MB&F Revives the Original Legacy Machine as the Smaller, Tougher LM1 EVO

The Legacy Machine 1 was never a watch you’d wear to do anything. It's the kind of thing I would put on and just stare at. It truly is one of the most impressive watches I've ever seen up close. The watch was released in 2011 among the brand’s spaceship-shaped Horological Machines with two white sub-dials, Roman numerals and a giant balance wheel floating on a bridge above them, like a 19th-century pocket watch that had wandered into the wrong decade. MB&F retired it in 2017, but obviously not forever. Now it’s back in EVO spec, the sport-ready version (titanium, rubber, shock protection, real water resistance) that the brand has been rolling across the Legacy line since the LM Perpetual. Of all the Legacy Machines, the first one deserved this the most.

The case, made in either grade 5 titanium or 18k rose gold, shrinks from 44mm to 42mm wide and is 16.8mm thick, though that number includes the domed sapphire on top and the box sapphire underneath. Add to that a lug-to-lug of 52mm and the watch certainly has a huge presence on wrist, but not in a bad way. You want a watch like this to have a presence. There’s no bezel: the crystal is thermally bonded to the case itself, so the dome flows into the metal without a step and lets more light onto the movement. This being the EVO spec, it adds the brand's FlexRing shock absorption mechanism, the two crowns screw down, and you get 80 meters of water resistance. I should reach out to MB&F to see if they'll lend me one to go diving.

The two sub-dials each shows their own time and each has its own crown, which means this is one of the truest ways of displaying two time zones as you can set each to whatever time suits your fancy. Why is that useful? Well, it's one of the rare watches that you can set the time zone for a region like Iran, that is offset from other time zones by 30 minutes and Nepal, which is offset by 45 minutes. Those two sub-dials are black and snailed on both versions, titanium pairs them with a rhodium-plated base plate and blue lumed arrow hands; rose gold gets a green plate and gold hands with lume inlays. Above them, the 14mm balance now sits under a new titanium bridge, and the old vertical power reserve gauge has become an inclined arc at six o’clock.

Inside is a 3D movement developed in-house by MB&F with Jean-François Mojon, under supervision from Kari Voutilainen for the finishing, which explains the gold chatons, Côtes de Genève, polished internal angles, hand engraving and black NAC-treated bridges. The balance still beats at a lazy but cool 2.5Hz, now with a Straumann double hairspring for better stability, and power reserve rises from 45 hours to 60 hours. The rubber strap is integrated into the case, black on titanium and grey on gold, with a folding buckle, and for the first time it swaps out via a quick-release at both the case and clasp.

The titanium LM1 EVO is not limited and is priced at €89,000. The rose gold version is limited to 33, priced at €111,000. Both of those prices are without VAT. See more on the MB&F website.