Tom & T-Rex
L'Epée 1839 x MB&F
In 2019, MB&F participated in the Only Watch charity auction for the fifth time, donating one of its creations to be sold in support of the Association Monégasque contre les Myopathies.
Overview
‘Tom & T-Rex’ was the first – and a unique – example of the T-Rex clock co-created by MB&F and L’Epée 1839.
All previous MB&F Machines created for Only Watch were unique pieces from existing collections that incorporated visual elements related to the auction. For the 2019 edition of Only Watch, MB&F and L’Epée made the unprecedented choice to contribute a previously unreleased piece, highlighting the special nature of the auction.
About Tom & T-Rex
What sets ‘Tom & T-Rex’ apart from the main T-Rex collection to follow? A sculpture mounted atop the body of the hybrid beast, shaped like the figure of a young child. The rider of T-Rex – who MB&F and L’Epée have named Tom – is both companion and ward of his redoubtable steed.
Tom specifically represents the children living with the degenerative disease that is Duchenne muscular dystrophy, which causes the gradual loss of basic motor functions, including the ability to walk. Tom, who spends his waking days tethered to an unfavourable reality, has found in T-Rex a friend who can take him on adventures beyond his wildest dreams. Measuring only 4.3cm high, the sitting rider is less than a fifth as tall as the 26.5cm T-Rex; in real-life proportions, it could easily look right into the second floor of an average apartment block. Cross-legged in a particularly youthful, tranquil yet vulnerable pose, Tom stares down into a transparent blue marble of Murano glass nestled in his cupped hands, perhaps imagining a different world…
Organic & metaphorical
T-Rex is a metaphor for the factors that sustain the daily existence of a sick child: the flights of imagination that nourish the spirit and the scientific advancements that will one day effect a long-awaited cure.
These symbolic elements are without a doubt what strike at first – but they are substantiated by the mechanical nature of the clock, crafted according to highest-quality clock making tradition. Beating within the 201 finely finished components is a hand-wound mechanical movement conceived and manufactured entirely in-house by L’Epée 1839: hours and minutes are regulated by the balance wheel beating at 2.5Hz (18,000vph), powered by a single barrel offering no less than 8 days of power reserve. Time is set with a key, fitted through the centre of the Murano glass dial, while the power reserve is separately maintained with the same key at the rear of the movement.
L'Epée x MB&F
A Unique Piece for Only Watch
‘Tom & T-Rex’ was the first – and a unique – example of the T-Rex clock co-created by MB&F and L’Epée in 2019.
- Hours and minutes
- L’Epée 1839 movement, designed and manufactured in-house
- Power reserve: 8 days
- Balance frequency: 2.5 Hz / 18,000 vph
- 138 components and 17 jewels
- Time setting: winding key to both set the time (in the centre of the dial) and wind the movement (on the barrel axis at the back)
- Dial and marble: Murano hand-blown glass
- Material: stainless steel, palladium-plated brass and bronze
- Finishing: polishing, satin-finishing and sandblasting
- 63 components
- Dimensions: 308 (tall) x 258 x 178 mm
- Weight: approximately 2kg
- Components total: 201 (movement + body)
Inspiration
Tom specifically represents the children living with the degenerative disease that is Duchenne muscular dystrophy, which causes the gradual loss of basic motor functions, including the ability to walk. Tom, who spends his waking days tethered to an unfavourable reality, has found in T-Rex a friend who can take him on adventures beyond his wildest dreams.
T-Rex carries its little companion away into fantastical realms with the earth-shaking strides of the mightiest of dinosaurs, under the fierce protection of an all-seeing cyborg eye. Made of hand-blown Murano glass, the “eyeball” also functions as the clock dial.
T-Rex is a metaphor for the factors that sustain the daily existence of a sick child: the flights of imagination that nourish the spirit and the scientific advancements that will one day effect a long-awaited cure.
Despite being completely fixed in position, the jointed legs of T-Rex – modelled directly on actual Tyrannosaurus Rex bones, using 3D scans of fossilised dinosaur skeletons as references – are deliberately posed to suggest energy and a sense of motion. A combination of sandblasted and polished surfaces directs the way that light interacts with the body of T-Rex, so that the clock seems light and agile, ready to run off with its diminutive passenger to a land where disease has ceased to exist.
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T-Rex
The Fifth Element
