MB&F, a maverick in the world of Swiss horology, has once again teamed with L’Épée 1839 clockmakers to bring us a crazy creation.
MB&F and L’Épée 1839 have had a long-standing relationship that has resulted in 10 previous horological art pieces. For their 11th project, they’ve come up with the T-Rex, a desk clock that has the legs of an actual T-Rex.
Earlier this year, while a whole host of top-dollar watch brands were announcing one-off pieces for the OnlyWatch auction, MB&F announced the one-off Tom and T-Rex which would eventually see a wider release.
Tom & T-Rex for OnlyWatch
That wider release is finally upon us, and the finished article is just as jaw-dropping as the one we saw previously this year, just without the little figure on top.
The legs of the clock were created using 3D scans of fossilised dinosaur skeletons as reference. The legs were both polished and sandblasted to have light interact on the surface in such a way to make the legs look agile and ready for running.
The T-Rex is a desk clock that shows the hours and minutes within a sizable Murano glass sphere, it is powered by L’Épée’s own movement which is totally skeletonised and exposed for your viewing pleasure. Comprised of 138 components and made from a heavily-polished steel, the movement has an eight day power reserve.
Much like how the clock uses a host of materials, steel, palladium plated brass, and bronze, it also has a host of inspirations.
Designer Maximillian Maertens was one of the creative driving forces of the project and stated that his first childhood film, Jurassic Park, was a massive inspiration.
“I just had the idea to do something with dinosaurs, and Max (Büsser) was very interested in biomechanical designs at the time, so we melded these two sources around his little desk sculpture and took the next step.”
Maertens has even given the clock its own backstory:
“The story takes off from ideas given to me by past projects of MB&F, that we have a pilot in his starship discovering new planets. Eventually he got so far out in space that the only way back to Earth was via a black hole, but it timewarped him back to the time of dinosaurs and the starship was fused with a hatching dinosaur egg. You see the remnants of the starship in the body of the clock and the movement, the dinosaur appears via the legs, and even the black hole remains part of the design, via the dial that sinks inwards towards the centre where time originates.”
Clocking in at around 30cm and a weight of 2.2kg, the T-Rex comes in red, green or blue glass variants. Each colourway is limited to 100 pieces with a retail price around US $22,700.
