Whenever the Swiss luxury watchmaker MB&F collaborates with the country’s premier clockmaker L’Epée 1839 the outcome is beyond words to express. This was evident from the two kilogram Tyrannosaurus clock and now the TriPod is just a mature and exemplary extension of that.
TriPod is a timepiece that looks half animal and half robot (MB&F calls Ronocreatures) and seems to have drawn inspiration from a spider. This is the 13th time the two design houses have combined but only the second time they are venturing into the robot-animal theme – first instance being the T-Rex Table Clock.
The TriPod
The clock has a minimalist clock face perched on three spider-like legs that look thin but not fragile by any means. In fact, it’s these camera tripod-style legs that give this clock – designed by MB&F’s Maximilian Busser with Berlin-based industrial designer Maximilian Maertens and Arnaud Nicolas (CEO L’Epée) – its name.
The creature’s mechanical body with three movement levels features three insect-eye spheres made from precision lens-quality glass. The colorful body suspended on three legs features a dial that makes full rotation in 36 hours and denotes three sets of hours and minutes. The clock is powered by 3D sculptural L’Épée 1839 movement that comprises 182 components and beats at 2.5Hz.
The hand-wound moment offers the clock an eight-day power reserve. Setting the time and winding the TriPod is easily done by a key.
Reading time
Most essential part of the TriPod is telling time –it may look like a cute robotic sculpture – but it’s actually is a clock. The time is composed by the dial comprising rotating disks. User reads the time courtesy three optical spheres that magnify the little numerals on the discs making them legible.
The three insect eyes over the dial can show time from any angle – for this the dial features three set of numerals 1-12. Since the watch completes full rotation in 36 hours as opposed to 12 hours on a traditional clock, the time is visible through one of the spheres (magnifying the numerals) at any time.
The TriPod comes in three body colors – neon green, neon blue, and neon red. It is a limited edition clock and only 50 pieces of each color will be made, priced at 24,500 CHF (approx. $26,800).