MB&F kickstarts its 20th birthday with two Longhorns – the LM Perpetual and LM Sequential Flyback
Buffy Acacia- Kicking off its 20th year, MB&F has expanded upon the Longhorn unique piece from 2021.
- The Longhorn case shape was conceived in 2009 while the first MB&F Legacy Machine was in the prototype stage.
- Both the LM Perpetual Longhorn and the LM Sequential Flyback Longhorn carry complicated movements designed with Stephen McDonnell, one of MB&F’s oldest friends.
20 years is still childhood by watch brand standards, but the collective experience and excellence of MB&F has made it feel like it’s always been a staple. And yet, perhaps childhood is an apt metaphor for a brand whose creativity and playfulness are so untamed. Its Horological Machines, Legacy Machines, and co-creations qualify as wristwatches by the loosest of labels, pushing away any and all stereotypes in favour of expressive engineering. To begin the celebrations of the brand’s 20th birthday, MB&F has released two surprisingly restrained creations — the LM Perpetual Longhorn and the LM Sequential Flyback Longhorn.
Both the MB&F LM Perpetual Longhorn and the LM Sequential Flyback Longhorn are themselves callbacks to a unique piece that was sold in 2021. The LM1 was launched in 2011 and kickstarted the Legacy Machines series, but a version with long lugs was abandoned in the prototype stage. It came back a decade later as the one-off LM1 Longhorn, and now these two 20th anniversary limited editions release another 40 Longhorns into the wild. But while the Longhorn cases retain their character, the dials have been made vastly more extreme, showcasing their complications with skeletonised precision.
The Longhorn case is exemplary of the Legacy Machine style, honouring decades-old traditions and capturing the elegance of the past. The stainless steel case is polished to a gleam, with the smooth bezel curving down gently to meet the brushed sides. Of course the lugs are the main feature here, stretching out in an elongated drape across the wrist thanks to their tapered curvature. Even though the case is already 44mm in diameter, the length of the lugs still doesn’t look overbearing because of that careful geometry. Height is a little bit more of an issue, both requiring substantial thicknesses to accommodate their sculptural movements. The Perpetual Longhorn is 17.5mm thick and the Sequential Flyback Longhorn is 18.2mm, but these aren’t the kinds of watches you’d want to hide beneath a cuff anyway.
Starting with the MB&F LM Perpetual Longhorn, its perpetual calendar movement was one created alongside Stephen McDonnell. If you’re unaware of MB&F’s acronym, it stands for Maximilian Büsser & Friends, and McDonnell has been a most important friend of the brand. This calibre was built from the ground up as an efficient and intuitive perpetual calendar, meaning that it has avoided many of the pitfalls that other such movements have developed from decades of adaptation. It’s remarkably easy to read, with a pointer date at 9, weekdays at 3, months at 6, and the traditional hour and minutes on its own 12 o’clock subdial in black lacquer. Also indicated are the retrograde leap years and power reserve, tucked away more subtly at 4:30 and 7:30. The large balance wheel is given pride of place above all the rest, suspended over the dial from its polished wishbone struts. It has a power reserve of 72 hours with manual winding, and a beat rate of 18,000 vibrations per hour.
The LM Sequential Flyback Longhorn immediately communicates its step up in complexity from the sheer number of pushers protruding from the case, as well as a total of five sub-dials separate to the overhanging balance wheel. While the Perpetual had an impressive 581 components, the Sequential Flyback takes it up to 619. If anything, the name Sequential Flyback makes it sound much simpler than it is. It’s a dual chronograph with two separate 30-minute registers and large seconds sub-dials, relegating the hours and minutes to an angled sub-dial propped up at 6 o’clock.
A watch with two chronographs would already be impressive, but the wildest part is the use of a “Twinverter” that allows you to combine them for multiple timing modes. You can run them independently, as a split-second chronograph, cumulatively, or as a lap timer, and all with the flyback capability that snaps each counter back to zero for a fresh count to begin instantly. A watch like this truly shows the genius of a mind like Stephen McDonnell’s and celebrates his contributions to the brand that began with the Horological Machine 1. This watch also has a 72 hour power reserve albeit with a 21,600vph beat rate for better chronograph detail.
MB&F LM Perpetual Longhorn and LM Sequential Flyback Longhorn price and availability
The MB&F LM Perpetual Longhorn and LM Sequential Flyback Longhorn are each limited to 20 pieces with prices on request. Price: On Request
Brand | MB&F |
Model | LM Perpetual Longhorn LM Sequential Flyback Longhorn |
Case Dimensions | 44mm (D) x 17.5mm (Perpetual) 44mm (D) x 18.2mm (Sequential Flyback) |
Case Material | Stainless steel |
Water Resistance | 30M |
Crystal(s) | Sapphire |
Dial | Skeletonised with rhodium-plated base plate and heat-blued hands |
Strap | Calf leather with steel folding buckle |
Movement | Fully integrated perpetual calendar and sequential flyback chronograph developed for MB&F by Stephen McDonnell |
Power Reserve | 72 hours |
Functions | Hours, minutes, perpetual calendar, power reserve indicator (Perpetual) Hours, minutes, twin sequential flyback chronographs with “Twinverter” modes (Sequential Flyback) |
Availability | Limited to 20 pieces each |
Price | On request |