Our Take

Heavily inspired by vintage timepieces and cars like the Amida Digitrend and Lamborghini Miura, Horological Machine No. 5 is MB&F’s twist on 1970’s aesthetics. A driver’s watch, the HM5 was the brand’s first truly sporty timepiece, released originally in 2012. This HM5 Zirconium arrived two years later in 2014 with production ending in 2016.

While it may appear more “subdued” than some of its siblings, the case is truly a marvel in engineering. Crafted out of 80 components, there are actually two integrated cases here – one external for the louvres system and one internal to house and protect the movement. On the external case, a small lever opens the louvres on the top, similar to the Miura’s design, to allow light into the movement. This charges the green lume on the discs and allows for easy nighttime legibility. There’s also two vents by the crown, both act as exhaust ports for water to escape the case. It does justice to the glory days of vintage automotive design, looking very much like a sports car on the wrist.

The HM5’s movement is based on Girard-Perregaux's GP3300, a jumping hour movement with significant modifications to meet the needs of the case and unusual display of time. Jumping hour and running minutes discs are mounted horizontally on top of the movement. How does one see the time then as if it were vertical? The sapphire crystal is a wedge-shaped prism that reflects the discs 90 degrees into their upright, legible positions. This is one of the early experiments for MB&F in their ultra-innovative engineering of sapphire crystal, most exemplified in the brand’s “Sapphire Vision” timepieces. One notices an additional, slight magnification on the display of time. This is created by an overlaid convex prism that enlarges the discs by roughly 20% and improves legibility at arms length.

One of our all-time favorite MB&F timepieces for good reason, this pre-loved timepiece is available.