MB&F HM4 Thunderbolt

Roll up your sleeve while wearing the HM4 and the last thing it resembles is a wristwatch. Sitting across the wrist are two titanium cylinders, like jet engines. At the inboard side of the left cylinder is a power reserve meter that displays how many of the watch’s 72 hours are left before it requires hand winding. The right cylinder is the dial, with numerals, markers and hands not unlike a World War II pilot’s watch. On the outboard side of each cylinder is a crown. The left one winds the movement and the right one is used to set the time. Both cylinders are connected to each other at the middle by a bridge made of a single piece of sapphire through which you can observe the movement. The short answer is that this is not a traditional timepiece.

If you bought an HM4, and they are in limited supply, the odds of seeing anyone else wearing one. With its avant-garde design, state-of-the-art technology and polarizing looks, MB&F’s Horological Machine No. 4 meets all of our criteria and we name it our ultimate modern haute horlogerie watch. At least until Horological Machine No. 5 is released. Then this one will be old news. 

It’s $158,000. (USD)

“Modern” is a little trickier to define, whether you’re talking about art, architecture or wristwatches. Modernism really is about stepping away from the traditions of the past and going in a new direction in a spirit of experimentation 

 Modern haute horlogerie is like modern art or pornography; it’s hard to describe, but you’ll know it when you see it.