It’s a finely crafted mechanical watch shaped like a dog. What do you mean, you have more questions?

OK, we will admit, explaining the watchmaking creations that emerge from MB&F’s workshop/laboratory/collaborative studio in Geneva can sometimes take some doing. But they do matter, and for more than their novelty value. Mr Maximilian Büsser & Friends, to give the brand its full title, walks a precarious tightrope in the watch world – whimsical ideas are executed not only with panache, but with precision, often conquering serious technical hurdles in the pursuit of uncompromising visions that just wouldn’t be given the time of day at other watch brands.

The results are – well, just look at them – spectacular. Of course, they can be divisive, too. For some, the idea of a watch with spinning “eyeball” domes to tell the time, housed under a giant sapphire dome, with a set of glinting rhodium-plated jaws for a power-reserve indicator (bared open = fully wound) is an oddball curiosity, while for others it’s the perfect antidote to the ubiquity of big-hand-small-hand-enamel-dial-in-a-round-case haute horlogerie. By now, however, you probably know what to expect from MB&F; this, its 11th Horological Machine design (let’s not forget HMX) joins frogs, jellyfish, dinosaurs, tortoises and spiders in the mechanical menagerie – not to mention a whole host of robots, spaceships and rockets.

Nevertheless, the Bulldog looks at first glance as though it shouldn’t work: the front-heavy head is so asymmetric, the case so unusual in its shape, that you can’t imagine it sitting on your wrist. It is perhaps the most literal of the brand’s biomorphic watches – previously the animals in the HM series have manifested themselves as influences rather than templates: this is closer to one of MB&F’s co-created desk clocks, but scaled down to your wrist. And no, at 54mm x 45mm x 24mm tall, it isn’t something you’d slip on and forget – but if that’s what you’re looking for, you’re in the wrong place. In fact, wearability has been considered – the Bulldog’s “legs” pivot to allow the strap to curve more naturally around the wrist and the curved sapphire housing the jaws nestles proud of your arm rather than awkwardly atop it.

Horologically, HM10 is comparatively straightforward – like man’s best friend, it is a simple creature on paper, but blessed with hidden depths. As we mentioned, the hours and minutes are read from the rotating aluminium domes (each weighing just 0.5g) that form the Bulldog’s eyes. There is no seconds display, although you can watch the elevated balance wheel (another MB&F hallmark) oscillating back and forth in its position at the centre of the movement. And when the 45 hours of power run out, the jaws snap close, and (perhaps, we venture, not something we’d try with a real-life bulldog), you wind it up again by twisting its leg.

MB&F HM10 Bulldog

Materials: titanium with calf-leather strap

Dimensions: 54mm x 45mm x 24mm

Height: 24mm

Water-resistance: 50m

Power reserve: 45 hours

Price: £98,400