After 10 years and 15 different clocks, the L’Epée 1839 X MB&F Albatross is by far the most technically audacious co-creation by the two companies. Totaling a whopping 1520 components, Albatross features a striking hour function —chiming both the specific hours on the hour and a single strike on the half-hour— and an automaton composed of 16 pairs of propellers that launch into action every hour.
Posts filed under L'Epee
Introducing: L’Epée 1839 T35 Clock. Celebrating the Clockmaker's 185th Anniversary.
To mark its 185th anniversary of continuous existence, L’Epée 1839 presents the T35, a testament to its strong in-house horological knowledge, innovative engineering, and creative designs. Drawing inspiration from iconic 1920s and 1930s race cars, the T35 pays homage to a legendary racing machine that is perhaps considered the greatest race car of all time and one of the most famous and influential racers in automotive history.
Breaking News: LVMH Acquires Oldest Swiss Clock Manufacturer L'Epée 1839
LVMH announces the acquisition of Swiza, owner of L'Epée 1839, a prestigious Swiss manufacturer of high-end clocks and authentic 'objets d'art' featuring exceptional mechanisms and intricacies. This acquisition of a jewel in the crown of Haute Horlogerie is further proof of the LVMH Group's determination to preserve and develop historic savoir-faire, and to ensure that it is passed on and cultivated over time.
Introducing: The Unnamed Society x L'Epée 1839 Winchester Reimagined Chapter V. A Collection of 87 Unique Piece Clocks.
The Unnamed Society unveils Chapter V of The Unnamed Society’s unfolding story. Following the resounding success of the first collaboration with famed Swiss clockmaker L’Épée 1839 on the rifle-as-a-clock concept introduced last year, demand had been growing for a follow-up. Winchester Reimagined Chapter V is the fascinating fifth chapter of a continuing journey that explores the unknown behind the known. It captures this spirit for today, uncompromisingly respectful of what it symbolizes yet daring to open new perspectives.
Introducing: Bucherer BLUE Timepieces 2022. Girard Perregaux, H. Moser & Cie and L'Epée 1839.
The family-owned company Bucherer, which was founded in 1888, has one of the most distinguished traditions in Europe’s watch and jewellery industry. Over the last 130 years, Bucherer has established an exclusive reputation with its range of exquisite and prize-winning jewellery creations. Its boutiques also offer the company’s international clientele a wide range of luxury watches from renowned brands.
Insider: L’Epée 1839 'Pancho Villa' Pistol Clock
Only the clock masters at L’Epée 1839 could’ve thought of creating a mechanical table clock shaped after a smoking revolver. After numerous collaborations with MB&F, the oldest and most reputable clockmaker in Switzerland teamed up with The Unnamed Society —whose motto is “Create the impossible that cannot be imagined”— to come up with what has never been done before.
Insider: MB&F Medusa Clock in Collaboration with L'Epée 1839. The Horological Jelly Fish.
The tenth collaboration with Switzerland’s premier clockmaker L’Epée 1839 and a clock where MB&F plunges into warm ocean waters to create the Medusa, a dual-configuration clock, housed in hand-blown Murano glass, that can be ceiling mounted or stood upon a desk. With its central mass formed by a large transparent dome of hand-blown Murano glass that evokes the bell-shaped body of a mature jellyfish. Two rotating rings, one displaying the hours and the other displaying the minutes, are visible through the dome, and the time is read off a single fixed indicator that extends over the rings. Like a jellyfish glowing in the abyss, Medusa glows in the dark thanks to superluminova. A 2.5Hz —18,000vph— mechanical movement beats underneath the time indication, forming the pulsating heart of this mechanical creature.
SIHH 2019: MB&F Medusa Clock in Collaboration with L'Epée 1839
In what is now the tenth collaboration with Switzerland’s premier clockmaker, L’Epée 1839, MB&F plunges into warm ocean waters where the beautiful and ancient jellyfish proliferate. Medusa is a dual-configuration clock, housed in hand-blown Murano glass, that can be ceiling mounted or stood upon a desk. In the form of one of the most compelling yet mysterious creatures of the sea, Medusa blends exceptional artisanal skill with Swiss horological precision, and introduces new frontiers in both. The central mass of the MB&F Medusa is formed by a large transparent dome of hand-blown Murano glass that evokes the bell-shaped body of a mature jellyfish.
News: L’Epée 1839 Time Fast D8. 1950s Racing Cars Meet Swiss Clockmaking.
The new L’Epée 1839 Time Fast D8 limited edition clock evokes the excitement of becoming a race driver or experiencing the thrills of speed, as intended by its creator, Georg Foster. This vintage-inspired race car and a modern clock in one is a kinetic sculpture that tells the time. It was designed by Georg Foster, a promising young newcomer and major contributor to this second collaboration between ECAL —Ecole cantonale d’art de Lausanne— and the Swiss manufacture. The piece features a number of eye-catching details, such as the long protruding engine hood, the typical 1950s radiator grill, the large spoked wheels, the driving seat positioned to the rear and the sloping back section.
Pre-Baselworld 2018: MB&F L'Epée 1839 The Fifth Element. A Limited Edition of 18 Pieces Each in 3 Different Colors.
First they started with wristwatches: Horological and Legacy Machines. Then they found Reuge and created a series of mechanical music boxes —dubbed MusicMachines— and more recently a musical automaton. With Caran d’Ache, they created a rocket pen and then teamed up with L’Epée 1839 to create an entire range of mechanical clocks. Today, pre-Baselworld 2018, MB&F is presented a new range of machines: a thermometer, a barometer, and a hygrometer —all mechanical of course. And since this is once again a co-creation with L’Epée 1839, there is also a mechanical clock part of this new creation.
Baselworld 2015: Introducing the MB&F Melchior L'Epée 1839 Table Clock. Live Pictures and Pricing.
Last year at Baselworld 2014, MB&F surprised everyone with its Starfleet Machine table clock in partnership with legendary clock maker L'Epée 1839 as we featured it here. This year at Baselworld 2015, in order to commemorate their 10th anniversary, Max Büsser and friends —MB&F— presented a new super cool table clock that looks like a robot out of a sci-fi scene named Melchior. Additionally, the Geneva-based Horological lab will present a number of Anniversary Pieces during the year, under the theme: ”A creative adult is a child who survived”.
Melchior, created with L’Epée 1839 is an impressive kinetic robot which may remind you of your childhood dreams, but also happens to be an impeccably finished, 480-component mechanical table clock with five barrels and a steel and brass armour. Fitted with articulated arms —the right one packing a rocket launcher and the left a Gatling gun that serves as the clock key winder—, jumping hours, sweeping minutes, double retrograde seconds and a 40-day power reserve this clock is a true tribute to refined, classic clock and watchmaking.
News: L'Epée 1839 Celebrates its 175th Anniversary with the 'Two Hands Flying Tourbillon' Clock Priced at Half a Million Swiss Francs.
To Celebrate its 175th Anniversary, the renowned clock maker L’Epée 1839 —same company that collaborated with MB&F in the Starfleet Machine table clock reviewed here— celebrates this special year with a timepiece that will suggest many interrogations. The 'Two Hands Flying Tourbillon' table clock is limited to 2 unique pieces; one in massive Titanium Grade 5 and one in massive brass gold plated. These table clocks were developed in collaboration with renowned horologist Vincent Calabrese. This time, the manufacture established in 1839 comes back to its history and origins by redeveloping an extraordinary escapement; the tourbillon, the most noble escapement. A special tourbillon had to be made and what a better collaboration than with Vincent Calabrese, a well known figure of the Horology world.
