MB&F’s Special Project One is a rare bird. At first sight, SP One — as it’s better known to its makers — is totally different to anything that has come before from the brand, yet it is still instantly identifiable as a product from the house of Max Büsser (and would be even without the logo that is printed on the hours and minutes subdial). As with other modern brands that have chosen to diversify (Apple and Dyson spring to mind), this speaks volumes about how MB&F has established itself in the collective mind of its audience in just 20 short years, thanks to a core identity that has not wavered despite the dictates of horological trends and fashions.

Where Büsser has shown real branding and marketing genius is in his ability to intentionally establish identity elements that ensure recognition and also weed out imitators — of which there have been many in recent years. While a product may take a different direction, the brand’s visual language and design philosophy are carried over. So despite the SP One being the smallest and thinnest watch made by MB&F, the mechanical complexity, radical 3D architecture and exceptional finishing all stand out in a way that is not easily imitable. This watch could only have come from the mind of Büsser and the concept laboratory that is MB&F.

The beginning of Special Projects

Naturally, achieving this level of differentiation, involves many discarded ideas and blueprints with myriad designs never seeing the light of day. Büsser himself states that  projects undergo a filtering process — some being shelved from the beginning, others being so heavily modified from their original design that they are simply put to one side, something that is confirmed by the brand’s Catalogue Raisonné that documents some of the prototypes that remain unfinished due to technical feasibility, aesthetic challenges, or because they just don’t hit the bar set by Büsser.

Image: Revolution ©

“I have a big ‘basket’ full of timepiece ideas which are neither HM nor LM — and until 2021 I never had the courage to transform any into reality,” Büsser says about his Special Projects line-up. “It was already so difficult to explain MB&F (and now M.A.D.Editions), that I thought I would just complicate my life even more by adding a piece which was not one of the existing lines. SP1 was actually not planned for the 20th anniversary but it is a perfect embodiment of what we stand for: taking risks, getting out of our comfort zone and inspiring others to be more creative.”

At just 38mm in diameter, the slim, bezel-free case of the SP One marks a new family for MB&F, to sit alongside the Horological Machines and Legacy Machines that already exist. Currently known as the “Special Projects”, the connecting factor will be that these are watches that have been previously imagined, and sometimes part developed, in the past two decades, but that are only now finding their time and being brought to life.

In rose gold, the SP One’s anthracite flange contrasts with its minimalist, aerial architecture. Image: Revolution ©

The pebble-case design measures 12mm thick and houses a manual-winding movement. Image: Revolution ©

The MB&F SP One, was originally known as the “Three Circles”. While there is an obvious visual reference here, there is also a deeper cultural significance with the trinity representing completeness (beginning, middle, end), balance and stability in philosophy, mathematics and art. The purity of the design relies on the three floating rounds — the barrel, the balance wheel, and the hours and minutes dial. Held in place by bridges that, thanks to clever engineering and architecture all but vanish, leaving the trio appearing to float between the sapphire crystal and caseback. 

The rest of the movement, including the conical gears that allow the dial to be tilted, are cleverly hidden behind the “floating” elements, bringing further mystery to the arrangement. Büsser refers to the space within the case as an “amphitheatre”, because “a case should be a frame that emphasizes the movement within, whilst protecting it. The movement is the show, and the case is the stage”.

The sapphire crystal caseback of the SP One reveals its 191 meticulously finished components and hidden winding system. Image: Revolution ©

The deep, sloping, bevelled flange representing the walls of the stage where this contemporary drama plays out — the dancing balance wheel, the visible mainspring and the ticking subdial. Inspiration could just as easily have been a circus ring, the three main players being trapeze artists or tightrope walkers, defying gravity. 

The SP One was a seven-year project in the making

First sketched out in 2018, Büsser says that the SP One originally took on a smiley face aesthetic, that was later refined to a form of horological classicism by MB&F’s close collaborator, designer Eric Giroud. The three points of interest — dial, barrel and balance — are all equal in diameter, emphasising their joint importance. Despite the single barrel the watch retains a power reserve of 72 hours. 

On the reverse of the watch, the crystal caseback provides a view of the remainder of the components all meticulously hand finished with satin, polished, and micro-blasted surfaces. With the barrel positioned at 10 o’clock, the crown too is moved to this position, the winding stem hidden beneath the barrel bridge. The tactile case remains smooth and pebble like, the lugs rising from the lower case rather than the upper case creating a gap between case and lugs that is barely perceptible yet adds to the floating appearance of the case.

Image: Revolution ©

Unsurprisingly, the SP One had a number of problems to be overcome. “How to create a timepiece which seems so thin and aerial, whilst at the same time boast a three-dimensional construction and feel,” says Büsser about the overarching challenge. “The sapphire pebble design, the case attachments which stem from the base, the incredibly light baseplate construction which needs to withstand the hand winding torque, the conical gears that allow for the slanted dial, the subtle different color shades on each part of the movement are just a few of the elements which, whilst being subtle, were an uphill battle. Achieving elegant simplicity is often much more challenging than complexity.”

The SP One is available in two versions — platinum with a sky-blue bevelled flange or rose gold with an anthracite bevelled flange. While the watch remains every millimeter an MB&F, it presents the codes of the brand in a whole new way. As Büsser says, it stands out as “a classical MB&F that has nothing classical about it. It’s like a tiny UFO landed on your wrist, blending unconventional design with an organic, tactile sensation.

The SP One in platinum, featuring a sky-blue flange and floating mechanical components within an amphitheatre-like case. Image: Revolution ©

“From the beginning this project was about writing a completely new story whilst using our existing vocabulary. This meant that every single part of the movement had to be created from scratch: the balance wheel, the barrel, all the gearings, the baseplate, etc. That thanks to SP, no part of the watchmaking ecosystem is taboo anymore. I basically gave myself the most beautiful gift a creator can dream of: total freedom.”

Tech Specs: MB&F SP One 

Movement: In-house manual-winding movement; 72-hour power reserve
Functions: Hours and minutes
Case: 38mm × 12mm; platinum or rose gold; water-resistant to 30m
Dial: Black DLC inclined dial
Strap: Calfskin strap with white gold or rose gold pin buckle
Price: CHF 58,000 + VAT / USD 76,000 / EUR 64,000 + tax (18K rose gold); CHF 63,000 + VAT/ (USD 82,000 / EUR 69,000 + tax (Platinum)