In 2013, MB&F teamed us with REUGE, the world leader of musical automatons, to create MusicMachine 1 – the first music box that featured all the traditional of a high-end music box, but was configured in an unconventional way. Between 2013 and 2015, the brands released three sophisticated music boxes, each playing different songs. This year, the Swiss luxury watchmaker redesigns the first MusicMachine and issues another edition – MusicMachine 1 Reloaded.
With its dual propellers and twin silver cylinders mounted on sleek outrigger landing gear, MusicMachine 1 Reloaded resembles a spaceship. The energy comes from coiled springs and is transferred by gear trains; the unwinding speed is carefully regulated, thanks to fan regulators similar to those found in traditional minute repeater watches. This puts in motion two cylinders, which contain the “scores” of the melodies, materialized by 1,400 precision-placed pins. When the cylinders rotate, the pins pluck the teeth of steel combs, each containing a bespoke selection of 72 hand-tuned notes. Each comb forms a unique pair with its corresponding cylinder.
Like the original version, each of the cylinders on MusicMachine 1 Reloaded plays three tunes, all personally selected by Maximilian Büsser. The left cylinder plays the Star Wars theme, “Imperial March” from The Empire Strikes Back, and the theme from Star Trek. Back on earth, the right cylinder plays Pink Floyd’s “Another Brick in the Wall,” Deep Purple’s “Smoke on the Water,” and John Lennon’s “Imagine.”
The entire body of the music box is made of anodized aluminum, in contrast to the wood of the original MusicMachine. Its sleek fuselage amplifies sound transmitted from the brass vibration plate centrally housed within the case. This plate also runs the vibrations along the curved, lateral struts and outrigger-style landing pods in bead-blasted anodized aluminum, which in turn carry the vibrations down to MusicMachine 1 Reloaded’s landing platform.
MusicMachine 1 Reloaded is a limited edition of 33 pieces in blue, 33 pieces in red, and 33 in black.
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