MB&F LM Split Escapement x Eddy Jaquet

When Eddy Jaquet started engraving for MB&F in 2011, he was tasked with inscribing the names Kari Voutilainen and Jean-François Mojon on the bridges of the first Legacy Machine calibres. Even if the flowing letters and words were perfectly executed, they didn’t even begin to reveal the talent of this Neuchâtel-based engraver. As MB&F founder Maximilian Büsser explained: “We had been working with him for years, but getting Eddy Jaquet to engrave names on movements was like playing ‘Für Elise’ on a Stradivarius violin – you couldn’t imagine a more modest use of such an amazing gift.”

All this was to change when Jaquet shared with MB&F that he would like to do more. An initial conversation led to a brainstorming session that turned into the creation of a series of eight unique pieces illustrating the novels and short stories of 19th-century French author Jules Verne. The timepiece that was chosen was the Legacy Machine Split Escapement as it had the largest surface available for engraving and exploring Jules Verne’s literary works.

In his preliminary research for the series, Jaquet devoured close to 60 novels and short stories, selecting some of Jules Verne’s best-loved works such as Twenty Thousand Leagues Under the Sea but also some of the lesser-known stories such as The Adventures of Captain Hatteras. The resulting eight LM Split Escapement ‘Eddy Jaquet’ pieces were snapped up in a heartbeat, with the 'Around the World in Eighty Days' edition winning the GPHG’s Artistic Crafts Award in 2021. The last piece in the series was delivered to its owner in 2022, which naturally raised the question “What next?”