The MB&F Legacy Machine Thunderdome was introduced in late 2019. A collaboration of Eric Coudray and Kari Voutilainen under the wings MB&F founder Max Büsser, the watch features a mechanism that goes beyond the tourbillon. Proprietary to MB&F, it is dubbed the ‘TriAx’. The triple-axis rotating escapement has a stripped-down construction that transgresses both tradition and modern convention. Instead of the rational (and cumbersome) system that associates one cage with each rotational axis, the TriAx defies logic with a three-axis, two cage configuration that allows for unprecedented visibility of the Thunderdome’s beating, whirling heart. Controlling the rate at which energy escapes from the barrel is the unusual Potter escapement, which utilises a fixed escape wheel in place of the mobile escape wheels seen in virtually every type of modern rotating escapement. The fixed escape wheel of the Potter escapement – named for 19th-century watchmaker and inventor Albert H. Potter – allows for higher rotational speeds in such a mechanism.Integrating a fixed escape wheel within a tri-axial rotating mechanism is something that has never been done before, but LM Thunderdome achieves this, and for good reason. The high-speed rotation consumes energy voraciously, with the innermost structure completing one turn in 8 seconds, the intermediate cage rotating once every 12 seconds, and the outermost cage making one full rotation every 20 seconds.As with earlier Legacy Machines, this spectacular motor is houses in a relatively conventional case – though fitted with a high-dome sapphire crystal.Reference 06.PL-BL has a platinum case. Time is indicated on a white enamel dial, with a blue guilloche back drop.
