MB&F’s Legacy Machine Split Escapement Plays Canvas For Eddy Jaquet’s Engraving Artistry

Only a tiny handful of watch connoisseurs would know the name Eddy Jaquet, one of the most gifted artists of his generation and one of the best storytellers working through the medium of dial engraving. Starting with a modest task in 2011 — engraving the names of Kari Voutilainen and Jean-François Mojon on the bridges of the first Legacy Machine calibres — Jaquet's potential was still hidden in plain sight. It was when MB&F founder Maximilian Büsser remarked, “Getting Eddy Jaquet to engrave names on movements was like playing ‘Für Elise’ on a Stradivarius violin.” It was clear Jaquet’s talents deserved more. 

Everything changed when Jaquet expressed his desire to do more. This simple wish sparked a conversation that led to an extraordinary series of watches inspired by the stories of Jules Verne. The canvas for these masterpieces? The MB&F Legacy Machine Split Escapement. Its spacious dial offered Jaquet the perfect medium to bring Verne’s imaginative tales to life, resulting in a series of eight unique timepieces. The series featured everything from Twenty Thousand Leagues Under the Sea to lesser-known works like The Adventures of Captain Hatteras. These pieces were a hit, with one of the standout creations, Around the World in Eighty Days, winning the prestigious Artistic Crafts Award at the GPHG in 2021.

But that was just the beginning. Following the success of the first series, MB&F continued down the literary path, presenting Jaquet with a new list of 15 young adult classics. Out of these, Jaquet chose eight iconic works, including Robinson Crusoe by Daniel Defoe, The Three Musketeers by Alexandre Dumas, and Treasure Island by Robert Louis Stevenson. Each engraving, once again, came entirely from Jaquet’s creative mind — not adaptations of existing artwork, but fresh, intricate scenes inspired directly from the novels.

The creation process wasn’t just about artistic vision; it required technical mastery as well. Jaquet had to work within the constraints of the LM Split Escapement movement. The baseplate of the watch serves as the dial and has varying thicknesses to accommodate the movement’s components. This meant Jaquet couldn’t treat it as a uniform canvas. He had to adjust his engraving depth carefully, especially in thinner areas, to avoid damaging the plate. Moreover, MB&F made adjustments to the original design, such as openworking the date and power-reserve subdials and slimming down the bezel to maximize Jaquet’s canvas.

The results are stunning. Each watch in this second series is housed in a stainless steel case, with black subdials set against a white gold baseplate. This contrast highlights Jaquet’s engraving work, which is not just beautiful but layered with detail. Every scene tells a story — from the figures in The Jungle Book gathered around Mowgli, to Jim Hawkins leaping from a pirate ship in Treasure Island. The engravings are filled with such minute intricacies that some details, like tally marks in Robinson Crusoe, can only be appreciated with a magnifying glass. 

Jaquet’s technique is as meticulous as it is innovative. By varying the direction of his chisel strokes and alternating between matt and polished surfaces, he plays with light to create dynamic textures. Moving the watch in different angles can change how the scene unfolds before your eyes, adding another level of depth to the already elaborate engravings. It’s artistry that doesn’t just sit on the wrist — it engages, drawing viewers into the world of the novel, much like the books that inspired them.

However, the challenges didn’t stop at creating beautiful imagery. In some areas of the dial, Jaquet had just 0.35mm of thickness to work with, demanding an incredibly light touch. Despite these limitations, he never compromised on detail, even using hidden elements of the watch design to his advantage. For example, a subdial in Robinson Crusoe is cleverly positioned to resemble the view through a telescope, as Crusoe and Friday observe a distant ship.

Each of the new timepieces is paired with an original drawing by Jaquet and a Loupe System X6 macro lens, ensuring owners can fully appreciate the depth and intricacy of their unique watch. And just as the covers of these beloved novels invite readers into a world of adventure, Jaquet’s engravings do the same, offering a journey that begins with a glance and deepens with closer inspection. 

In the world of luxury watches, where craftsmanship often meets innovation, Jaquet’s work with MB&F stands out as something more: a fusion of art, storytelling, and technical precision. With each of these literary-inspired creations, he has taken the act of engraving beyond its traditional boundaries, breathing new life into both watchmaking and the timeless tales they portray.