Dare to Dream with the MB&F HM12 'The Guardian', A Horological Machine Melding Childhood and Sci-Fi Inspirations

Childhood nostalgia has always been a fantastic wellspring of inspiration — this rings especially true for Swiss watchmaking brand, MB&F. This luxury manufacturer has long been bringing memories of spaceships, supercars, aircraft, and even robots to life in their unique timepieces. Their Horological Machine (HM) series is a testament to this creative approach. Throughout its history, MB&F has transformed fascinating childhood and vintage sci-fi imagery into complex mechanical marvels for the wrist, collaborating with L’Epée on a remarkable series of robot-shaped clocks.

This inventive ride does not stop here. The HM12 presents a significant shift in the brand’s history as it represents the first Horological Machine to be conceived solely by Maximilian Büsser and Maximilian Maertens, independent of the involvement of long-time collaborator Eric Giroud. This new venture, nurtured over more than four years, gradually transformed from a simple question — ‘what if a robot’s head were a watch?’ — into one of the brand’s most ambitious developments.

The HM12 ‘The Guardian’ is a genuinely stunning wristwatch where the head of a robot functions as the timepiece, it’s display elements arranged to mimic a face in sheer imagination. Crafted from Grade 5 titanium, the HM12 radiates futuristic designs, manifesting the brand’s daring creativity in breathing life into a fantasy while also heralding MB&F’s entry into its third decade of horological innovations.