The HM6 RT is newest version of the Horologic Machine 6 “Space Pirate” timepiece line. The HM6 was introduced in 2014 to lots of international acclaim for its design and functionality. It was recently awarded the “Best of the Best” prize at the Red Dot international design competition—one of only 81 products to obtain the highest-ranking award among some 5,000 submissions.
This new timepiece is housed in a case made of what the company calls “5N+” red gold. The more copper you add to yellow gold the redder it becomes. The amount of red in yellow gold is benchmarked by a grading system. Rose or pink gold is usually defined as 3N and 4N gold. Red gold is 5N, typically consisting of 75 percent gold and 25 percent copper.
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| The 3D "engine" that powers the watch. |
MB&F’s 5N+ gold is 5N red gold mixed with a small amount of palladium. Adding this alloy eliminates, or at least reduces, the copper tarnishing, the company said. The case of HM6 RT is machined from two solid ingots of 18k 5N+ red gold.
The case looks a bit like a spacecraft. This was by design. Science Fiction is often an inspiration for Maximilian Büsser, the company’s founder. In this instance the case was inspired by a Japanese anime TV series called “Captain Future,” and the captain’s spacecraft, Comet. The curved lines of the HM No.6 give it a softer, more organically shaped appearance than its predecessors. This was inspired by the biomorphism art movement, which uses design elements based on the shapes of living organisms.
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| The underside of the watch |
The case is topped by five sapphire domes. The two domes on the bottom of the watch show the hours and minutes. The two on top display twin turbines for the three-dimensional automatic movement (or "engine" as MB&F refers to it) developed for HM6 by MB&F with David Candaux Horlogerie Créative.
The center dome contains a 60-second flying tourbillon that reveals part of the movement. In order to reduce the amount of sunlight that enters the movement through the tourbillon (thus possibly damaging the mechanism) a titanium cover was developed that is manually operated by a crown at 9 o’clock.
Most of the movement can be seen on the reverse side of the watch through a much large sapphire circular sapphire glass window. The four domes for the time and the turbines are replicated on the underside of the case.
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