MB&F is bringing two decades of its most imaginative watchmaking to Dubai with Horological Machines – Two Decades of Kinetic Wrist Sculptures. Opening at the MB&F M.A.D.Gallery in Dubai Mall Fashion Avenue on Friday, November 6, the exhibition gathers all 13 Horological Machines for the first time in the city, from HM1 in 2007 to the newly unveiled HM12 The Guardian. It runs until Sunday, November 22.
The exhibition is a rare chance to see machines that are no longer in production, alongside the latest chapter in the collection. Each watch is displayed in a dedicated box designed by Paris-based agency Pavillon Noir. Rather than focusing only on technical details, the displays reveal the inspiration behind each creation, whether a science-fiction world, a childhood memory, a sports car, an architectural form, or an animal.
That approach captures what makes the Horological Machines distinctive. While MB&F’s Legacy Machines reinterpret classical watchmaking traditions, the Horological Machines begin with a powerful visual idea. Only then does the brand ask how that idea can be turned into a mechanical object worn on the wrist. The result is a collection of three-dimensional kinetic sculptures that also tell the time.
Across the years, those ideas have taken strikingly different forms. HM2, HM3 and HM6 explore science fiction; HM5, HMX and HM8 draw on automotive design; HM7 takes cues from a jellyfish, while HM10 is inspired by a bulldog. Other Machines reflect aviation, architecture and imaginative worlds beyond traditional horology.
The exhibition culminates with HM12 The Guardian, MB&F’s newest Horological Machine. Part watch, part robot companion, it combines mechanical watchmaking, kinetic sculpture and character design in a single creation.
Founded in 2005 by Maximilian Büsser, MB&F describes itself as the world’s first horological concept laboratory. Its mission is to deconstruct traditional watchmaking and create small series of radical, artistic mechanical objects in collaboration with respected watchmakers, designers and manufacturers.
For long-time collectors, the Dubai exhibition offers a nostalgic reunion with discontinued pieces. For newcomers, it provides a complete introduction to the boldest side of MB&F’s universe: machines created not simply to tell time, but to inspire wonder.
