In the end, Maximillian Maertens, sci-fi fan and creative designer at the watch brand MB&F, was afforded the right to name his latest product a ‘table clock’. Out went ‘Cyclops’ and, a nod to the alien-like nature of the design, in came ‘Nostromo’. 'You have to get the reference to appreciate that,' says MB&F’s Arnaud Legeret of the object recently launched to mark the 15th anniversary of the MAD Gallery, MB&F’s Geneva showroom of mechanical art and kinetic sculpture, into which the ‘Nostromo’ table clock fits just so.
But the limited-edition ‘Nostromo’ comes – much like many a scene in Alien – with something of a surprise. Once customers have paid their CHF12,000 (about £11,000), they’ll open its box and find the table clock in bits. Put another way, the ‘Nostromo’ comes in kit form, with 233 steel, brass and German silver components ready to be assembled, taking guidance from a sizeable 250-page instruction manual. All the necessary tools are included, too. The ‘Nostromo’, which sits on a turntable-style tripod base, can be put together in about ten hours.
'We’ve sold the table clock mostly to watch geeks who are into independent watchmaking and are interested in knowing more about how the mechanism works, and putting the clock together does give you a very good understanding,' says Legeret. 'It’s still challenging, but the mechanism is simple enough and the parts big enough that a non-professional can tackle it.'
That this is the case is down to Maison Alcée, the French company founded by husband-and-wife team Alcee and Benoit Montfort in 2019 to build just such table-clock kits. Alcee Montfort was inspired to create the product during her time as an engineer with the Richemont Group, where a watchmaker shared his concerns that watchmaking skills were being lost because the industry did little to inspire an interest in them. 'So I thought the best way to do that was to allow people to actually have a go themselves,' she says.
With input from watchmaking teachers, Maison Alcée developed a kit that, she adds, 'everyone could complete but which wasn’t too easy either. [For most customers] it’s an opportunity to connect with a subject they love. But it also presents an opportunity to step back from a busy schedule, take some time, and a rare opportunity for many people to do something with their hands too.'
The ‘Nostromo’ is larger than Maison Alcée’s standard ‘Persée’ model, and, as well as marking out hours, minutes and seconds, also features an hour chime that can be switched on or off, and a 14-day power reserve. MB&F is now considering launching a second kit clock, though those who really like to push themselves of an autumn evening might be disappointed to learn that there is no plan to create a wristwatch equivalent.
Why so? Because making one of those approachable for the amateur would mean using the range and kind of parts that would likely result in a not-particularly-attractive watch, Legeret argues. 'And while we want people to learn through putting all the components together, at the end we’d still want something that looked good, which is why a table clock works,' he says. Fortunately, unlike the cinematic Nostromo, the table clock won’t automatically destruct in T minus five minutes either.