ok then here goes:
command line:
noseman$ /Applications/maxwell/mxcl -mxs:/maxwellfolder/skydome.mxs -d -o:/maxwellfolder/skydome01.tga -th:16 -res:640x480 -s:15
final image (for comparison):
 
time from terminal:
[2h 56m 18s] of [16h 39m 0s] , current sampling level : 15
time from stopwatch:
1 hour 31 minutes
maxwell.log:
**********************************
MAXWELL 1_1_30_0001_alpha_   ( Engine core: rs1b ) 
  [ Physically and Unbiased Based Rendering ] 
## Scene Information ##
     44 meshes ( 37798 triangles )
## Render Information ##
  *settings: 
     resolution: 640 x 480 
  *render time:  2 hours 56 minutes 19 seconds
     normal quality mode
     target sampling level: 15
     sampling level reached: 15
MaxwellBench 1.0: 13.087601 
******************************************
What I notice is that times from the command line are 200% the real time and MaxwellBench is 50%...
That's all for now!