Extraordinary Swiss watchmaking brand MB & F introduced us to his new robot watch, which is as charming and complex as their latest creations...
Previous robot watch, who was part of a series of limited edition named Melchior, now got a brother Balthazar. Just like Melchior, Balthazar was created in cooperation with L'Epee, Swiss experts in mechanical watches and presents us the hours and minutes on their chest, which is run by the "brain", visible under a transparent dome on its head.
Balthazar has a reserve of energy for a period of 35 days, and his eyes have moving retrograde action of 20 seconds. It weighs a robust eight kilos and stands 40 centimeters tall, with a body that is made up of 618 micro-engineering components.
Balthazar show us also a new complication in the form of indicators phases of the moon dual hemisphere, to be precise 122 years. It also has much more than a smiling face! His torso can be rotated and present us with a darker skull with a dark ruby red eyes.
If we stick to the maxim that beauty is in the details, then Balthazar is a real spectacle with its Geneva waves, corners, and polished, sandblasted and satin details that usually we can see the haute horlogerie watches. Creating these details was not an easy task. According to Arnaud Nicolas: "This is not simply a case with double size and a larger number of components. Its complexity and the complexity of creating these details is growing exponentially. For polishing, for example, you need to apply the same pressure as when working on a small wristwatch, with what you do on a much larger area. Any variation in pressure will be visible on the watch, so you must have skilled and steady hands."
In case you were wondering where his name came from, there is an interesting story, which the founder of the brand, Maximilian Busser shared with us: "In the Busser family, over five centuries, each Busser eldest son was called Melchior or Balthazar. My grandfather's name was Melchior, and he really did not like that name, but everyone called him Max, and that’s how I got my name. Grandpa did not like that tradition Melchior - Balthazar, and put an end to it when he named my father Mario. Now, a century later, I love those names. "
