MB&F, a watch company that sees itself as a laboratory for unusual timekeeping creations, has come up with an equally far-out way of thanking its customers.
They are giving away a little alien to everyone who owns one of their watches.
The ‘Minimilians’ are free, but that does not mean ownership is cheap – with MB&F watches costing tens, if not hundreds of thousands of dollars, this is still a fairly exclusive club.
You do not need to buy the watch new, however, as the little aliens will be sent out to anyone who registers a serial number with the MB&F owners club, called the Tribe.
There are different little aliens for the timepieces made by MB&F since it was formed by Max Büsser (and friends) in 2005.
They were designed by another Max, MB&F designer Maximilian Maertens, who has been with the company for several years.
Maertens is responsible for the two-legged T-Rex clock – co-created with L’Epée 1839 – among others.
His inspiration for the aliens did not come from outer space, however, but from a fictional netherworld.
Maertens apparently took the big white ghost from the original Ghostbusters film as his muse.
The Minimilians have heads modeled after different watches in the MB&F collection, so there is the big-eyed Minimilian Frog or the round-faced Minimilian Aquapod.
There are 30 different aliens to cover all the MB&F creations.
MB&F says that around 1,600 watches have been made in its nearly two decades in business, and they are beginning the process of 3D-printing the aliens with the first batch due to be sent out any day.
“While many brands are diving into the digital world with blockchain,” the brand said in a statement, “MB&F prefers to stay grounded with tangible treasures, and the Minimilians are a part of that philosophy.”
The Tribe currently has around 1,100 members, and they get an option to extend the two-year guarantee on their watches by another two years.
For more information see mbandf.com/thetribe
Which Minimilian will you adopt?
