News · Maison Alcée

Maison Alcée And MB&F Turn Nostromo Into A Ten-Hour Build

The 222-part mechanical clock kit celebrates 15 years of M.A.D.Gallery with an owner-assembled, 14-day movement.

Hen & Mills Editorial · 4 min read · 27 August 2026

• Maison Alcée and MB&F turn the Persée clock kit sideways for Nostromo, adding three feet and an upward-angled mechanical display.
• Owners assemble 222 predominantly Jura-made components in about ten hours, with only the regulating organ arriving pre-assembled inside the finished clock.
• The 50-piece edition is listed at CHF 12,000 excluding taxes, with MB&F stating an October-to-November 2026 lead time for delivery.

Maison Alcée and MB&F have built a clock for people who want to finish the making themselves. Nostromo is a 50-piece mechanical desk clock delivered as a kit of 222 components, along with the tools needed to assemble it. The collaboration marks 15 years of MB&F's M.A.D.Gallery and places the familiar character of an MB&F machine inside Maison Alcée's hands-on Persée format.

The project was designed by MB&F creative designer Maximilian Maertens and crafted by Maison Alcée. It does not ask an owner to manufacture or finish the parts. Instead, the experience is in assembling them in a prescribed sequence, learning how the mechanism works while turning a carefully prepared collection of components into a running clock.

Turning Persée on its side

Nostromo begins with Maison Alcée's Persée assembly concept but changes its stance. The clock is turned on its side and rests on three organic-looking feet, angling the display upwards. It can also be rotated on those feet, allowing the owner to change its orientation on a desk or shelf.

That physical arrangement helps the collaboration avoid looking like a simple colour or logo exercise. The open structure, circular dial and exposed wheel train are tied together by the sculptural base. It has the mechanical transparency expected from an assembly kit, but the silhouette is deliberately closer to the objects that populate M.A.D.Gallery than to a conventional mantel clock.

Maison Alcée estimates about ten hours for the build. Only the regulating organ arrives pre-assembled, a sensible boundary for a kit intended to be completed outside a watchmaking workshop. The remaining components are assembled by the owner using the included professional tools and instructions. An art book also accompanies the kit, adding context to the design and the process.

Most of the parts are made in the French and Swiss Jura. Brass is used for the gears, while Maison Alcée specifies 316 stainless steel for the baseplate, dial, axles, gears and base. The bushes are nickel silver and the spacers are also 316 stainless steel. Taken together, those material choices make Nostromo a substantial mechanical object rather than a disposable model-building exercise.

Maison Alcée was founded in 2021 by Alcée and Benoît Montfort around the idea of a mechanical clock that its owner could assemble. That history makes the division of labour here easy to understand. Maison Alcée supplies the kit format and the production knowledge, while Maertens gives this edition a form developed for the MB&F collaboration. The finished design is new, but the assembly experience rests on an established platform.

Fourteen days between windings

Once assembled and regulated, Nostromo indicates the hours, minutes and seconds. It also includes an optional hour chime, so the owner can choose whether the clock announces the passing hours. The movement has a stated power reserve of 14 days, keeping the winding ritual occasional rather than daily.

Its completed dimensions are 160mm by 123mm by 135mm. Those proportions make it compact enough for a desk, yet large enough for the wheel train and individual construction details to remain visible. The upward angle is especially useful at that scale, placing the display in a more natural sight line when the clock sits below eye level.

There is an appealing loop to the way the product has been conceived. MB&F has long treated mechanics as a visual subject, while Maison Alcée turns mechanical construction into the ownership experience. Nostromo combines both ideas: the design remains visible after the ten-hour assembly is finished, and the act of building gives the final object a personal history that a factory-complete clock could not offer.

The included equipment is important to that promise. Buyers are not expected to improvise with household tools or hand the difficult stages back to a workshop. The professional tools, instructions and prepared components define a controlled route through the build, while the pre-assembled regulating organ removes the most delicate specialist operation from the owner's task.

The collaboration is also appropriately specific to the M.A.D.Gallery anniversary. It celebrates the gallery through an object rather than commemorative dial text. The forms draw on MB&F's creative language, while the kit and its method belong clearly to Maison Alcée. Neither contributor disappears behind the other's name.

Pricing and availability

Nostromo is limited to 50 pieces and is listed by MB&F at CHF 12,000 excluding taxes. The collaboration page states an October to November 2026 lead time. It currently shows no available inventory, so prospective buyers should confirm ordering and delivery directly rather than assuming immediate stock.

No Australian price or local distribution arrangement has been announced. The small production run, included tooling and long assembly experience position Nostromo as a specialist collector object, but the most important distinction is simpler: the buyer receives the responsibility, and satisfaction, of making the clock run.