The story begins (as so many do) with a woman. Legacy Machine FlyingT owes its genesis to founder Maximilian Büsser’s ruminations on the keystone roles that women have played in his life. Launched in the first months of 2019, Legacy Machine FlyingT manifested a rich and complex femininity, choosing to embody elegance and vitality — a formidable resilience — over the softer conventions of womanhood as familiarly seen in watches aimed at the XX side of the chromosome divide.
A soaring flying tourbillon projects, column-like, from the dial plate of LM FlyingT, driven by energy generated by the sun-shaped rotor. A diamond flashes atop the upper tourbillon cage. Dynamism and precisely engineered motion characterise LM FlyingT, which debuted in three white gold diamond-set editions: one with a simple halo of brilliant-cut gems on the bezel and lugs, one fully paved with brilliants and one fully paved with baguette-cut stones. This powerful articulation of feminine horology, the first of its kind from MB&F, was awarded the Prix de la Complication pour Dame at the 2019 Grand Prix d’Horlogerie de Genève.
In 2020, LM FlyingT sheds its diamonds and embraces its natural self with an edition in red gold and one in platinum.
Removing the crystallised carbon crust of Legacy Machine FlyingT allows to rediscover the central column of the flying tourbillon in hyperfocus. In place of the stretched-lacquer dial plate is a guilloché plate with a radial pattern of scalloped arches, drawing the eye towards the cinematic heart of the in-house developed engine.
The guilloché dial plate, executed by longtime MB&F collaborator Kari Voutilainen in his specialised dial facility, exists in two versions. One is as dark as a moonless night, and is housed in a red gold case, while the other is midsummer sky-blue, with a platinum case. The same LM FlyingT, when switched between nocturnal and diurnal modalities, is as different as the world when seen by night and by day.
Only one glittering connection to their diamond-armoured predecessors remains to the new editions of Legacy Machine FlyingT. At the top of the flying tourbillon that gives LM FlyingT its name, a single 0.035-carat stone that rotates in time with the underlying mechanism, making one complete turn every 60 seconds. At each of the rotational angles that it undergoes — 300 per minute, as predefined by the 2.5Hz (18,000vph) balance — the diamond unleashes a new lance of prismatic light, thanks to its sharply faceted cut.
At the foot of the flying tourbillon, located at the 7 o’clock position, is a dial of white lacquer that displays the hours and minutes with a pair of blue serpentine hands. The dial is inclined at a 50° tilt so that the time can be read only by the wearer; an intimate communication that highlights the personal nature of the LM FlyingT.
On the reverse, the automatic winding rotor takes the shape of a three-dimensional red gold sun with sculpted rays, providing LM FlyingT with four days (100 hours) of power reserve 