Martin Smith (Laikingland) – Solar Orbiter (MB&F M.A.D.Gallery – 15th Anniversary)

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First Impressions

• The Solar Orbiter is a sculptural watch winder created by Martin Smith of Laikingland, commissioned by MB&F for the M.A.D.Gallery’s 15th anniversary.
• Smith designed and produced the piece in his West Yorkshire studio, working through three successive prototypes before arriving at the final object.
• Materials include brass, aluminium and painted steel; polished brass and aluminium contrast with painted steel surfaces across the finished piece.
• An internal gear-and-linkage system ensures the watch rotates in the correct orientation for winding, while a locking pin mechanism keeps the watch securely held during rotation.
• Smith’s first delivery to the M.A.D.Gallery took place in September 2011, making this commission a genuine fifteen-year relationship rather than a commemorative arrangement.

A Fifteen-Year Creative Partnership

The M.A.D.Gallery (Maximilian’s Art & Design Gallery) has always operated at the intersection of horology and kinetic art, presenting sculptural objects alongside MB&F‘s mechanical watches. Marking fifteen years of that proposition called for something more considered than a commemorative certificate, and the decision to return to Martin Smith was both logical and personal. Smith traces his introduction to MB&F founder Max Büsser to a period before the gallery itself existed, when Büsser purchased one of Smith’s existing works and began discussing the concept of a gallery devoted to art machines. Their first commercial transaction was recorded in September 2011.

Over the years that followed, the gallery introduced Smith’s kinetic sculptures to collectors who had no prior connection to the world of contemporary art objects. Several of those collectors subsequently commissioned private pieces directly from Smith, including large-scale garden and architectural installations. For Smith, the relationship provided the rare creative latitude to develop work that a conventional gallery structure would rarely support, effectively functioning as a research-and-development partner as much as a retail outlet.

Designing the Solar Orbiter

The initial brief given to Smith was deliberately open: create a kinetic object that signals fifteen years of the M.A.D.Gallery. Smith had been developing a series of wind-powered works at the time, and the idea of the sun emerged naturally from that research. A piece he had recently produced for a perfume brand served as the conceptual starting point, capturing where his thinking on smaller mechanical objects stood. He brought that idea to Büsser with a specific refinement: because the occasion marked fifteen years, the machine would complete fifteen orbits around a central solar form.

The conversation quickly expanded. Rather than a purely decorative orbit, the team identified an opportunity to incorporate a functional watch-winding mechanism into the rotating arm. The Solar Orbiter would carry an MB&F watch and wind it as it moved, transforming an anniversary gift into a working instrument. That shift in ambition drove the development from a first proportional prototype through to a second approval model and ultimately a third, more resolved version in which materials, geometry and mechanical movement were finalised together.

Mechanical Challenges in the Final Prototype

Ensuring that the watch held within the rotating arm maintained the correct winding orientation throughout each orbit required a gear-and-linkage solution built into the sculpture’s structure. A static central gear allows a secondary gear to walk along its circumference, producing one watch rotation for every full rotation of the piece. The watch and its holder together weigh approximately half a kilogram, so the mechanism was engineered to carry that mass smoothly through the full range of movement without play or vibration.

Security was an equally pressing concern. Placing a high-value MB&F watch on a continuously rotating arm introduced obvious risks, and the final piece incorporates a locking lever that drives a small pin into the watch cushion. The watch cannot be removed or dislodged while the machine is in motion. The solution required iterative testing across the prototyping stages, with each version refining both the locking geometry and the overall balance of the arm. Collectors who follow MB&F’s broader range of mechanical pieces, including the LM Sequential Flyback EVO and the LM101 EVO NYC, will recognise the same commitment to mechanical problem-solving applied here to an object that extends beyond the wrist.

Smith’s Studio and Future Work

Laikingland operates from a studio in West Yorkshire that Smith describes as a hybrid between a creative workshop, an engineering space and a prototype facility. Everything he releases publicly is produced there, from small tabletop mechanisms to large public installations. The Solar Orbiter sits within the smaller-scale machines strand of his practice, though the engineering demands of the watch-winding function pushed it considerably beyond the complexity of previous pieces in that category.

Looking ahead, Smith is developing a large kinetic rainbow for a private client, described as a highly mechanical and deliberately chaotic piece expected to materialise within a couple of years. His series of kinetic trees is also growing in scale and ambition, with the articulated movement in the tips of branches and twigs becoming progressively more complex. The M.A.D.Gallery relationship continues to channel his smaller mechanical works to an audience of collectors who appreciate the overlap between functional engineering and sculptural form. The full film is available on the official MB&F YouTube channel.

Why It Matters

For collectors in the GCC who follow MB&F’s output, the Solar Orbiter illustrates how the brand extends its mechanical philosophy beyond watchmaking into objects designed to live alongside a collection. The M.A.D.Gallery’s fifteen-year commitment to kinetic art and precision engineering speaks directly to the Gulf’s growing community of collectors who value sculptural objects with genuine mechanical substance, not merely decorative intent.

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