MB&F HM12 The Guardian Transforms a Tourbillon Watch Into a Robot Sculpture

MB&F has never treated the wristwatch as a fixed format, but HM12 The Guardian pushes that idea into unusually theatrical territory.

The new Horological Machine is both a wearable automatic tourbillon and a modular robot sculpture, complete with detachable accessories and a mechanical personality of its own.

It’s one of the brand’s most explicit fusions of science-fiction character design and serious independent watchmaking.

At a glance

A Horological Machine with a body

HM12 The Guardian belongs to MB&F’s Horological Machine family, the line where the Geneva independent house gives its most unconventional ideas room to breathe.

Here, the watch is only one part of a larger mechanical character.

The robot’s head is the timepiece, while the right arm carries a shield that doubles as a loupe and the left arm houses a UV torch used to charge the luminous elements.

The figure stands on a plinth that also stores the strap when the watch is mounted on the robot rather than worn.

At the centre of the chest sits a mechanical thermometer, turning the sculpture into a small environmental instrument as well as a display object.

The robot body and articulated accessories were made with L’Epée, MB&F’s long-standing partner for mechanical clocks and sculptural horological objects.

The wristwatch itself was developed by Max Büsser and Maximilian Maertens, marking a notable shift for the Horological Machine series, which has long been associated with designer Eric Giroud.

The robot face becomes the dial

The face of HM12 is not a decorative afterthought.

Its entire time display is arranged around the idea of giving the watch a robot expression, then solving the horology around that brief.

Jumping-hour and trailing-minute discs become the eyes, the double battle-axe rotor reads visually as the mouth, and the flying tourbillon at 12 o’clock suggests the constantly moving machinery of a mechanical brain.

MB&F has also created a face-shield system made from 200 components.

Operated by one of the two crowns, it opens or conceals coloured plates around the forehead, eyebrows and cheeks, letting the owner shift between a characterful robot face and a more exposed view of the mechanism.

A de-coupling crown is built in to protect the system when the shield reaches the end of its travel.

It’s an animation rather than a traditional timekeeping function, but that is precisely where HM12 feels most MB&F.

A serious movement inside the theatre

For all the playful architecture, HM12 is still an haute horlogerie watch.

The grade 5 titanium case measures 49.3mm long, 43.6mm wide and 13.8mm high, with broad skeletonised lugs and a quick-release strap system designed to make the transition between sculpture and wristwear practical.

Sapphire windows around the case provide multiple views into the calibre, with particular emphasis on the flying tourbillon.

The reverse side has a more recognisably classical finish, pairing the unusual case geometry with traditional movement decoration.

The plates carry textured finishing and anglage, while the micro-rotor is decorated with guilloché completed in collaboration with Kari Voutilainen’s workshop.

Three colourways are being produced, in blue, green and purple.

Each colour is limited to 12 pieces, and MB&F has positioned these launch editions as the full production run rather than the beginning of a larger series.

Details & Specifications

HM12 The Guardian will not be for collectors who want discretion, and that is clearly the point.

It is aimed at the MB&F buyer who sees watchmaking as mechanical character design, where the object can live on a desk as a sculpture one moment and become an audacious wrist machine the next.