Incredible MB&F Legacy Machine 2 in White Gold. Numbered limited edition of 12 pieces only. ALL Sold out Day 1.

Asking: $240,000

Watch in Palm Beach, FL

Tons of references

About the watch:

The company breathes life back into an earlier model with a fresh rendition: the Legacy Machine No2, now in White Gold featuring a mesmerizing Purple dial. The color purple, historically linked with royalty and despite the fall of the Roman Empire, retains its symbolic significance. Please find further details in the press release of MB&F's Legacy Machine No2 White Gold Purple below.

To the human eye, the perceivable light spectrum ranges from red to violet, with infra-red and ultra-violet existing just beyond these boundaries. The color purple, therefore, represents the highest frequency of light that we can perceive.
Similarly, the Legacy Machine No.2 stands at the apex of its watchmaking realm. When first unveiled in 2013, it was among the most avant-garde iterations of classical mechanical timepieces on the market. Today, the LM2 continues to dominate the frontier of innovative horology, with the latest version featuring a visually striking purple dial epitomizing its prestige.

The watch makes a comeback in white gold, a material from one of its initial launch versions. The LM2 houses its mesmerizing mechanism in a subtly grand case. The LM2 White Gold Purple, inspired by the more refined balance bridges of the remodeled LM2 Titanium, offers a sophisticated interpretation of the original LM2's industrial aesthetics. The sunray-patterned dial plate is granted its purple color through a chemical vapor deposition (CVD) process, which evenly tints the dial surface and under various light angles, exhibits color variations from a deep violet to a near-electric plasma purple shade.

The Legacy Machines are fantastic reimaginations of significant horological inventions by history's most renowned watchmakers. Thus, the modern aesthetics of the Legacy Machine No.2’s dual flying balances, suspended majestically above the dial on elegantly curving arms, may seem contradictory at first. However, the LM2 is a timepiece tracing its origins back to three of the greatest watchmakers: Abraham-Louis Breguet (1747–1823), Ferdinand Berthoud (1727–1807), and Antide Janvier (1751–1835), whose innovations from over 250 years ago are revered to this day.

These 18th-century horological luminaries, renowned for their inventive prowess, all share a common ground in creating clocks and watches featuring dual balances.

The esteemed double balance wheels of the LM2, oscillating loftily, are inspired by, and pay tribute to, one of the most uncommon mechanisms in watchmaking history: the dual regulator. Even more uniquely, the rates of the LM2’s dual regulators are transmitted by a differential to a singular gear train, as opposed to the majority that had two separate movements.

Underneath a domed sapphire crystal canopy, the dial of the LM2, which is actually the finely finished movement's top plate, is a model of symmetrical simplicity. The white stretched lacquer subdial at 12 o’clock, with its blue-gold hour and minute hands, is visually counterbalanced by the large, prominent differential at 6 o’clock. The two flying balances and their escapements are identical mirror images, right down to the positioning of the stud holders securing their balance springs.

While the floating oscillating balance wheels of the binary regulators immediately draw and captivate the viewer's attention, it is the sizeable planetary differential sitting proudly on the dial that is the true heart of the Legacy Machine No.2. Creating such a complex, high-precision mechanism is a testament to incredible micro-engineering skills, as evidenced by the rarity of timepieces with multiple regulators connected via a differential.

This differential plays three crucial roles:

1. It distributes power to each of the regulators;
2. It receives the individual timing rates from each balance;
and 3. It transmits the average rate of the two regulators to the gear train, where it ultimately displays as the time.

The movement of the Legacy Machine No.2 was crafted to MB&F's exacting standards by the award-winning watchmaker Jean-François Mojon (Best Watchmaker at the 2010 Grand Prix d’Horlogerie de Genève) and his team at Chronode. Independent watchmaker Kari Voutilainen, renowned in the field, ensured the movement's aesthetic style was in line with the highest quality traditional timepieces of the 19th century, and specified the superb hand-finishing.

Impeccable Geneva waves, gold chatons, mirror-polished bevels, and bridges with intentionally designed internal beveled angles (which cannot be machine-finished) exhibit the movement's unparalleled fine finishing. In line with MB&F's ethos of transparency, the names of the two individuals responsible for the movement are engraved by hand on the back.

Over two centuries after the world's most exceptional watchmakers integrated two balance wheels into their movements, MB&F honors their ground-breaking work by introducing the LM2, a timepiece with two balances appearing to hover outside the movement.

Launched in 2013 in 18k red gold, 18k white gold, and a limited edition of 18 pieces in platinum 950, the Legacy Machine No.2 was redesigned in 2017 for a limited edition of 18 pieces in titanium.

The latest in the series, Legacy Machine No.2 White Gold Purple is a limited edition of just 12 pieces.

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