MB&F Nostromo: build your own $15,000 flat watch

If you’ve ever bought a watch worth over $15,000 and wished it looked more like a flat piece of furniture, then MB&F and Maison Alcée feel your pain. The result is the Nostromo, a haute horlogerie watch that you put together yourself.

High-end watches are not only works of art, but also feats of great craftsmanship. The purpose of these objects is not only to display wealth, status or beauty, but also to show what true master craftsmen can achieve with their brains and hands.

The downside to fancy ointment is that it’s very easy to overlook that effort. You swipe your card, walk away with a masterpiece, only to put it on a shelf to admire it, but never to truly appreciate what it took to create it.

The Nostromo is an attempt to square this circle by borrowing a psychological trick from the opposite end of the market. Flat furniture can be a hassle. You spend hours sitting on the floor, searching through bags of parts, squinting at cryptic diagrams and wielding an Allen wrench, only to discover that you installed the hinges backwards.

However, there is an advantage. You become very involved in the final result and have much more respect for the object due to the effort and attention you put into it. I still have a small office dresser that I am very reluctant to part with because I put it together, even though the top drawer doesn’t open more than two inches.

The Nostromo takes advantage of exactly this psychology. Maison Alcée, a French watchmaker known for its build-your-own watch kits, teamed up with MB&F designer Maximilian Maertens to create a watch inspired by the ship from the sci-fi horror classic. Foreign (Nostromo being the name of the star freighter where all the action takes place).

Instead of arriving fully assembled, the Nostromo leaves most of the manual work to the buyer. While the delicate regulating organ comes pre-assembled, you’re responsible for installing the remaining gears, wheels, and frame—a 222-component puzzle that’s estimated to take around 10 hours. Along with the carefully packaged parts, the kit included watchmaking tools, a 250-page manual, and QR codes with links to video tutorials.

The finished product is a futuristic, elliptical desk clock made of brass, nickel silver, and stainless steel. Resting on three sculptural legs, it displays hours, minutes and seconds, includes a switchable hour chime and features a 14-day power reserve.

The Nostromo is limited to a run of 50 units worldwide. One will return you 12,000 Swiss Francs (approximately $15,000 US).

Source: MB&F