When mechanical ingenuity meets artistic imagination, unexpected worlds appear. MB&F joins independent enameller Gabriel Colliard to turn the LM101 into three cloisonné enamel tableaux – macaws in red, a blue monkey, a green crocodile – each edition limited to eight pieces. The result is not decoration piled onto mechanics, but a dialogue where the movement sets the rhythm and the enamel supplies the melody.
The brief was simple and brave: support an artist, then let him speak. Rather than interpret a preset sketch, Colliard composed his own scenes, working within a dominant hue for each world. Translucent, semi-opaque and opaque enamels layer light, shadow and atmosphere. Fire adds its usual mischief. He completes roughly one composition a month, so the 24 watches will take more than two years – patience baked into the process.
Technique anchors the poetry. Fine gold wires trace the animals and foliage; washes of enamel are fired, assessed and fired again until depth emerges. The gold cloisons remain as drawn outlines, crisp and honest. The story continues on the reverse with an enamelled ratchet wheel that echoes each dial’s palette, a quiet wink for those who turn their watches over as often as they wind them.
Fitting art to the LM101’s architecture is the real trick. The suspended 14 mm balance rules the stage, bridges sweep like vines, and off-centre indications interrupt any easy canvas. MB&F adjusted the mechanics with care – a modified dial plate, extended hands, removal of the sub-dials – to open space without diluting the Machine’s character. The composition must breathe around steel and sapphire, and here it does.
Under the color sits substance. The LM101 was MB&F’s first fully in-house movement, with Kari Voutilainen defining the traditional finishing codes. For the Gabriel Colliard editions, a 40 mm platinum case frames an upgraded manual calibre of 222 components, now with 60 hours of power reserve, up from 45. The large balance beats at 18,000 vph with a Straumann double hairspring. Turn it over and you meet sensuous plates with Geneva waves, hand-polished bevels, gold chatons and blued screws – classical to the core.
Three worlds, three tempers: scarlet macaws in exuberant flight, a blue monkey trading mischief for serenity by the water, a green crocodile poised with ancient composure. Post-Impressionist whispers, Symbolist hints, yet resolutely of today. The lesson is old and evergreen – the craftsman proposes, the kiln disposes. In these LM101s, both sides seem to agree more often than not.
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