The Engraved MB&F LM Split Escapement x Eddy Jaquet

Inspiration at MB&F comes from all sorts of places, including hypothetical musings like Max Büsser’s question: “What would have happened if I was born in 1867, one hundred years before my actual birth? What watch would I have conceived with the help of my friends?” The answer, as we know, was the motor behind the classical Legacy Machine family inspired by grand master watchmakers of the 19^th-century pocket and Büsser’s ‘new old’ friends Jules Verne and Gustav Eiffel. As a nod to one of his historical muses, Büsser entrusted the LM Split Escapement to master engraver Eddy Jaquet in 2020 to recreate scenes from Jules Verne’s novels on the dials of eight unique pieces. Today, MB&F and Jaquet join forces again with the unveiling of eight unique steel LM Split Escapement models with wonderfully vivid hand-engraved dials depicting scenes from well-loved adventure novels.

The LM Split Escapement of 2017 was derived from Stephen McDonnell’s impressively complicated yet ingenious movement for the LM Perpetual. Dominated by the 14mm flying balance wheel in the centre, the split escapement configuration (anchor and escapement wheel) is hidden below deck, resulting in a symmetrical baseplate with slightly more wiggle room for Jaquet to work his magic. However, as you can imagine, no matter how generous the space might be, it is still a minuscule 40mm canvas for an artist to work on.

To give Jaquet some leeway, MB&F redesigned the sub-dials in an openworked format, the bezel was slimmed down, and the case dimensions expanded to create a wider dial plate. Just to make things even more challenging, the baseplate varies in thickness from 1.15mm to 0.35mm, meaning that Jaquet has had to work with an extremely light touch in some places. While the first collaboration pieces were presented in red gold cases, this new batch of unique pieces comes in 44.5mm stainless steel cases with black lacquered sub-dials with blued hands and a white gold baseplate.

Jaquet’s engravings were inspired by eight novels: Robinson Crusoe by Daniel Defoe, The Three Musketeers by Alexandre Dumas, The Last of the Mohicans by James Fenimore Cooper, The Jungle Book by Rudyard Kipling, The Call of the Wild by Jack London, Moby Dick by Herman Melville, Treasure Island by Robert Louis Stevenson and Robin Hood (anonymous).

Jaquet’s incredibly detailed hand-engraved dials depict the heroes of each novel surrounded by action-packed scenery. In The Three Musketeers, for example, there are no fewer than ten men engaged in a sword fight, but to appreciate the intricate details, you will need a loupe. The composition of each adventure also required a lot of planning to work around and integrate the different elements of the watch – sub-dials, bridges and hairspring. In the Robinson Crusoe dial, the power reserve sub-dial on the right reveals a telescopic view of a ship at sea. Mowgli, the hero of The Jungle Book, appears curled up in Rama’s paws as Raksha, Bagheera, Baloo and Shere Khan keep guard.

Developed for MB&F by master watchmaker Stephen McDonnell, the LM Split Escapement movement is manual-winding and offers an autonomy of 72 hours. Like other LM Split Escapement, the movement is superlatively hand-finished in 19^th-century style with bevelled internal angles, polished bevels and Geneva waves. Naturally, Eddy Jaquet’s name is engraved on the reverse side along with the words Pièce Unique.

All eight pieces are paired with navy blue hand-stitched alligator straps with stainless steel folding buckles. The price of the eight unique pieces of the LM Split Escapement Eddy Jaquet is CHF 158,000 (excl. taxes). More information at mbandf.com.