MB&F LM Thunderdome Tri-Axis Tourbillon



The ultimate Heritage Machine.

MB&F’s Legacy Machine FlyingT, a women’s flying tourbillon watch launched last year, foreshadowed its latest watch, the Legacy Machine Thunderdome, which features the fastest tri-axis tourbillon ever developed by independent watchmaker Eric Coudray.

Multi-axis tourbillons are undoubtedly nothing new, especially since Jaeger-LeCoultre launched its first Gyrotourbillon in 2005 (also developed by Mr. Coudray), but the LM Thunderdome takes the concept further in every way, primarily by building on past ideas to achieve higher frame speeds than ever before.

Most interestingly, the Thunderdome movement features a tourbillon lever escapement first invented by Albert H. Potter, a talented American watchmaker working in Geneva in the late 19th century, and an unusual multi-axis tourbillon that utilizes a carrousel as its outermost cage, dubbed TriAx.

The tourbillon’s ingenious construction is attributed to Mr. Coudray, who currently runs the TEC Ebauches Complications Workshop, known for the many exotic tourbillon movements he has developed. After two decades at Jaeger-LeCoultre, where he became the resident technical genius, he has since worked for a number of brands of varying degrees of prestige, including at Cabestan, where he perfected the vertical tourbillon, and more recently at Cecil Purnell, where he created the Spherion triple-axis tourbillon, which has a similar construction to the Thunderdome.

In addition to Mr. Coudray, another more prominent independent watchmaker, Kari Voutilainen, was hired to develop the movement’s design and finish, as well as the guilloché dial.