Watch Review, Hands Off: MB&F LM FlyingT Malachite

MB&F is lighting up wrists again, especially for women and for those who love diamonds, with an all new Legacy Machine FlyingT — now with a malachite stone dial and plate, surrounded by diamonds, of course. The Legacy Machine Flying T was the brand’s first-ever Machine dedicated to women that was unveiled in 2019. Later that year, the watch won the Best Ladies’ Complication category at the 2019 Grand Prix d’Horlogerie de Genève.  Since then, the brand has regularly created new versions, including a complete diamond model and a watch with lapis Lazuli dial.

In fact, when it unveiled its Lapis Lazuli LM FlyingT, MB&F promised that there would be more gemstone dial editions on an annual basis. They didn’t disappoint. The new malachite dial with green variations and black striations in it is a masterful eye catcher. Not only is the tilted off-center hour and minutes dial created in malachite, but also the entire base plate is, as well. All one sees other than malachite is the terrific vertical mechanics of the Flying T automatic movement reaching out from the center of the dial to the high domed crystal above.

While I didn’t get to go hands-on with this particular piece, I have had the FlyingT on my wrist on several occasions. For this version, with the malachite dial, I know how good the stone looks in person. The watch is crafted in 18-karat white gold and set with diamonds on the case and lugs. Like the other versions, the new edition also features the figure of the sun as the winding rotor. The watch is endowed with 100 hours of power reserve. It retails for $145,000.

My Impressions of MB&F Legacy Machine FlyingT Malachite Dial

I am the first one to admit that when MB&F first launched this watch in 2019, I was both thrilled and dismayed. I loved the FlyingT because it was highly reflective of the three-dimensional space-age like mechanics that the brand is known and loved for. However, I was also disappointed. It had diamonds. I had hoped that MB&F would break the mold with its first women’s watch and decline to adorn it with diamonds. I told Max Busser (founder of MB&F) exactly that. But the more we talked, the more I understood his reasoning. After all, many women love diamonds and, had he not ensconced it with diamonds, anyone with a smaller wrist would snap it up – making it maybe not quite so much a women’s collection. In 2020, he did create a diamond-free FlyingT.

Over the years, I have grown to truly love the watch – diamonds or not. It is a spectacular piece of architecture and fine mechanics. I would be proud to wear on my wrist anywhere, anytime. The new malachite version is an exciting edition (although I am a lapis lazuli lover), and I can’t wait to see which gemstone MB&F will turn to next. While Tiger Eye is a natural progression, I am hoping for something a little more daring. Maybe opal or chrysocolla.Turquoise? Carnelian? Something that isn’t the main three stones (Lapis, Malachite, Tiger Eye).   Max, are you hearing me?