In the clear with sapphire

Over the past decade or so, sapphire has become a more familiar sight in the composition of watches, particularly for cases in hitherto impossibly complex forms The first sapphire cases appeared in the 1980s but they were a far cry from the elaborate forms that took the stage in the 2010s, being only facetted as opposed to sculpted As a general rule, cases start out as blocks of opaque sapphire that are milled with diamond-coated tools.

Other brands to have taken the sapphire crystal route are, notably, 4N with the Sapphire Planet, Hublot and its MP-05 LaFerrari Sapphire, Rebellion with the 540 Magnum Sapphire, Bell & Ross and the BR-X1 Chronograph Tourbillon Sapphire, Greubel Forsey's Double Tourbillon 30° Technique Sapphire, Armin Strom and the Dual Time Resonance Sapphire and Girard-Perregaux with the Quasar The most impressive achievements are often the ones that fly under the radar such as those by MB&F The first entirely sapphire case to see daylight at MB&F, for the Horological Machine No6 Alien Nation, is relatively recent but the material has been hardwired into the brand's identity since day one.

MB&F makes use of an exclusive process for assembling sapphire components with adhesive The HM6 Alien Nation in its entirely sapphire case concentrates all the expertise accumulated by MB&F since its creation. . Source