If there’s one brand that never ceases to surprise us, it’s MB&F. You just never know what they’re coming out with next!

With last year’s totally bonkers Music Machine made in collaboration with Reuge, many of us wondered what side-project the brand would take on next. To our delight, It didn’t take long for MB&F to present their latest piece of avant-garde mechanical art. The result is a table clock from another dimension altogether, aptly named the Starfleet Machine. Made in collaboration with clockmakers L’Epée 1839, who just so happen to be celebrating their 175^th year in operation this year, the Starfleet Machine is unlike anything you’ve ever seen.

At first sight, the main influence for the three-spoke design is pretty obvious, and that’s the Deep Space Nine station from the Star Trek series of the same name. Now, I’ve personally never been a Star Trek fan (sorry, I’m a second-generation Star Wars geek) but that didn’t stop me from falling head over heels for this mechanical marvel.

There’s a seamless cohesion between the otherwise traditional clock movement from L’Epée 1839 and the nostalgically futuristic package MB&F came up with. The hour and minutes dial, if you could call it that, is a black aluminum dome with white painted markers, and white hands following its curvature. coming out of an opening at the front of the dome are two red-tipped “laser cannons” that serve as 20-seconds retrograde hands.

Behind the hours and minutes dome is a second smaller one, here indicating the power reserve of the clock. Adjascent to it is a rotating radar dish that acts as running indicator, though truth be told it doesn’t have to indicate anything, it just looks really, really cool.

Thanks to the 5 horizontally configured mainspring barrels, the clock can deliver a power reserve of 40 days, with the winding done on the underside of the clock. A good excuse to flip it over and admire the inner workings of this otherworldly clock.

With a price tag of 28,000 CHF, you could call the MB&F Starfleet Machine the brand’s entry-level timepiece, though it’s certainly not one you’ll be wearing around your wrist. Like the Music Machine, the clock will come in light and dark versions, each limited to 175 pieces in commemoration of L’Epée’s 175^th anniversary. The MB&F Starfleet Machine is now available at aurthorized MB&F retailers and the M.A.D. Gallery in Geneva and Taipei.

And just minutes before publishing this, MB&F sent out this pretty cool video of the Starfleet Machine in action. Check it out!

More information on www.mbandf.com