MB&F : New 'Sapphire Vision' editions for the HM92

Aug 25, 20232 min read

In 2019, MB&F presented Horological Machine N°9, nicknamed HM9 ‘Flow’: a tribute to the beautiful automotive and aeronautic designs of the 1940s and 50s, materialised in a case that echoed the epoch’s flowing, aerodynamic lines. Inside the voluptuous case, the highly complex and convention-breaking HM9 movement, starring two fully independent balance wheels and a central planetary differential, performing the delicate task of averaging the two distinct heartbeats into one coherent time-pulse. Two years later, in 2021, MB&F presented a series of four HM9 ‘Sapphire Vision’ editions – born from the wish to fully display the complex HM9 movement through a transparent shell. Those HM9-SV editions were crafted in very limited editions of only 5 pieces because the sapphire cases are incredibly difficult to craft; if you look closely at other sapphire cases, they are essentially composed of two flat slabs screwed together. The HM9-SV case is anything but flat – it’s all about curves. And to make things even more challenging, the minimum requirement of any MB&F case is 30m of water resistance. HM9-SV’s sapphire crystal hull is sealed with a proprietary combination of patented three-dimensional rubber gasket and high-tech compound bonding, mastered thanks to an in-house process involving a vacuum and high temperature. Now, MB&F present two new HM9-SV editions in sapphire crystal, again limited to only five pieces each: 18K yellow gold frame with green-CVD movement, and 18K white gold frame with blue-CVD movement. Retail price of the new HM9-SV editions is CHF 420,000 + VAT (USD 490,000 / EUR 440,000 + tax) – first deliveries start now.