With Nostromo, Maison Alcée and MB&F take the path of assembly rather than acquisition: two hundred and twenty-two components, around ten hours of assembly and mechanics deliberately made accessible to the amateur.
There is something deeply subversive in the idea of entrusting the birth of a complex horological object to the hands of its buyer. Founded in 2021 by Alcée and Benoît Montfort, Maison Alcée turned this demand into a manifesto with Persée, a table clock delivered as a kit of more than two hundred components. To mark the fifteenth anniversary of the M.A.D.Gallery, this approach meets the world of Maximilian Maertens, designer at MB&F. From this alliance comes Nostromo, a co-creation sculpted like a creature from elsewhere.
Far from being an adult toy or a mere teaching model, the object draws on the codes of mechanical high horology. Designed to be assembled by an amateur in around ten hours, the beast is built on a substantial movement, fitted with a fourteen-day power reserve and an engageable alarm function. Only the regulating organ comes pre-assembled, leaving the owner to adjust the gears, wheels and pinions in stainless steel, brass and nickel silver.
The clock’s aesthetic draws directly on the visions of H.R. Giger and the science fiction of its reference era, taking its name from the spaceship of the first film in the saga, Alien. Tilted on its side and perched on three pivoting organic legs, the mechanical creature angles its dial upward for a frontal reading of time. The openworked dial, highlighted in the peacock blue emblematic of M.A.D.Gallery spaces, opens the view onto the ballet of the gear train and sets off blackened hands by contrast.
Limited to just fifty examples, this piece weighing seven hundred and sixty grams measures sixteen centimetres in length for a height of more than twelve centimetres. It shows that passing on horological know-how need not go through passive delegation to a distant workshop, but through the effort accepted, the time taken and the intimacy forged with the material.
Detail — The Nostromo clock’s movement features a display of hours, minutes and seconds as well as a switchable alarm, driven by a fourteen-day power reserve. The whole rests on an architecture of 316 stainless steel, brass and nickel silver, weighing 760 grams for an edition limited to fifty pieces.
Designed by Maximilian Maertens, Nostromo comprises two hundred and twenty-two components. Once completed, the clock displays hours, minutes and seconds, strikes the hours and carries a fourteen-day power reserve.
Production is limited to fifty examples, offered at twelve thousand Swiss francs excluding tax.
Cette publication est également disponible en :
