By Brent Robillard
Designed by MB&F’s Maximilian Maertens and delivered as a 222-component kit, the Nostromo turns a desk clock into ten hours at the watchmaker’s bench.
First contact
Buying the Maison Alcée x MB&F Nostromo starts a ten-hour appointment with 222 components. The completed clock has an alien profile, a peacock-blue dial, and three legs that look ready to carry it across the desk. But before any of that can happen, its owner has to build it.
I met the Nostromo at M.A.D.Gallery Geneva on September 1. M.A.D.Gallery was the first retailer to support Maison Alcée, and this clock was created for the gallery’s 15th anniversary. It also gave me the useful, slightly strange opportunity to meet the finished creature before imagining what it would be like to assemble one myself.
To begin, it was smaller than I imagined it would be. This is a good thing. I wondered, prior to seeing it, where in my home I would keep such an item. But it really would not look out of place on my work desk. And it would certainly transform the space. The first detail that captured my attention was the blue dial arc and then the exposed train. The press photos had prepared me for the experience, but not for the curiosity it would evoke.
A clock with assembly required
Maison Alcée was founded in 2021 by Alcée and Benoît Montfort. Its first clock, the Persée, arrives as a kit with 233 components, tools, and a 250-page illustrated instruction book. QR codes connect the owner to video guidance, while a private discussion group provides another layer of support. Some of the tools use beryllium-copper parts to reduce the chance of scratching components. This is careful hand-holding for a serious project, rather than a simplified model with a mechanical movement hidden inside.
I heard the broader philosophy behind the project from Alcée herself when we met in the salon of a home just around the corner from M.A.D.Gallery. She explained that Maison Alcée was founded to revive interest in clockmaking and watchmaking through education. The idea is rooted partly in her own childhood, when she loved building with Meccano and LEGO. Nostromo and Persée translate that instinct into horology, allowing owners to understand a mechanical movement by assembling one with their own hands.
Alcée also hopes the process will persuade people to step away from the pace of everyday life and spend meaningful time on something demanding patience and concentration. Ideally, that experience can be shared. She told us about a busy CEO who assembled one of the clocks with his son, the project giving them an opportunity to reconnect over the hours they spent together. It is a fitting story for an object built to measure time: the clock records its passage only after encouraging its owners to become more conscious of how they spend it.
The idea earned Maison Alcée the Audacity Prize at the 2023 Grand Prix d’Horlogerie de Genève. It also explains the appeal to M.A.D.Gallery. MB&F has spent years placing clocks, kinetic objects, and horological machines in the same room. The Nostromo adds participation to that mixture: the collector supplies the assembly labour and learns how the mechanism goes together along the way.
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Partners in mechanical play
The collaboration was designed by MB&F Creative Designer Maximilian Maertens and engineered for owner assembly by Maison Alcée. Maertens is an admirer of H.R. Giger, and the references are explicit. The three organic feet, exposed structure, and skeletal profile belong to the visual language of science fiction. The name comes from the commercial spacecraft in Ridley Scott’s original Alien film.
There is also a familiar MB&F habit at work here: a mechanical object is treated like a character. The Calibrated Wrist has previously looked at the automotive version of that idea in the MB&F HM8 Mark 2. Nostromo swaps bodywork for a visible gear train and insect-like stance, but the same affection for machines with personalities remains.
Nostromo, sideways
The basic movement architecture is derived from a wristwatch and enlarged to clock scale. Maertens then turned it on its side and tilted the time display upwards. The clock rests on three feet and can rotate on them, giving the owner a way to alter the viewing angle after assembly. It measures 160mm by 135mm by 123mm and weighs 760g, so this is a compact desk object rather than a mantle clock.
The separated dial segments are finished in M.A.D.Gallery’s peacock blue, a colour repeated in the decorative wall orb used in MB&F spaces. Breaking the dial into an arc opens the view across the wheels beneath it. Black hands provide contrast against the steel and brass mechanism. On the right, the regulating organ appears almost suspended within the frame; on the left, the springs and barrels balance the composition.
Ten hours and 222 parts
Nostromo shows hours, minutes, and seconds, and its hour chime can be switched on or off. A full wind provides 14 days of running time. Maison Alcée estimates that a novice can complete the assembly in about ten hours. Only the regulating organ arrives pre-assembled, leaving the owner to install the gears, wheels, pinions, dial parts, and much of the supporting structure.
The kit includes professional tools and a 250-page illustrated manual with QR-linked videos prepared specifically for the Nostromo. That book may be the most important component in the box. A 222-part mechanism creates plenty of opportunities for hesitation, and the project has to teach sequence, handling, and diagnosis without a watchmaker standing beside the bench. The finished clock records the result, but the real test of Maison Alcée’s work is whether those ten hours remain absorbing when a wheel refuses to sit where the drawing says it should.
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Specs
| Edition | Limited edition of 50 pieces |
| Functions | Hours, minutes, and seconds Hour chime with on/off control |
| Movement & Assembly | Enlarged wristwatch-derived architecture 14-day power reserve 222 components Approximately 10 hours of assembly Regulating organ supplied pre-assembled |
| Dimensions & Weight | 160mm wide 135mm deep 123mm high 760g |
| Materials | Brass gears 316 stainless-steel base plate, dial, axles, gears, base, and spacers Nickel-silver bushes |
| Display & Structure | Peacock-blue segmented dial Black hands Three rotatable organic feet |
| Presentation | Professional tools 250-page illustrated instruction book QR-linked assembly videos |
| Price & Delivery | CHF 12,000 excluding VAT Approximately $20,600 CAD before taxes and duties Listed lead time: October–November 2026 |
Maison Alcée x MB&F Nostromo
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Final thoughts
Maison Alcée charges the owner with the work that creates the closest relationship to the object. MB&F supplies a design with enough humour and oddness to make the completed mechanism worth leaving in full view. Nostromo should appeal most to the collector who wants to understand a wheel train with their fingertips, and who will accept a little anxiety as part of the pleasure.
Pricing and availability
The Maison Alcée x MB&F Nostromo is limited to 50 pieces and is priced at CHF 12,000 excluding VAT. That is approximately $20,600 CAD before applicable taxes, duties, and exchange costs. MB&F currently lists an October–November 2026 lead time. Availability is through M.A.D.Galleries and participating MB&F LABs. Further information is available on the official Nostromo page.
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About the author
Brent Robillard is a writer, educator, craftsman, and watch enthusiast. He is the author of four novels. You can follow him on Instagram.
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