The Most Unexpected MB&F Yet? Meet the SP-One
4 min read
MB&F has long been the enfant terrible — a brand that, for two decades, has proudly broken rules and reinvented the boundaries of what horology can look like. Flying battle-axes, alien domes, triple-axis tourbillons: these are not embellishments but signatures in Maximilian Büsser’s wild creative lexicon. So when the Geneva-based brand announced a new creation to celebrate its 20th anniversary — not a Horological Machine, not even a Legacy Machine, but a classical watch — there was understandable intrigue.
A Classic? From MB&F?
That tension is exactly where the SP-One, short for “Special Project One”, begins to shine. Yes, it’s elegant. Yes, it’s the smallest and slimmest MB&F watch ever made, at just 38mm across. But don’t mistake that for restraint. The SP-One is less a departure and more a distillation — a floating, theatrical, quietly radical expression of MB&F’s core design language, sculpted into a pebble of horological poetry.
The Watch That Wasn’t Supposed to Be
The origin of SP-One isn’t linked to market trends or commercial forecasts. It comes from a place MB&F knows well: the basket of half-formed ideas, doodles, and dormant sketches that the brand affectionately refers to as its “fun projects.” During the uncertainty of COVID, as many brands tightened their portfolios and braced for impact, MB&F did the opposite. It plunged its hands deeper into that creative archive — the same basket that gave us the wildly successful M.A.D.1 — and out came a 2018 sketch with three circles arranged almost like a smiley face.
The drawing wasn’t loud. It didn’t scream innovation. But it held within it the soul of something rare: a mechanical trinity suspended in air — the barrel, the balance wheel, and a tilted dial — all floating within an amphitheatre-like case, clean and sculptural, with no visible anchors. It was a soft watch. But a strange one. And for MB&F, that was reason enough to build it.
A Stage for Levitation
The SP-One’s visual impact lies in its restraint — and its three-dimensionality. Viewed from the front, the watch feels like a miniature performance space. The barrel, balance wheel, and time display appear to levitate, thanks to sapphire domes on both sides and a movement architecture that intentionally hides its scaffolding. Finding a screw from the dial side is like spotting a ghost.
The tilted time display — set at six o’clock, with MB&F’s signature conical gearing — subtly draws the eye without disrupting symmetry. At two o’clock, the balance wheel pulses mid-air, like a flying saucer hovering just above the dial plane. And behind it all is the “amphitheatre” flange, a Greco-Roman nod that serves as the stage, complete with bevelled detailing and beautifully proportioned curves. The result isn’t flashy. It’s sculptural, modern, and mechanically articulate — a kind of poetic minimalism that still speaks fluent MB&F.
The Slimmest MB&F Yet
Measuring just 12mm thick, the SP-One marks a technical shift for MB&F. This is not about claiming a thinness record — Büsser has no interest in that race — but about achieving proportion and elegance while maintaining the brand’s signature dimensionality.
The case, with its smooth pebble-like form, feels like something you’d pull from a riverbed. There's no bezel. The sapphire flows seamlessly into the case band. The lugs, in a delightful twist, don’t even touch the top of the case. They rise instead from the base, almost hovering, creating just enough visual separation to emphasize lightness. This is classicism reimagined — not through Roman numerals and dauphine hands, but through balance, texture, and spatial tension.
The SP-One’s movement is MB&F through and through — not just in architecture but in finish. Hand-angled wheels, prominent gold chatons, and a harmony of satin, polished, and micro-blasted surfaces. Beneath the minimal exterior lies a manually wound calibre with 72 hours of power reserve and 191 components, all invisibly orchestrated to spotlight the floating trinity above. At 2.5Hz, the slow, meditative beat of the balance wheel reinforces the watch’s philosophical tone. This is not a machine for speed or spectacle. It’s a study in mechanical theatre.
Where does the SP-One fit in the MB&F universe? It doesn’t. Not really. It’s not a Horological Machine. It’s not a Legacy Machine. It lives, aptly, in a newly defined “Special Projects” category — a liminal space between the avant-garde and the classical, the expected and the absurd. And perhaps that’s what makes it so compelling. The SP-One doesn’t need to shout. It whispers, floats, and waits for you to look closer.
In the SP-One, MB&F has managed to do something few brands ever attempt — let alone succeed at. It has created a watch that feels wholly new, yet spiritually connected to everything that’s come before. A classical watch that levitates. A simple design with invisible complexity. A milestone piece that doesn’t celebrate 20 years by looking back — but by imagining how time can still be defied. And that, in true MB&F fashion, may be its most rebellious act yet.
MB&F Special Project One prices before taxes
SP One Rose Gold : CHF 58,000
SP One Platinum : CHF 63,000
Watch our conversation with Charris Yadigaroglou - the Head of Marketing Communications at MB&F (Maximilian Büsser & Friends) about the Special Project One Here
