HM8 debuted a little over a month ago, and, as Stephen wrote then, we had to recalibrate our expectations a bit, because the basic concept and a lot of the design cues seemed a little been-there-done-that, thanks to HMX and HM5 (both that share the disks-and-prism system used by HM8 for a digital/mechanical display of the hours as well as minutes). However , as usual, the actual impression the watch makes in the metal is rather different from the one you get from the press kit, so we had to recalibrate our own expectations yet again - though the basic principle might be the same as in earlier Horological Machines, HM8 really does feel like a wholly different watch.
Just to review a little from our original coverage, MB&F Horological Machine N°8 HM8 Mark 2 Titanium is a big machine at 49mm x 51. 5mm by 19mm. The inward pitch of the case along its edges, narrowing through the dial side to the movement side, means the attachment points for the straps are a bit more close to each other than you’d think from the above dimensions though. The lower of the two straps is attached with articulated lugs, which helps as well overall wearability. This is one of the rare instances I can think of when a bigger case actually improves ergonomics, at least partly: The actual front-to-back sizes mean that, for most wrists, the particular crown is actually projecting far enough beyond the edge from the ulna that it can be inflated pretty easily. Unlike HMX and HM5, in which the rotor is on the underside in the watches (and therefore invisible when the watches are worn) in HM8 the battle axe-shaped one - a signature portion of the Horological Machines since HM1 - is visible up top, giving HM8 a much more kinetic feel than HM5 or HMX.
It’s a little disorienting to wear; while the straight-on view at what, in a normal watch, we’d call typically the dial part, does give you the rotor to look at, a lot of the HM8 is best taken in laterally; this is a watch that in a certain sense is all about its sides. The time of course is only visible when you look at the watch edge-on, and a lot of the style characteristics are better appreciated when viewing the watch in profile.
There are always been any toy-like quality (in a good way; MB&F’s detto is, “A creative adult is a child who survived”) about the Horological Machines, as well as MB&F’s other creations, and also HM8 almost invites you to see the view as a kind of Matchbox car, where the aspect view reflects what you could see if you stood in front of a real automobile. The car-like aspects of the case are rather more stylized than not knowing, but honestly, that is okay -- a more literal interpretation will often work (it’s a big part of the fun for your Astrograph pen) but in this, abstracting often the lines of a car, including the lateral “roll bars” gives much stronger lines. Thanks to the exact inverted keeping the motion, the under side on the watch will be its most sedate: engine cover-like elements, with 2 visible jeweled pivots for that hour along with minutes disks.

Despite the use of luxurious materials to the case bodies (white or red gold and titanium) a lot of the rather clean-but-lavish really feel of HM8 comes from the huge sapphire crystals used for the top of the case and the viewing prisms. All the deposits have double anti-reflective coating, and they have the very optical limpidity of especially high-quality camera or telescope lenses.

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MB&F Horological Device N°8 HM8 Mark two Titanium does not rejoice within the sort of instant legibility, or even semi-instant possibility of easy-reading, that you find in most some other watches, but obviously if you’re looking for the main sober, workmanlike dignity in addition to utility you are getting to find in a real tool watch, within HM8 you are manifestly woofing up the wrong tree. That said, it’s and not an unpleasant chore to read the time, it just requires, well, some sort of recalibration of your expectations. (One of the most fun times I’ve ever had with a loaner enjoy was several SIHHs ago, when I borrowed an HM3 Frog from a friend. It could not be read without the sort of concentration plus mental effort that I generally associate with things like trying to understand quantum mechanics, but the see was so cool-looking I really didn’t care). The thing, however , about HM8 (and really, all the Horological Machines), is that you simply don’t get them because you’re overwhelmed by the sheer weight of well-reasoned, logical arguments for buying them. You buy all of them because they are enjoyable, fun, exciting with a fruit on top. There isn’t a whole lot of purpose or even logic within a Horological Equipment, but there isn’t said to be, and having HM8 within the wrist is an exercise inside forgetting everything except how cool it looks. I don’t know if cereal companies still put cash incentives in cereal boxes (I suspect the FDA may have told these, at some point, in order to knock it off with the choking hazards) but when I was a kid there was a fever of anticipation one felt, eating one’s way down to the winning prize, and real giddy excitement when it was something genuinely nifty. Honestly, that is what it feels like to put on HM8. It’s the most exuberantly illogical MB&F Horological Unit N°8 HM8 Mark a couple of Titanium observe we’ve had in the office throughout quite a while : and I mean that as a compliment.