Horological Machine: No.7 – Aquapod

By Kristen Shirley

This story originally appeared in the March/April 2017 issue of Elite Traveler.

Through his creations,Maximilian Büsser (of Maximilian Büsser & Friends, or MB&F) has explored robots, outer space, spiders and the automotive world. It’s only natural that he would turn his gaze to the intriguing depths of the ocean.What’s perhaps not as natural is how difficult this timepiece turned out to be to create. Horological Machine No.7 took so long to design that it comes out after Horological Machine No.8! However, the jellyfish-inspired Aquapod is well worth the wait. This wildly different timepiece eschews the current mantra from many watch companies that thinner is better. Here, each major component is concentrically mounted on a central axis, forming a tall movement that MB&F has encased in spherical sapphire crystal to make something that looks like, yes, a jellyfish moving through the ocean. Continuing the jellyfish theme, the watch has a rotor with tentacles made from titanium and a “floating” ceramic bezel that is not attached to the case. It glows in the dark on the indexes and hands and through the inside of the movement to illuminate the tourbillon and rotor, much like certain incandescent species of jellyfish. While it’s not a dive watch, it is waterproof to five meters. Chapter rings display hours and minutes, and the “hood” of the jellyfish is a flying tourbillon.