Clock and mechanical artist, Mr. Miki Eleta, is a person we very much admire and whose work has really inspired and amazed us. We last discussed Miki Eleta when his work was featured at the MB&F MAD Gallery in Geneva, and as a surprise for 2015, he has introduced his first watches. The Miki Eleta Timeburner is a new type of exotic timepiece, with a movement dial, and heavily inspired by engines – namely motorcycle engines. At launch, there will be three versions of the Timeburner watch and even though it is a limited production timepiece I don’t believe it will be stratospherically priced.
Miki Eleta worked with AHCI member Marc Jenni on the production of the movement for the Timeburner. The movement works off of a base Swiss ETA 6497 manually wound movement, which has a special system on it that uses a piston rod-style hand to indicate the minutes along a sort of linear scale to the left of the dial. The right side of the dial has a disc which indicates the hour. It is, of course, extremely “automotive,” directly inspired by the combustion engine. While I want to reserve any final thoughts until I have been able to check out the watch in person, I find the concept intriguing to say the least, and I like the steampunk elements as well.
For 2015, Miki Eleta and Marc Jenni will produce three limited edition versions of the Timeburner watch as the Silverlight ME1, Chrome-Rider ME2, and the All-Black ME3. The models have some different dial or finishing options, but share the same steel and unfinished bronze cases that are 48mm wide. The All-Black ME3 has some black rhodium-coated black elements as well.
The base 6497 Unitas movement in the Timeburner operates at 18,000 bph with a power reserve of about 46 hours. Like I said above, I have the feeling the Timeburner’s time-telling system will be pleasant to use for this very interesting watch that I never saw coming from Mr. Eleta. Also, and while I am not yet quite sure what this means, Miki Eleta claims that some of the coatings are actually chrome-finished.
Each of the three Miki Eleta Timeburber ME1, ME2, and ME3 watch will be limited to just 99 pieces each for 99 and I look forward to seeing more of these hands-on soon. Price is a reasonable 7,750 Swiss Francs. timeburner.ch
Keep up with our pre-, post-, and live Baselworld 2015 coverage here.