You’ve Never Seen Anything Like This $98,000 Watch From MB&F

Every year, the avant-garde watchmakers at MB&F come up with a new “Horological Machine,” a timepiece that is meant to change the way we mark—and think about—the passage of time. They’re often Star Trek-looking devices, that will have you peering into their sides to find out what hour it is, or piecing it together through a series of bulbous, walleyed indicators. One looked like the exhaust pipe of a rocket ship, and another was designed to evoke a 1970s-era turntable. Though MB&F has been doing this for only a decade, it was beginning to feel as if the brand had explored every different permutation of time-telling.

So when the company decides to go round—you know, like most other watches—you know it’s still going to be a leap beyond the ordinary. For 2017, with the Horological Machine No. 7, MB&F founder Maximillian Büsser was inspired by the anatomy of a jellyfish; indeed, the “Aquapod,” as his team is calling it, has an almost traditional ceramic dive bezel encircling the outer perimeter of the case.