesthetically.
The initial dream
To fully understand MB&F’s link to the car world, we need to step back in time to 1985 for a moment. As children, we all have dreams, some of them come true, others get abandoned along the way, and some are so part of who we are that they end up happening despite us.
This was the case with MB&F’s Founder Maximilian Büsser, who spent the majority of his childhood dreaming about becoming a car designer. He was so smitten with the idea that from the age of 4 to 18, cars were the only thing he would sketch and draw.
When his classmates started discovering other areas of interest, his heart remained steadfastly loyal to the automobile with its aerodynamic lines and sleek forms.
Just before graduating from high school, he learned that the world-famous ArtCenter College of Design from Pasadena, was opening a campus in Europe, and not just in Europe, but in La Tour-de-Peilz, a stone’s throw from his childhood home.
Could this be a sign? He could hardly contain his excitement until he discovered that the school fees were CHF 50,000, a huge amount of money today, and an even more colossal sum back in 1985.
Knowing how much he loved cars, his parents said they would find a way – but Maximilian knew that it would be too much for them. So as everyone keeps telling him he would make a very good engineer as he was so good at maths, he signed up for the Swiss Federal Institute of Technology Lausanne (EPFL), and that could have been the end of the story, only it wasn’t.
“I lost my way, I lost my marbles, and ended up in the watchmaking industry,” he shares with a smile. “So, when I decided to tackle car design in a timepiece, this was humungous for me. It was everything I had ever dreamed of.”
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Credits: Article and images by Ian Skellern @ Quill & Pad. See the original article here - https://quillandpad.com/2024/04/27/new-release-mbf-hm8-mark-2-the-supercar-for-the-wrist-turns-blue/