Look outside at the moment and you could believe that summer is well on its way and in the watch world, that’s an excuse to strap on your most colourful watch and go enjoy the sun. The idea of the ‘summer beater’ is a popular one, as seen by launches like the Orient Stretto Date and Baltic Hermétique Summer, which pair bright colours with accessible collections. However, MB&F are here to say that colourful summer watches don’t need to be restricted to accessible watches – unveiling their LM Perpetual Chromatic Editions, bringing colour to one of their GPHG award winning timepieces.
There are three watches in the series, each measuring 44mm x 17.5mm with two of the pieces in white gold and the third in red gold. Those dimensions are large by necessity in order to accommodate the in-house perpetual calendar movement with its suspended balance wheel hovering over the dial. The first detail that marks the Chromatic editions apart from previous versions of the watch is the addition of 48-baguette cut gemstones to the bezel. They are either blue or purple sapphires on the white gold editions or red rubies on the red gold.
Building on those colours, the hands on the various perpetual calendar functions are PVD coated to match. That means blue and purple for the sapphire versions and then red gold for the red edition. Those functions are specifically the hours and minutes at 12 o’clock, days of the week at 3, power reserve indicator at 5, months at 6, leap year indicator at 7, and date at 9 o’clock.
The LM Perpetual movement was developed by watchmaker Stephen McDonnell with an openworked display, 72-hour power reserve and 2.5 Hz frequency. The distinctive architecture with the suspended balance and rear escapement led to the LM Perpetual winning the calendar award at the 2016 GPHG, making 2026 the 10-year anniversary of that occasion. It looks great with the additional colourful accents.
As for price and availability, the LM Perpetual Chromatic Editions are CHF 228,000 (approx. £216,000) excl. tax and are limited to just 8 pieces per colour. That makes them among the most exclusive watches from a brand that is already extremely exclusive. It’s time for haute horology summer.
Price and Specs:
More details at MB&F.
