Hodinkee is celebrating their 2nd anniversary, big time! Even Stephen Hallock, President of MB&F North America, chips in with a piece from his own collection, a Tissot Idea 2001. This Tissot was introduced in 1971 and although it looks kinda ..uuh.. special, it is a vintage timepiece that will not look bad in your collection. It could be considered an ancestor of the famous plastic Swatch, since this Idea 2001 was meant for disposal once it broke down, just like a Swatch. Almost everything of this watch (and movement) has been produced out of plastic, which was unheard of in 1971.

To win this vintage treasure, you have to do the following things:

To enter to win a vintage Tissot Idea 2001 courtesy of MB&F, follow the instructions below:

1. Watch the Special Birthday Message Video Below
2. Follow MB&F on Facebook & Twitter
3. Follow Hodinkee on Facebook & Twitter
4. Leave a Comment at Hodinkee with a Working Email Address
5. Wait until Friday, June 18th for a Winner to Be Selected

Have fun and good luck!

Day 2 in pictures. I was able to see some novelties over at Bremont, Linde Werdelin, Ikepod (Yes! Alive and Kicking!), Ateliers DeMonaco and lots of others. The day ended with a very nice introduction / cocktail of the new Maurice Lacroix watches. This event was held in Bar Rouge of the Ramada hotel in Basel, on the 31st floor. Together with Ben of Hodinkee, Beth Doerr and Louis Nardin of WorldTempus, Bernard of Watching Magazine, Frank of Monochrome and Ernie and his wife of Watch-U-Seek, we enjoyed the new watches, drinks and the amazing view.

I have made a few photos for the ‘FratelloWatches says..’ forum over at Watch-U-Seek, make sure to check them out! Below are some sneak previews The Ikepod chronograph was simply amazing, the design has been done by (like all other Ikepods) Marc Newson, who is still behind this company. Prices of these models start at approximately 12.000 Euro and they feature ETA/Valjoux movements. However, these watches are not focussing on movements of course.

Next up are a two pictures that I took of the new Linde Werdelin models. The Oktopus with Moon disc (based on a F.Piguet movement) and a close-up of the gold SpidoLite SA timepiece. Look at the brushed finish and the razor sharp edges, truely stunning!

And last but not least, the MB&F Horological Machine No.3. I will try to make some shots of the ‘Engine’ for the upcoming Thunderbolt time piece.

My appointment with Bremont yesterday was also very interesting. The new U2 will become a modern classic in my opinion,. This new timepiece is currently still in development, but Bremont had the prototype up for display. Pictures will follow soon.

I do not have to think long before I can do a write-up on Maximilian Büsser & Friends, not in the last place because Maximilian Büsser has been a friend of the show since some time now. MB&F watches are something special, something out of the ordinary. The same goes for MB&F’s contribution to the annual Only Watch, to be held in Monaco on 24 September 2009.

This year’s goal of the Only Watch event is to get attention (and financial resources) for Duchenne Muscular Dystrophy. This is a serious illness (genetic disorder) that affects boys only and shows itself by progressive weakening of muscles. Unfortunately, there is no cure yet, and eventually this illness will result in cardiac problems that will become fatal as the boys are getting older. Here in Europe, about 30.000 boys are suffering from Duchenne Muscular Dystrophy. You can read more about this terrible disease over at http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Duchenne_muscular_dystrophy

One of the most important breakthroughs that have been made is the development of a surgical technique called Saut Exon or exon skipping, as it is being called in English. You can find a lot about exon skipping for Duchenne Muscular Dystrophy via Google and I also was able to find a few (video) interviews with experts on the exon skipping surgery. Among them is Luis Garcia, who developed this technique together with his team. You can find the interview videos at: http://www.myology2008.org/en/news/112.html

Max Büsser, his team (Friends) and Sage Vaughn (an American painter) worked together to be able to contribute with a special watch for Only Watch later on this year. I am almost sure, and without seeing any of the other watches that will be contributed, that this watch will be the Only Watch that captures a lot of emotion that comes with the Duchenne Muscular Dystrophy illness.

There is a great press release of this special Horological Machine No2, but I think these pictures will do the trick as well.

As you will see, the movement is surrounded by 3D barb wire,which – and I quote Maximilian Büsser’s e-mail – symbolizes the illness trapping the child’s body. In Sage’s works the butterly represents innocence and hope, and here the blued gold butterfly has one of its wings clipped, because unfortunately for the moment, there is no cure for children suffering from DMD…

Of course, I hope that every contributing watch will fetch a great amount of money in support of the Duchenne Muscular Dystrophy illness and R&D of a cure, but this MB&F HM2 with the symbolic butterfly and it’s clipped wing is already my favorite time piece of the event.

The Horological Machine No.3 has been introduced by Maximilian B?ɬ�sser & Friends. This time, MB&F were able to make their customers choose between two watches. Two watches have been introduced, by the names of Sidewinder and Starcruiser. And when I look at them, I think these names are well chosen. I am still pondering whether these timepieces remind me of Starwars or of one of my favorite childhood cartoons, Transformers (More then meets the eye).

The 304 component movement in these timepieces is a three-dimensional horological engine designed by Jean-Marc Wiederrecht/Agenhor. It has a Girard-Perregaux oscillator and gear and ticks at 28,800 bph. The 22k rose gold battle-axe shaped ?��Ǩ��mystery?��Ǩ�Ѣ automatic winding rotor can be seen at the picture below.

And now for something completely different… the movie credits:

Concept: Maximilian B?ɬ�sser/MB&F
Product Design: Eric Giroud ?��Ǩ��� Eric Giroud Design Studio
Technical and Production Management: Serge Kriknoff/MB&F
Movement Development: Jean-Marc Wiederrecht/Agenhor, Nicolas Stalder/Agenhor
Movement manufacturing: Georges Auer/Mecawatch, Salvatore Ferrarotto/APR Quality
Ceramic ball bearings: Patrice Parietti/MPS
Movement assemblage: Didier Dumas/MB&F, Gilles Dalloz/Agenhor
Case and buckle construction and production: Philippe Marti, Dominique Mainier and St?ɬ�phane Lhomme of G.F.Ch?ɬ�telain

Sapphire cones: S?ɬ�bastien Sangsue and Gr?ɬ�gory Esseric/Sebal, Peter Bloesch/Bloesch
Dials: Fran?ɬ�ois Bernhard and Denis Parel of Nateber
Hands: Pierre Chillier, Isabelle Chillier and F?ɬ�lix Celetta of Fiedler
Strap: Olivier Purnot/Camille Fournet
Presentation case: Fr?ɬ�d?ɬ�ric Legendre/Lekoni, Isabelle Vaudaux/Vaudaux

Communication:

Graphic Design – Alban Thomas and G?ɬ�rald Mouli?ɬ�re of GVA Studio
Product Photography – Maarten van der Ende
Display Architecture – Fr?ɬ�d?ɬ�ric Legendre/Lekoni
Portrait Photography – R?ɬ�gis Golay/Federal
Webmasters – St?ɬ�phane Balet and Guillaume Schmitz of Sumo Interactive
Texts – Ian Skellern
Project Manager – Estelle Tonelli/MB&F

Visit www.mbandf.com for all the detailed information you didn’t find here. Delivery of the first HM3 pieces will start March/April 2009, and MB&F expects to deliver approximately 25 pieces of each reference over the following 12 months.