MB&F LM Perpetual – Reinventing the perpetual calendar

When you think you’ve already seen everything, and that nothing can drop your jaw anymore… then he comes. Directly from the future, Maximilian Busser and his latest creation left us speechless!

Few days ago we’ve had the pleasure to be invited from the Corvo family in one of their Milan boutiques “GMT – Great Masters of Time”, to take part at the presentation of the newly born Legacy Machine Perpetual, led by the amazingly charming Charris Yadigaroglou, “Head of Communication at MB&F”.

And the show began…

Charris told us how, beginning with a blank sheet of paper, MB&F and independent Irish watchmaker Stephen McDonnell have completely reinvented that most traditional of horological complications: the perpetual calendar. The result is the Legacy Machine Perpetual, featuring a visually stunning in-house movement – developed from the ground up to eliminate the drawbacks of conventional perpetual calendars.

LM Perpetual turns the traditional perpetual calendar system on its head by using a “mechanical processor” instead of the conventional space-consuming grand levier (big lever) system architecture. The mechanical processor utilises a default 28-day month and adds extra days as required. This means that each month always has the exact number of days required; there is no fast-forwarding or skipping redundant days. And while the leap year can only be set on traditional perpetual calendars by scrolling through up to 47 months, LM Perpetual has a dedicated quickset pusher to adjust the year.

Using an innovative system developed especially for Legacy Machine Perpetual, the subdials appear to “float” above the movement with no visible attachments. The skeletonised subdials rest on hidden studs, which is technically impossible with traditional perpetual calendar mechanisms because they would block the movement of the grand levier.

Taking a clockwise tour of the dial, at 12 o’clock we see the hours and minutes nestled between the elegant arches of the balance; day of the week at 3 o’clock, power reserve indicator at 4 o’clock, month at 6 o’clock, retrograde leap year indicator at 7 o’clock, and date at 9 o’clock.

Legacy Machine Perpetual will be produced in a limited edition of 25 pieces in 18K red gold and 25 pieces in platinum 950.