The MB&F X L’Epée X Massena LAB T-Rex Bronze

First teased as a unique piece for Only Watch 2019, T-Rex was the result of yet another fruitful collaboration between watchmaker MB&F and clockmaker L’Epée. A clock with dinosaur legs… Yes, this was another example of Max Büsser’s wildly imaginative pieces. Today, there’s an even bolder, even wilder version coming, imagined together with watch expert William Massena, with a structure executed in patinated bronze. Rugged and organic, meet the MB&F X L’Epée X Massena LAB T-Rex Bronze. 

A suspended movement with a Murano glass display and attached to the bony legs of a Tyrannosaurus Rex with taloned feet… Yes, this is clearly not your usual grandfather’s fireplace clock. Once again, these MB&F X L’Epée are artworks, meant to create emotions (in both directions) and design experiments. Bold, unusual, wild… And even wilder today!

The original T-Rex clock was made of stainless steel and palladium-plated brass and bronze, weighing close to 2kg and standing tall at almost 30cm. Its most striking feature was his realistic legs and sharp, deathly talons. The result of designer Maximilian Maertens’ work, the legs were made using 3D scans of real, fossilised T-Rex bones and are sandblasted in contrast to the polished biomechanical structure linking them to the suspended clock. The inspiration came from Max Büsser’s on one side, a quirky ornament on his desk composed of a Christmas bauble perched atop two chicken legs, and from Maximilian Maertens and his memories of 1993 movie Jurassic Park.

Now enters William Massena and his project Massena LAB – which already gave birth to a bronze Habring² and a brown Unimatic Modello Uno. ​Playing off the original design, the ​T-Rex Bronze​ ​switches out the use of steel for bronze, an alloy used by the early humans – bronze age meets Jurassic (a few million years apart, ok…) The structure of this new T-Rex clock is made of sandblasted bronze alloy, resulting in an unusual matte golden colour. The 3D-shaped legs and feet are also bronze, but here aged and stabilized by hand, creating a dark brown colour. Note that this T-Rex Bronze is specially treated to “lock in time” its colour and material characteristics – don’t worry about it turning into a weird, toxic-like sculpture.

Just like the steel edition, the display is composed of a green “eyeball” dial, made of hand-blown Murano glass, which greatly pairs with the colour of the bronze alloy. Time (hours and minutes) is indicated by arched hands running over the Murano glass. Behind this green eye is a hand-made movement by L’Epée 1839, with an oversized balance running at 2.5Hz and a power reserve of 8 days. The clock is wound with a key at the back of the movement, while time-setting is done at the centre of the dial with the same key.

The ​M​B&F X L’Epée X Massena LAB T-Rex Bronze Clock is a limited edition of 15 pieces. It will be priced at USD 27,000 and is available for orders at www.massenalab.com.