First launched in 2013 in red gold, white gold and platinum, the Legacy Machine No.2 series is completed on the brink of BaselWorld 2017 with a LM2 Titanium limited edition. A lightweight collectors’ item for heavyweight collectors.
The eye-catchingly vivid green dial of the MB&F Legacy Machine No. 2 Titanium (LM2 Ti) is likely to be the first thing that draws the gaze of admirers. For the 18 pieces of this very limited edition the striking bluish-green face is obtained thanks to the same CVD (chemical vapour deposition) technique used for the LM1 M.A.D. Dubai. The rounded profiles of Legacy Machine N°2 Ti’s arching balance wheel bridges impart a softer aesthetic than the original LM2 models. A keen eye might notice that the polished bezel visually slims the elegant case, but that’s not just a trompe l’oeil: the redesigned bezel makes the case a full one millimetre slimmer than those of its predecessors. Ti-6Al-4V (grade 5), the high-tech titanium alloy used in aerospace and medical applications, offers a perfect blend of strength and lightness.
18th century watch heroes
Legacy Machines are contemporary reinterpretations of significant horological inventions by the greatest watchmakers in history. The modern look Legacy Machine No.2’s dual flying balances, suspended high above the dial from four gracefully arcing arms, may at first appear paradoxical. But the LM2 is a timepiece tracing its lineage back over 250 years to three of the greatest watchmakers who ever lived: Abraham-Louis Breguet (1747– 1823), Ferdinand Berthoud (1727– 1807) and Antide Janvier (1751– 1835). These horological legends of the 18th century are united by the fact that they have all constructed clocks and watches with two balances. Inside the LM2 Titanium, the dual regulator movement conceived for MB&F by award-winning watchmakers Jean-François Mojon and Kari Voutilainen. Two fully independent balance wheels and escapements, each beating at its own rate, and a planetary differential which continuously averages out the two rates to drive the hours and minutes.