Loading...MB&F does not cease to amaze. After the HMX now this, a at first glance similar inspiration. This time again, the watch is inspired from car racing.
Today marks the arrival of HOROLOGICAL MACHINE No.8 !
The new HM8 is the result of a simple equation: HM8 = 5 + 3.
“5” because like its predecessor HM5 (and HMX), this new Machine revives a powerful emotion from our childhood: our dreams of fast supercars and motor racing. More specifically this time, we remembered the legendary “Can-Am” racing championship, which started exactly 50 years ago – a crazy, no-limits series which generated amazing, insanely powerful cars during the late 60s and 70s. Many of those cars produced by the likes of McLaren, Lola or Porsche featured open engines protected by roll bars – one of the most striking traits of our new Machine, nicknamed “HM8 Can-Am”.
“3” because HM8 also stems from another childhood hero: our friend (and saviour of the Universe) Grendizer, the famous Japanese anime TV character. As you may know, Grendizer’s mighty double battle-axe has been present in our Machines since the very beginning – most visibly in the HM3 series, in the form of an oversized winding rotor placed dial side. That famous battle-axe rotor is back on the HM8, sitting firmly between the Can-Am roll bars.
The HM8 fine-finished automatic movement drives bidirectional jumping hours and sweeping minutes – projected vertically thanks to optical-grade sapphire crystal prisms. A driver’s watch, available in two versions, combining grade 5 titanium with 18K red or white gold. Arguably the most three-dimensional and detailed of our creations to-date!
The watch was created by the Friends of Max Büsser which is why the company is called MB&F (Max Büsser and friends). The main participants are Eric Giroud on the design side (as always), and Girard-Perregaux together with the MB&F in-house engineers for the movement (GP for the base, in-house for the jumping hour/sweeping minutes module).
Have a look at our short video to see the HM8 in action among vintage Can-Am racing scenes.
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Can-Am racing started in 1966. It was very popular in the US and Canada in the late 1960s and in the 1970s. Back in the time, it was the first time in racing to create cars with wings and turbocharging. While McLaren and Porsche dominated the series, they were not the only ones, even the Japanese built cars for it. If you are curious to read more about it, follow this link: Can-Am racing.
MB&F has made itself a name for timepieces completely off the beaten path. What they are doing, nobody else ever did before. The road was paved with plenty of up and downs until they arrived at today’s success which was accomplished with perseverance and creativity. Cudos to Max Büsser.