By Harlan Chapman-Green
If you’re a Luddite or have a fear of slightly comedic takes on robots from movies then this probably isn’t one for you. Rest assured though that although they are very good at making clockwork robots as far as we can tell MB&F is a long way off making a clockwork HAL-9000. Wouldn’t it be creepy though if they did make one and it went around changing the time on all the other clocks in a building to ensure that it is the sole clock that tells the correct time, and then stops its owner from changing them back to the correct time? The theme is clearly robots from movies with the first being from ‘Lost In Space’ and the second being a childhood friend of Maximilian himself named ‘Sherman’.
This one will probably be staying in the office, that is, unless you want it wandering around your house terminating your cat at night; that’s because this one’s styled on the killer endoskeleton from the 1984 cult icon ‘Terminator’. That is only one-half, though, spin the robot’s torso around the other way and you’ll be greeted by a happy face inspired by ‘Johnny 5’. It’s certainly not dead metal, though it does weigh over 8 kilograms and stand nearly 40cm in height. The movement baseplate is made of palladium polished brass and all of the 618 bits and pieces inside the movement will all add up. Not to mention those beefy ball joints which allow him to stand on his own as well as offer articulation and let him hold objects, making him like a big metal clockwork action figure. I’ll bet well-monied owners put these robots in all sorts of naughty positions for a laugh.
Let’s talk a bit about the clockworks inside the robot now. While it would be entirely acceptable from our point of view to make one of these that just ticked away but didn’t actually show any information, it wouldn’t be something MB&F do. If you’re familiar with the company history and its previous workings, you’ll know that they’re masters of presenting a lot of information in a relatively simple fashion, the way Lange does with jumping windows, MB&F does with hidden wheels.
When viewing the happier side of the watch you can see ‘slow’ jumping hours and the subsequent trailing minutes on the chest and his belly holds the power reserve indicator, a point of observation on this, the power reserve is an enormous 35 days. The eyes that see all on this side also serve a purpose, they’re 20-second retrograde indicators.
On the dark side of the robot you can see and appreciate the true blackness in the heart of this contraption. Like us all, he has two sides as well, so make sure you’re on his good side if you don’t want to be staring into his ruby red eyes. The menacing teeth warn potential attackers not to even bother unless they really wanted to feel his bite on their smooth, supple skin. This side does actually serve a purpose other than to give me the heebie-jeebies, it’s also got a dual hemisphere moon phase on it, too, whether you have the parts to stare at him for that long is another matter entirely. For more info, please visit mbandf.com
