Posts made in December 2024

Stephen Silver Fine Jewelry Reveals New Exclusive 
MB&F LEGACY MACHINE PERPETUAL EVO Silicon Valley Edition Timepiece Series

Silicon Valley’s leading timepiece salon has partnered with MB&F to release an exclusive edition of the Legacy Machine Perpetual EVO. The limited series of 18 timepieces, which retail for $208,000 USD each, are available exclusively through Stephen Silver Fine Jewelry at The Villa Menlo Park.

The limited series of 18 MB&F LM Perpetual EVO Silicon Valley Edition timepieces marks the first time the conceptual Swiss watchmaker has produced its popular Evo sports model in a precious metal—in this instance, 18 karat rose gold. The MB&F LM Perpetual EVO Silicon Valley edition features the GPHG award-winning perpetual calendar movement developed by Stephen McDonnell, a blue dial plate and choice of white or blue rubber strap, and a rose gold case back bearing the limited-edition model’s name.

Following a strong early response, just a few LM Perpetual EVO Silicon Valley edition models remain available for pre-sale now at Stephen Silver Fine Jewelry at The Villa Menlo Park. The product collaboration underscores the Silvers’ close relationship with MB&F brand Founder and Creative Director Maximilian Büsser. The launch anticipates the opening of Northern California’s new MB&F LAB at The Villa Menlo Park in early 2025, a mixed-use retail, dining, and community development spearheaded by Stephen Silver Fine Jewelry.

“We were happy to be able to provide some design input,“ says Jared Silver, President of Stephen Silver Fine Jewelry. “Along with the color scheme, small changes were made like updating the hands to rose gold. We enhanced the legibility while maintaining the beautiful symmetry of the watch. I am biased, of course, but I think this is one of the most attractive versions of the LM Perpetual Evo yet released. It will also be highly collectible over time as it is the first Evo MB&F made with a precious metal.”

Introducing the Legacy Machine Perpetual EVO Silicon Valley Edition

MB&F creations have transported their wearers to destinations that exist only on maps of the imagination: from star-cruisers to deep-sea jellyfish, Maximilian Büsser’s Machines are the mechanical cartographers of the multiverse. 

The EVO line marked a significant evolution, with the release of the first LM Perpetual EVO pieces in 2020: their wearers became the navigators of their active lifestyle; the map was their life. On this journey, they would never have to leave their watch behind.

The LM Perpetual EVO was launched in three limited editions in zirconium, followed by a titanium edition with green CVD dial-plate, replaced in February 2024 by an ice blue dial-plate. 

To celebrate the opening of the MB&F LAB in Silicon Valley with retail partner Stephen Silver, the series is joined by a limited edition of 18 pieces in 18K rose gold with an ocean blue dial plate. All editions feature a closely-fitted, integrated rubber strap for the smoothest wearing experience of any MB&F Machine ever.

The 44mm case’s profile emphasizes openness and extreme clarity. A specially developed monobloc shock-absorbing system – “FlexRing” – that makes for the most robust Machine ever to emerge from MB&F. The LM Perpetual Engine, designed by Stephen McDonnell, an award-winning perpetual calendar that replaces traditional constructions with an innovative mechanical processor. 

The MB&F collection has welcomed several complications and horologically prestigious mechanisms. In terms of combining prestige, tradition and innovation, however, Legacy Machine Perpetual has remained at the apex of MB&F watchmaking savoir-faire since it was introduced in 2015.

Although the 44mm diameter is unchanged from its 2015 iteration, the new EVO case design features a no-bezel construction, with the domed sapphire crystal fused directly to the case. The increased openness of this design highlights the equilibrium between the legibility of LM Perpetual EVO’s calendar indications and the cinematic play of the engine components — surmounted by the iconic MB&F hovering balance wheel. This expansive new presentation of the LM Perpetual Engine was no simple design reconfiguration. New geometries for the sapphire crystal had to be calculated, achieving the mechanically opposing aims of maintaining structural strength and decreasing its height-to-diameter ratio. Freeing LM Perpetual EVO from the bezel also necessitated the use of a sophisticated thermal bonding system between the sapphire crystal and the case. 

The previously circular pushers for adjusting the perpetual calendar have been enlarged into double-sprung oblong actuators, boosting the tactile comfort and ease of adjustment. The LM Perpetual EVO is rated at 80m of water resistance, enabled by its screw-down crown. A small, but essential, detail of implementing a screw-down crown is the débrayage of the winding stem, disengaging the crown from the winding mechanism when it is pushed in and tightened, which eliminates the chance of manually over-winding the mainspring barrel.

An additional new element of the LM Perpetual EVO is the FlexRing: an annular dampener fitted between case and movement, providing shock protection along the vertical and lateral axes. Machined from a single block of stainless steel, the dampener imparts exceptional robustness to the perpetual calendar, a function that is associated with classicism and elegance, but is arguably the most pragmatic and utilitarian of all the high complications.

When Stephen McDonnell set out to redesign the perpetual calendar for MB&F, he proposed a system that rethought the entire mechanical basis of the complication. The LM Perpetual uses a “mechanical processor” consisting of a series of superimposed disks. This revolutionary processor takes the default number of days in the month at 28 — because, logically, all months have at least 28 days — and then adds the extra days as required by each individual month. This ensures that each month has exactly the right number of days and removes the possibility of the date jumping incorrectly. An inbuilt safety feature disconnects the quickset pushers during the date changeover, so that even if the pushers are accidentally actuated whilst the date is changing, there is no risk of damage to the movement.