MB&F Opens Its New York Lounge With a Rose Gold LM101 Evo

MB&F has opened its own New York lounge in Manhattan, giving the independent watchmaker a dedicated home in one of the world’s most important collecting cities.

To mark the moment, the brand has created the LM101 Evo NYC Edition, a 25-piece limited edition available only through the new lounge.

It’s a smart choice for the occasion, taking one of MB&F’s most wearable Legacy Machines and dressing it in a warmer, more formal guise without losing the practical edge of the EVO platform.

At a glance

A New York-only Legacy Machine

The LM101 has always occupied a particular place in MB&F’s catalogue.

Introduced in 2014 as the most compact member of the Legacy Machine family, it distilled the concept down to time, power reserve and that theatrical balance wheel suspended above the dial.

The EVO version arrived in 2025 as part of MB&F’s 20th anniversary year, following the broader evolution of the line from the LM Perpetual Evo to the LM Split Escapement Evo and LM Sequential Evo.

For the NYC Edition, the formula remains familiar but the mood changes.

The 40mm case is now made in 5N+ rose gold, while the dial plate gets a black PVD-treated sunray-brushed finish that gives the architecture a sharper visual contrast.

The result is still unmistakably MB&F, with floating hours and minutes at 2 o’clock, a power reserve indication at 6 o’clock and the large balance wheel becoming the natural centre of gravity.

Rose gold with an everyday brief

The interesting tension here is that the watch looks more precious, yet it keeps the hardware that defines the EVO family.

There’s an 80-metre water-resistant case, a screw-down crown, an integrated black rubber strap and MB&F’s patented FlexRing shock protection system.

Those details matter because the LM101 Evo NYC Edition isn’t simply a display-case exercise in independent watchmaking.

It’s built to be worn with fewer reservations than one might expect from a watch with a high domed sapphire crystal and a suspended balance wheel on the dial side.

A caseback engraving reading “MB&F NYC” identifies the edition, but the watch doesn’t rely on heavy commemorative graphics to make the point.

The manually wound LM101 Evo calibre

The LM101 Evo NYC Edition is powered by MB&F’s hand-wound LM101 Evo calibre, a three-dimensional movement developed in-house by the brand.

It runs at 18,000 vibrations per hour and offers a 60-hour power reserve.

The oversized 14mm balance wheel sits dial-side and uses a Straumann double hairspring made by Precision Engineering AG.

On the reverse, the movement is visible through a box sapphire crystal, with aesthetics and finishing specifications overseen by Kari Voutilainen.

That combination of technical theatre on the front and traditional finishing on the back remains one of the LM101’s enduring strengths.

The Manhattan lounge and collector context

The New York lounge gives MB&F a permanent Manhattan space after more than two decades of working with retail partners across the United States.

It’s designed with the brand’s long-standing partners and welcomes collectors and enthusiasts Monday through Friday from 9 am to 6 pm by appointment only.

As with MB&F’s M.A.D. Galleries, the space extends beyond wristwatches and clocks into kinetic art, which fits the brand’s habit of treating horology as part of a wider mechanical culture.

For collectors, the appeal of the LM101 Evo NYC Edition is straightforward.

It’s a boutique-specific MB&F with meaningful visual differences, strong daily-wear credentials and a direct connection to the brand’s first New York lounge.

Details & Specifications

The LM101 Evo NYC Edition works because it doesn’t try to reinvent MB&F’s language for the sake of a city edition.

Instead, it gives the compact Legacy Machine a darker, warmer and more lounge-specific character while keeping the engineering that makes the EVO line so compelling on the wrist.