Specialized in the manufacture of gorgeous and uber-expensive watches (some of them costing north of $100K), Swiss company MB&F demonstrates the world how a sci-fi music box should look and sound like.
In April 2013, I wrote a piece about MB&F’s MusicMachine, a mesmerizing piece of mechanical art that combined sci-fi themes with progressive rock. The following musical box is the successor of that, and while different in design, it follows a similar trend as far as the music is concerned.
Even the watches made by Maximilian Büsser & Friends draw some inspiration from sci-fi flicks, so the fact that the MusicMachine 2 looks like a blatant copy of Star Trek’s USS Enterprise shouldn’t surprise anyone.
The music box tackles two different musical genres: sci-fi themes and classic rock. In the first category there’s Star Wars’ Imperial March, as well as the main theme, along with the theme song of Star Trek. It’s as if the creators of this music box wanted to bring Star Trek and Star Wars fans together, even though the animosity between them is well-known across the globe. Classic rock fans should also be delighted by the selection, as there’s Led Zeppelin’s Stairway to Heaven, The Rolling Stones’ Angie and Clash’s Should I Stay or Should I Go?.
Some consider that MB&F wanted just to cash in by taking advantage of the popularity of Star Trek and Star Wars, and putting the two themes together, but I disagree. If there hadn’t been a similarly designed predecessor, and if the company’s sci-fi inspired watches hadn’t existed, that thought would’ve probably crossed my mind, but in this context, I believe that Maximilian Büsser simply wanted to make known some of its passions.
As seen in the above pictures, MusicMachine 2 comes in two colors: black (limited to 66 pieces) and white (limited to 33 pieces). These cost $21,500 (quite a hefty sum for a music box, eh?), and in addition to them there’s also a gun metal version created as a limited edition of 5 made for Hodinkee. Obviously, that’ll come at a premium price, but considering that the music boxes were made by hand in their entirety, the price might be justified for some.
Additional details on how this beautiful piece of art came to be are available on ABlogtoWatch, along with plenty of technical specs, just in case anyone is interested in such details.
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