My guest this week on Forward Momentum is watchmaker Stephen McDonnell, who is the creator behind the MB&F Legacy Machine Perpetual, Legacy Machine Perpetual EVO, and the MB&F Legacy Machine Sequential Evo. He is an incredible watchmaker, a genius, and an incredible storyteller who has gotten to live his passion. He’s the type of watchmaker who when people meet, they stop and listen to him, really listen to him. He has so much knowledge and love for watchmaking that it has nearly driven him mad. His passion is so evident in how he talks about watchmaking and his history with loving clocks and watches. He loves to learn about these technologies and think about how he can revolutionize watchmaking.
Stephen was one of the guys Peter Speake-Marin called when Max Büsser needed help with his Horological Machine 1. Stephen describes his journey into watchmaking, how watchmaking can sometimes be like being trapped in hell, and how ideas sometimes come from mysterious places. Stephen highlights how important it is to have technical knowledge about watches, and how with that technical knowledge you can fall more deeply in love with the watches in your collection.
Stephen is obsessed with watchmaking, and admits that forces he can neither understand or control drive him down the path of watchmaking. He’s fascinating - he has loads of stories, he’s been there and done that, and he is so humble about his work. Stephen loves Harrison’s Marine Chronometers, and I have no doubt Stephen will be mentioned in the history of watchmaking alongside Harrison. He’s a deep thinker, he’s an incredibly smart watchmaker, and he’s a guy you’d love to have a beer with. It is my pleasure to welcome Stephen McDonnell to Forward Momentum.
Time callouts:
2:00 - Getting his first clock to repair
6:20 - Going to WOSTEP
8:00 - Becoming a WOSTEP instructor and Kari Voutilainen’s Teaching Assistant
9:00 - Repair Clocks and bicycles, and being interested in Steam Engines
10:00 - Being Pre-programmed for watchmaking
12:00 - Teaching at WOSTEP and becoming an independent
13:50 - Peter Speake-Marin
15:00 Designing watches for his first watch & learning CAD
19:50 - Creating the LM Perpetual
24:48 - Designing a mew perpetual calendar - Rethinking the old system
27:00 - Designing the mechanical processor
28:16 - How to develop a watch from an idea - “You start with the bit that is most likely to go wrong.”
34:34 - Prototyping
40:04 - Fabrication and building small parts
43:15 - Taking responsibility for the work
45:00 - How the MB&F Legacy Machine Perpetual Failed, and how Stephen fixed it
52:52 - Watchmaking is an addiction, with all the negative connotations of an addiction
55:45 - Putting his workshop together
56:00 Being a true independent watchmaker
57:25 - Being reactive as a watchmaker
1:01:50 - Harrison’s Clocks
1:12:04 - What Stephen wishes you knew about watchmaking
