Improving traditionnal complications to make them more reliable, easy to use and efficient implies a deep understanding of the technical principles as well as the ability to think in a creative way. The new LM Perpetual from MB&F is the result of an unusual and remarkable process of reinterpreting the perpetual calendar - one of the "big four" most complex functions in mechanical watchmaking. The concept was to rethink the way a perpetual calendar works. The perpetual calendar is a complete calendar - displaying day, date, month, year and gap year - that takes into account the variable length of the months and the gap years. Usual perpetual calendar are set on months of 31 days and the system afterwards deduces the right number of days. Here it is the contrary: the months are by default of 28 days and the supplementary days are then added.

This makes the mechanism much more reliable, considering also that is was conceived to be unbreakable when changing the date, which is the biggest weakness of perpetual calendars. And what to say about the design except that, once again, MB&F succeded in capturing the essence of the complication and to display in a new, modern, and splendid way? Every element of the display looks like suspended above the main dial which is actually the main plate. By having different color depending on the version, it works as a background to the perpetual function which is the only system of the movement appearing on the front except the escapement, the heart of any mechanical watch, and the signature of the LM line. The LM Perpetual is then a contemporary and elitist classical wristwatch as well as an educationnal and precise demonstration of a complex system. Hat's off to MB&F (again)