ARCHITECTURE REIMAGINED: MB&F HM11 ART DECO

When MB&F introduced the Horological Machine N°11 in 2023, it transformed watchmaking into architecture. The original HM11 Architect—conceived by Maximilian Büsser and designer Eric Giroud—drew inspiration from the organic, neo-futuristic buildings of the 1960s and '70s, which were all curves and concrete, experimental and tactile. For 2025, designer Maximilian Maertens has reimagined this wearable structure through the lens of 1930s Art Deco, creating a watch that feels less like a house and more like a city reaching skyward.

Swiss-French architectural designer Le Corbusier famously declared that "a house is a machine to live in," and MB&F made this literal with the HM11. The watch wasn't simply worn, it was inhabited. Its 42 mm grade 5 titanium case functioned as a miniature home, complete with four symmetrical rooms radiating from a central atrium. Each room served a purpose: one displayed the time, another housed a power reserve indicator, a third contained a mechanical thermometer, and the fourth served as the time-setting module. At the centre, a flying tourbillon rose beneath a double-domed sapphire roof, like a chandelier in an entrance hall.

The time room delivered hours and minutes with domestic clarity. Rod-mounted orbs served as markers: larger, lighter aluminium orbs marked the quarters, whilst smaller, darker titanium orbs completed the ring. The power reserve room featured five orbs that increased in size as the barrel filled, with a polished aluminium orb of 2.4 millimetres indicating full power. The thermometer room housed not an electronic sensor but a mechanical system using a bimetallic strip, covering -20°C to 60°C (or 0°F to 140°F). The final room appeared empty save for a small badge carrying the MB&F battle axe emblem—this quiet space was the time-setting module. Pulling the transparent unit opened the door with a click; turning it moved the hands. The crown was the key to the house.

The entire case could rotate, allowing the wearer to position any room directly in front of them. Each 45-degree clockwise turn delivered 72 minutes of winding; 10 complete rotations provided the full four-day power reserve of 96 hours. This tactile ritual connects the owner to the mechanism in a way few watches are capable of. The sensation surprised many first-time wearers: winding became the twist of an entire object rather than the tiny movement of a fingertip, creating a playful yet precise bond between human and machine.

The case itself demonstrated how far the architectural metaphor could extend. The 42 mm grade 5 titanium shell formed the outer walls of the rooms, with curved surfaces and stacked volumes that mimicked the organic architecture that inspired it. The atrium opened to light beneath a transparent roof built from two stacked sapphire crystal domes. The crown presented an unprecedented engineering challenge: at nearly 10 millimetres across, it couldn't rely on a single oversized gasket, as friction would render it unusable. The solution was stacked seals like a double airlock: eight gaskets supported the crown alone, with the total count reaching 19 across the entire case and bezel.

The HM11 Art Deco retains the architectural foundation but speaks a different language. Maximilian Maertens, whose fascination with early 20th-century architecture began with a visit to the Rex cinema in Paris at age 16, has replaced organic fluidity with geometric precision and rhythm. That Parisian cinema stood apart in a city where so many entrances lean towards Art Nouveau, and the memory stayed with Maertens, eventually becoming a compass point for this design. The brief was clear: evolve the Architect without losing its identity.

The most striking change appears on the dial side, where radiating "sunbeam" motifs—partially skeletonised for legibility—replace the original's conical rods. These sunbeams evoke the graphic posters of the 1930s, their rays emanating outward with rhythmic precision. Two-tone rings and period-inspired typography define the displays, creating visual separation between functional zones. The temperature display switches to a font linked directly to the Art Deco era, reinforcing the temporal journey from 1970s curves to 1930s geometry.

The hands demanded particular attention. Maertens requested a red stained-glass effect, and whilst rubies were initially considered, the geometry couldn't be made to work in that shape. Transparent enamel became the solution after dozens of trials established a shade that reads clearly under direct light and with light shining through from behind. The result is slightly milky and distinctly translucent; exactly the stained-glass aesthetic sought. Across the watch there are four hands, each differing slightly to respect the intended graphics of its display.

The metalwork makes the message physical. Bridges visible from above gain a more vertical, block-like stance; their profiles recall ornamental stonework and the measured cadence of façades from Parisian cinemas to Manhattan towers. On the case, the small roof elements are reworked with fine grooves that echo the stepped profiles of skyscrapers such as the Chrysler Building. Viewed from above they feel like miniature towers but viewed in passing and they introduce a vertical rhythm that sits comfortably with the sunbeam dials, reinforcing a sense of upward momentum; an Art Deco skyline compressed onto the wrist.

The tourbillon bridge has been redrawn so its axis connects precisely with the larger base plate bridges. When alignment lands exactly right, a clean line reads across the object and ties the architecture together. The crown gains small steps that mirror layered poster art from the period. These changes are subtle individually but illustrate the approach throughout: make many small decisions and let the sum of them support the idea. Every modification reinforces the vertical, structured aesthetic that defines Art Deco as a movement.

Place the Architect and Art Deco side by side and the contrast becomes clear. The 2023 original evokes the soft concrete curves of experimental 1970s architecture: human, tactile, forward-thinking. It feels like freshly sprayed concrete with gently rounded forms, organic and exploratory. The 2025 Art Deco stands upright and structured, graphic and precise: a city in miniature. It stands straighter and speaks in verticals and sunbeams, reading like a city rising with towers and façades translated to millimetres and microns.

Yet both share the same spirit: these are Horological Machines to be lived, not merely observed. Both place the wearer somewhere specific; one in an experimental dwelling where walls curve around inhabitants, the other on a street where buildings reach towards the sky with confident geometry. The first reads like a humanist experiment while the second like an urban landscape compressed and made wearable. Both invite a person to step into a story, inhabit a space, and experience time through architecture.

The technical specifications remain unchanged between the two iterations. The in-house manual movement, built around bevel gears, drives the central flying tourbillon at 2.5 Hz (18,000 vibrations per hour). Four laser-cut steel springs derived from aerospace technology suspend the engine and dampen shocks, isolating the movement from impacts. These aren't simple wire coils but custom elements laser-cut from a hardened steel tube with a chrome finish, which was a solution borrowed from aerospace engineering.

A pair of stories illustrates how certain design decisions took shape in the Art Deco editions. The first concerns the dial frame. Early prototypes used a full ring with no openings, but once assembled, orientation suffered: noon, three, six, and nine weren't immediately apparent. The solution was to turn the frame into a skeleton and open specific apertures with a laser. After cutting, the space left on each hand measured around two tenths of a millimetre—roughly the thickness of two human hairs. Repositioning and indexing had to be exact.

The production order was strategically adjusted so that this risky laser-cutting step came before final finishing, not after. If a frame was ruined during cutting, it happened before the expensive finishing work had been applied. Once successfully cut, the frame received diamond-cut accents, micro-blasting, and a circular satin finish. The look stayed crisp and the reading became immediately clear; a practical solution that also enhanced the Art Deco aesthetic with its geometric precision.

Much of the work in the HM11 Art Deco editions exists in the finishing. The upper cage bridge concentrates many inward angles; these are finished by hand and only a few specialists can achieve them cleanly and consistently. The lower cage bridge mirrors the same design, creating symmetry across the vertical axis. The four peripheral bridges alternate polished and satin faces in sequence so light walks across the surfaces as the wrist moves. In a computer render the effect almost vanishes; in person it becomes the first thing the eye tracks, adding depth and dimension to what could otherwise be flat planes of metal.

Glass elements deserve particular attention. Each groove is cut with a specific tool sized for that particular dimension. Larger grooves are taken by hand to erase machining marks left by the initial cutting process, ensuring smooth transitions and clean lines. A very dark anthracite metallisation hugs the edges of the glass to hide gaskets and structural parts; a technique that proved its worth on the first HM11 Architect and continues to perform here. The underside of the case remains micro-blasted for a calm, even tone that contrasts with the more dramatic finishing on visible surfaces. The upper areas alternate polish and satin in a pattern set by the new graphics, with the stepped outer ring serving as the most visible change that ties the Art Deco theme together across the entire case.

The HM11 Art Deco arrives in two special editions to mark MB&F's 20th anniversary. Both use grade 5 titanium cases with sapphire crystals on top, back, and covering each chamber display, all treated with anti-reflective coating on both faces. The first edition features a blue dial plate with 3N yellow-gold-toned bridges, paired with a white lizard strap and titanium folding buckle. The second combines a green dial plate with 5N rose-gold-toned bridges on a beige lizard strap, also with a titanium folding buckle.

The colour combinations were chosen to evoke the era whilst maintaining legibility and visual balance. The blue edition with yellow-gold tones suggests the glamour of 1930s jewellery and decorative arts, whilst the green with rose-gold evokes the richer, warmer palettes seen in Art Deco interiors and fashion. Both feature laser-cut circular grained markers finished in PVD to match their respective bridge tones: 3N for the blue model, 5N for the green. The white gold skeleton hands with transparent red enamel inserts remain consistent across both editions, providing that stained-glass effect against their coloured backgrounds.

Despite the complexity—92 case components, 29 jewels in the movement, multiple sapphire crystals including the oversized crown—the watch remains comfortable on the wrist. The curved feet that double as strap attachments spread the load and add stability during the winding ritual. The 23 mm height might seem substantial on paper, but the architectural design distributes visual weight across the diameter rather than concentrating it vertically, making it feel more balanced than the specifications suggest.

The HM11 Art Deco exemplifies MB&F's approach to watchmaking as kinetic sculpture. Where most Manufactures might view a successful design as something to preserve unchanged, MB&F sees it as a foundation for reinterpretation. The original HM11 Architect established the architectural vocabulary—four rooms, rotating case, flying tourbillon—and the Art Deco editions prove that the same structure can speak entirely different aesthetic languages depending on which historical period informs the design.

The collaboration with Maximilian Maertens brought fresh perspective to an established concept. His memory of his teenage years became the seed for the entire watch, demonstrating how personal architectural experiences can translate into wearable form. What makes the HM11 Art Deco particularly successful is how thoroughly the design transformation permeates every element. This isn't simply the original watch with a different dial; the bridges have been redrawn, the markers reimagined, the roof elements grooved to suggest stepped towers, even the crown detailed with layered steps.

The Art Deco editions demonstrate that architectural inspiration needn't be static. A watch designed as a house can become a city; curves can give way to verticals; one era's aesthetic can inform another's without contradiction. The HM11 remains a machine to be lived, whether that life takes place in an experimental 1970s dwelling or on a 1930s Manhattan street where buildings climb towards the clouds.