In Depth · MB&F

The MB&F SP One Pavée keeps its mechanics in command

Two hundred and fifty-five diamonds trace the SP One's white-gold exterior, while its floating barrel, balance and inclined dial retain the centre ground.

Hen & Mills Editorial · 3 min read · 15 September 2026

• The SP One Pavée puts 255 diamonds on the case, rhodium-plated flange, crown and white-gold buckle while keeping movement architecture visibly separate.
• Its 38 mm case contains a manually wound, 189-component movement with a prominent 2.5 Hz balance and a 72-hour power reserve.
• MB&F lists the SP One White Gold Pavée at CHF78,000 excluding VAT and provides enquiry and retailer routes for prospective buyers.

The MB&F SP One Pavée takes the smallest and slimmest case in the brand's catalogue and covers its outer architecture with 255 diamonds. That sounds like a decisive change of character for a watch originally built around three floating mechanical circles. The more useful question is whether the setting supports that architecture or competes with it.

The stones follow an existing shape

The underlying case remains 38 mm across, 12 mm high and 41.9 mm from lug to lug. It has no conventional bezel. Instead, curved sapphire crystals meet an 18K white-gold shell, producing the smooth pebble profile that defines the SP One. The detached lugs remain narrow and visually separate from the case body.

MB&F distributes the diamonds across four areas rather than concentrating them around the dial. The case carries 165 stones, the inclined flange 55, the crown 14 and the pin buckle 21. Together they total 255 diamonds weighing 1.608 carats. The individual figures matter because they show where the treatment begins and ends.

Nothing is added to the movement bridges, barrel or balance. Those components remain exposed beneath the sapphire and keep their own metallic textures. The setting instead describes the perimeter of the watch, then repeats on the small dial surround and buckle. It acts as a frame for the mechanics rather than another mechanical detail.

That distinction helps the SP One retain its hierarchy. A fully set interior would flatten the view into one field of reflected light. Here, the brightest surfaces sit around the machine, while the dark blue time display provides a clear point of reference at six o'clock. The diamonds are conspicuous, but their placement remains legible.

Blue gives the eye somewhere to settle

The inclined hours-and-minutes dial uses a dark blue PVD finish. It replaces the black treatment used on earlier versions and sits within the diamond-set, rhodium-plated flange. Conical gearing allows the hands to operate on that tilted plane, although the gearing itself is less immediately obvious than the dial's position.

The display is intentionally limited to hours and minutes. There is no seconds hand, date window or power-reserve indication to compete with the barrel and balance wheel. The barrel occupies one upper corner of the open composition and the large balance the other, creating the three-circle layout that drove the original project.

Blue is doing practical work here. It separates the time display from the rhodium-finished bridges without introducing another precious-metal colour. It also gives the eye a comparatively quiet surface between the diamonds and the open movement. On a watch with this much visual information, one dark, uninterrupted disc is useful restraint.

The case still presents a genuine three-dimensional view. Sapphire on the front and display back leaves the movement exposed from both sides, and anti-reflective treatment is specified for each crystal. Water resistance is 30 metres, which is modest but consistent with the sculptural construction and paired sapphire surfaces.

The movement remains the central event

MB&F's in-house, manually wound SP One movement contains 189 components and 31 jewels. It runs at 18,000 vibrations per hour, or 2.5 Hz, and stores 72 hours of power. The slow balance is visually prominent, so its measured oscillation becomes part of the display rather than a figure hidden beneath a dial.

The Pavée version changes the bridge treatment to rhodium while retaining the movement's hand-finished vocabulary. MB&F specifies hand-angled wheels, polished bevels, hand-made engravings and bevel angles that make the hand finishing visible. The back provides the clearest view of that work because there is no conventional full bridge or rotor masking the construction.

Manual winding is also a coherent choice for the layout. An automatic rotor would cover part of the rear view, while a micro-rotor would demand a different architecture. The single barrel stays visible and its three-day reserve reduces the practical cost of removing automatic winding. Owners still need to engage with the crown, but not every morning.

The result does not make the SP One discreet. Diamonds across the case, crown and buckle ensure that. It does, however, preserve the distinction between exterior decoration and interior mechanics. The stones trace the amphitheatre; the movement continues to occupy the stage. That separation is why the treatment reads as a considered SP One rather than a generic pavé conversion.

MB&F SP One Pavée pricing and availability

MB&F lists the SP One White Gold Pavée at CHF78,000 excluding VAT. Its model page provides an enquiry route and also directs prospective buyers to the brand's retailer network. The watch is delivered on a calfskin strap with an 18 mm lug width and an 18K white-gold pin buckle carrying 21 of the total diamonds.