MB&F Legacy Machine LM1-0100-00-001 MB&F Watch Review

Hi, this is Tim of the 1916 Company. Welcome and thanks for logging on. If you love this watch, email me. Tim also at the1916company.com for purchase pricing and availability questions concerning this watch. The original MB&F Legacy machine was the answer to a hypothetical. What if Max and his friends had been building wrist watches during the late pocket watch era in the late 19th century, the era of steampunk literature and Jules Verne fantasies. Well, that watch would likely have looked like the Legacy machine. And this model launched in 2014 is the most wearable Legacy machine, the LM101, 40 millimeters in diameter in rose gold. You could see that from lug tip to lug tip, it's a friendly 47.5 millimeters and much of the thickness is the sapphire. So it's 16.1 millimeters thick with a 21 millimeter spacing between the lugs. If you like this watch, of course, reach out to me at Tim also at the1916company.com. You can see how well it wears and this is with a very stiff and unbroken end strap. So it's stiff and I'm pulling it tight, which is shrinking my wrist. But reality is that this watch will wear well on wrists as small as 14 centimeters circumference. And again, mine is 16 for reference. Now, in terms of fitting under a sleeve, better than you think just because of the shape of it, but it's still not an ultra slim dress watch. It is comfortable though. The strap, as I mentioned, is very stiff and it has not been broken in, but it is a very high quality. You could see rectangular scale alligator leather on top. We have a sort of Epsom calf skin on the bottom that's been stamped with this pattern. You could see that it is in fact, genuine gator on the top. And then on the bottom, a Jean Rousseau strap. JR makes the OEM straps for Debuttoon and F.P. Journe. We often use these to dignify watches deserving of the best. So I would say that the color of the strap is more of a taupe than gray. There's a little bit of an undertone of brown in there. So some complexity and you could see in profile, we've got a folded edge, a monotone stitch, a little bit of stuffing or bolstering to give it volume. Then an MB&F polished and satin finished pin buckle. The lugs are stepped out dramatically as though to remind you that this is a watch whose primary inspirations are actually pocket watches. So separating the lugs from the case, setting them apart is a way of emphasizing that fact. You could see the step between the lug and the case is quite dramatic. The case is satinated. You could see so is the lip of the case back. It's a little bit of an overlapping flange of the bezel, and then it's polished and it's conical, actually very slightly concave leading up to the dramatically cambered sapphire. You can see we have MB&F's double-sided Battleaxe logo right here. Also note the attention to detail. The case has a linear longitudinal satination, but the lugs each feature a vertical satination. Another visual step to make sure that the case and the lugs read separately. Remember, it is a reference to pocket watches. A lovely snailing on the silver dial. You can see that we have an enormous rounded polished full bridge for a balance that's over 14 millimeters in diameter. You can see it is free sprung. It's a modern architecture. All the timing adjustments are done using the variable inertia screws in the rim, moving them in and out in pairs to adjust the timing. So we've got a full balance bridge. We've also got a free sprung balance. Then we have an overcoil hairspring. And if you look, you can see that the terminal curve doubles over itself that centers the mass of the hairspring and allows the watch to keep consistent time, regardless of its physical position. You can see the legacy machine gorgeously engraved into the dial and then sub-dials in white lacquer. You can see they sit on gold shrouded bases. And the legacy machine is still subject to Max's longtime collaboration with his friends, MB&F, Max Busser and friends. And the most important friend here, Kari Vudelainen. Now, Vudelainen had a lot of aesthetic input here in terms of the standard of the finishing, but also the relative shapes and layout of the bridges. Things like this enormous arcing, polished balance bridge. And then you can see the snailed and beveled bridge underneath for the escape wheel and the escape lever. You can also see the frosted finish on the base of the bridge right there. Absolutely gorgeous. And I did wait to wind it because I wanted you to at least be able to see the architecture of the balance better before we started up. Notice that we've got a power reserve indicator down at the bottom. It's a manual wind watch. It has a 45-hour power reserve and it beats away at a stately and very pocket watch apropos 18,000 vibrations per hour. There's very, very little dead angle here, meaning that I turn the crown and almost immediately the hands move. So there's not a lot of slop in the train, speaking to the quality of the tolerances. Out back, you can see 23 joules. It's a large movement. It properly fills this case, hand and glove. And then Cary, of course, giving it his input with a traditional center wheel architecture, like a pocket watch. So you have crown wheel, ratchet wheel, center wheel, third wheel, fourth wheel. It's a little bit different than that. I guess there's also a fifth wheel and then we've got the escape wheel here. So it's a little bit different, all things considered, because it does have this inversion of the power source and then the oscillator on different sides. But the center wheel architecture is the thing that ties it most directly to pocket watches. If we get close, you can see that there's even beveling within the wheels themselves, creating sharp interior angles where those bevels meet and within the confines of the wheels. Quite attractive satination on the wheels. You can see beautifully deep and lustrous stripes across the bridges. We have golden chaton cups, a nod to the way jewels tended to be set during the pocket watch era. All screw heads are mirror finished with chamfered slots and circumference. We have solarization on the crown wheel and the ratchet wheel. Satination on the click with a polished click spring. You can see the engine turning on the base plate. You can also see, yes, we do have bridges with nicely creased interior angles. Well done, Carey, Max and friends. And it lives up to your expectations for the visual innovation and character of an MB&F, but also the finish and final execution of a Wunderlinen, and it is both. 30 meters water resistant, so don't take it swimming, but just about all the rest of the time. It is durable enough to use daily, so you can enjoy it frequently. Reach out to team also at the1916company.com for purchase and pricing details.