MB&F Unveils a $280,000 Robot Watch for Its 20th Anniversary

Swiss watchmaker MB&F is marking its 20th anniversary with HM12 The Guardian, an unusual mechanical watch that can attach to a robotic body and become the head of a futuristic tabletop creature. The piece was designed under founder Maximilian Büsser, who has turned MB&F into a kind of mechanical ideas lab rather than a conventional watch brand.

The watch face is built into the robot’s “head.” Its two “eyes” show the time, with jumping hours on one side and trailing minutes on the other. Above them sits a flying tourbillon that functions like an exposed mechanical brain, and below them is a dual-sided micro-rotor shaped like MB&F’s battle-ax signature, placed where a mouth would normally be.

The Guardian is sold together with a full robotic body developed with L’Epée 1839. A quick-release system lets the watch be detached from its strap and mounted onto the robot, turning it from a wearable item into a mechanical sculpture. The body adds its own features, including a mechanical thermometer in the chest, a magnifying glass in one arm, and a removable UV flashlight in the other.

Technically, the project is among MB&F’s most complex. The watch movement contains 646 parts, 86 jewels, and an 84-hour power reserve, while the robot body adds another 755 parts, bringing the total to nearly 1,500 components. The titanium Grade 5 case includes sapphire crystals, and the face shield alone uses more than 200 parts, even though it is not needed to read the time.

Pricing is equally extreme, at 280,000 Swiss francs before tax. Production will be limited to 36 pieces, 12 each in green, blue, and purple, and MB&F says these launch editions will also be the final ones.