Tag

Montblanc

Browsing
Featured Events

Madison Avenue Watch Week Begins April 30

Madison Avenue watch boutiques welcome watch collectors, connoisseurs and the curious during the 10th Annual Madison Avenue Watch Week, which starts April 30 and runs through May 4.

Visitors can stroll the avenue to see the newest timepieces and can participate in educational sessions, watchmaking workshops and dynamic discussions around the most important topics in the watch world today.

Jaeger-LeCoutre Watch Workshop at the watchmaker’s Madison Avenue boutique.

The 10th Annual Madison Avenue Watch Week is organized by the Madison Avenue Business Improvement District, its leading watch brands and boutiques, and for the first time, in partnership with the Fondation de la Haute Horlogerie (FHH). The event is also held in association with the Horological Society of New York and RedBar.

The public is invited to experience the new and iconic timepieces in special viewings at the twelve participating watch stores located on Madison Avenue between East 57th and East 75th Streets.

The Week kicks-off with celebratory opening night receptions on Tuesday, April 30 from 6 to 8pm. A spirited panel discussion will take place on Thursday, May 2 at 9am, when industry experts will review the most exciting launches from Watches and Wonders Geneva, explore how vintage watches of the past are inspiring today’s designs, and share their insights on what the future holds for collectors and connoisseurs. That will be followed by the annual Madison Avenue Watch Week Walk – a stroll up the Avenue to visit participating boutiques with the experts to experience the novelties first-hand.

For further details on opening night, watch-related programming and events, see   https://madisonavenuewatchweek.com/

 

Highlights of Madison Avenue Watch Week

A. Lange & Söhne will provide the opportunity to learn about the history of the brand while experiencing the craftsmanship through a live demonstration on one of its in-house movements and a dialog with one of our own watchmakers flown in from Glashütte, Germany. By appointment only.

Apple will curate your own Today at Apple Watch session. Learn ways to personalize and utilize for your business. By appointment.

Breitling Boutique celebrates the 140th anniversary a special vintage collection of watches that highlight Breitling’s innovation since 1884.

The Breitling Superocean Heritage 57 Highlands.

Buccellati will share its extraordinary timepiece history and present a special showing in its gallery setting.

Davide Cenci will host an “Off The Cuff” fashion showing moderated by Michael Macko pairing men’s fashion with a curated collection of vintage watches presented by Element iN Time NYC.

Element iN Time NYC will display its vast collection of vintage and modern timepieces from assorted Swiss manufactures. Book an appointment to view to a private collection of Clocks and Watches and meet the collector, a former UN Diplomat who has been hunting them worldwide for 50 years. By appointment only.

IWC Portugieser Chronograph Obsidian

IWC Schaffhausen will present a panel discussion: How a Watch Stays Eternally Relevant, for an exploration of the IWC Portugieser and how it has remained an icon for 85 years – and private, small group product presentations of the newest timepieces just unveiled at Watches and Wonders Geneva.

Jaeger-LeCoultre Duometre Chronograph Moon.

Jaeger-LeCoultre offers a series of Watchmaking Masterclasses led by an expert watchmaker. Participants will actively practice skills of traditional watchmaking with the opportunity to bring a timepiece to life by assembling a mechanical movement.  Reservation required.

Montblanc celebrates the beginning of Madison Avenue Watch Week and invites watch connoisseurs to discover its curated collection of 2024 Watch Novelties by private appointment with a Montblanc watch specialist.

Ralph Lauren will have on view a specially curated timepiece collection for Madison Avenue Watch Week.

The 1916 Company presents exclusive F.P. Journe and De Bethune Watches & Wonders Open House Exhibitions as well as F.P. Journe and Bethune Education Sessions with Jack Forster, George Mayer and Tim Mosso.

 

Source: Madison Avenue Watch Week

by
Keep Reading
Featured News

Watches and Wonders 2023: Montblanc Tells a Story

By Nancy Olson

Storytelling and imagery are important players in communication, creating connection, emotion and, as a result, remembrance.

Watches and Wonders 2023 in Geneva was rife with stories, often told most dramatically by the watch brands’ respective exhibit space. From the fantasy of jewels at Van Cleef & Arpels to A. Lange & Sohne’s Odysseus Chronograph, there was a lot to take in and even more to inspire.

The Montblanc booth at Watches and Wonders 2023 featured an oversized nib as a pendulum.

Walking into the Montblanc booth, for example, was like entering a mountain landscape, where shades of gray, white and wood conjured the primary palette and motif of this year’s watch debuts. The bold imagery also served as a link between the art of writing—Montblanc’s foundation in pens since 1906—time, and the theme of exploration. And owing to the brand’s reputation in handcrafting its pen points, the centerpiece was a dramatic oversize Montblanc nib pendulum, which uninterruptedly drew mountain scenes on a round canvas suggestive of a watch dial.

Each watch in the new Montblanc 1858 Zero Oxygen 8000 Capsule Collection features a Sfumato dark grey Glacier pattern dial, replicating the color of the rock and ice at 8,000 meters.

Montblanc’s Managing Director Watch Division Laurent Lecamp emphasized the importance of imagery and storytelling to share important themes. “Story is the soul of the world of Montblanc,” he explained to me during our recent interview. Thus the company often engages high-profile individuals, fans of the brand, to help recount the narrative.

The back of the Montblanc 1858 Geosphere 0 Oxygen 8000 pictures K2, the world’s second-highest mountain.

Reinhold Messner and Nimsdai Purja, mountaineers and Montblanc “Mark-Makers,” inspired Montblanc’s intricate art-inspired booth space, as well as the new watches in the collection. Even the walls told a tale, incorporating the men’s words taken from their written accounts of climbing expeditions.

The new Montblanc 1858 Geosphere 0 Oxygen The 8000, with MB 29.25 automatic worldtime movement.
This Montblanc 1858 Iced Sea Automatic Date Boutique Edition comes in a 41mm stainless steel case.

Following suit, the 1858 Zero Oxygen The 8000 watch collection on display for the first time revealed colors that recall the rock and ice found at high altitudes, made using zero oxygen technology.

The new Montblanc 1858 Geosphere Chronograph 0 Oxygen The 8000 LE 290 44mm .

All four of the Montblanc 1858 Zero Oxygen 8000 Capsule Collection debuts join Montblanc’s Zero Oxygen series. The collection’s  timepieces boast zero oxygen inside their cases to not only eliminate fogging, but also to prevent oxidization.

The new Montblanc 1858 Unveiled Secret Minerva Monopusher Chronograph LE 88. Inside is a reversed Minerva caliber.

Taking the imagery one step further, the very beautiful and complex Montblanc Unveiled Secret Minerva Monopusher Chronograph, while not specifically among the 8000 Capsule Collection models, nonetheless displays a distressed steel case created partly by tumbling and brushing the metal with quartzite straight from the company’s namesake mountain, Mont Blanc.

 

 

by
Keep Reading
The Watches

Montblanc Meets Manga

By Nancy Olson

The Japanese manga and anime series “Naruto” is the inspiration for Montblanc’s latest Summit 3 smart watch.

The Montblanc x Naruto features engravings of Naruto‘s signature weapons on the watch case. Its leather strap embossed with the Konohagakure symbol.

The series, created by Japanese artist and storyteller Masashi Kishimoto, became part of the zeitgeist twenty years ago, capturing the imaginations of people worldwide with its universal themes and relatable characters.

The limited edition Montblanc Summit 3 Smartwatch x Naruto features Naruto iconography—like engravings of the eponymous ninja’s signature weapons on the 42mm steel watch case and a Naruto-inspired embossed strap.

Similarly, the aperture at 6 o’clock on the dial frames an image of Naruto, and orange details recall the manga’s colorful presentation. “Montblanc x Naruto Shippuden” is at 12 o’clock. 

“Naruto is a cultural phenomenon that appeals across generations because it addressed life lessons in a dynamic, compelling, and accessible way,” says Montblanc CEO Nicolas Baretzki.

“One of those lessons is the value that comes from the transmission of knowledge, a theme that is closely connected to Montblanc’s own heritage in handwriting and its ongoing mission to inspire people to leave their mark on the world in a meaningful and purposeful way.”

The smart watch’s operating system is Wear OS by Google 3.0; it is compatible with iOS and Android, and it includes 1 GB of memory and 8 GB of storage. Its sensors include a heart rate monitor, as well as a barometer, accelerometer, gyroscope and more.

Summit 3 is Montblanc’s latest development in smart watches. Two straps are included with the watch: leather and rubber.

The Montblanc x Naruto capsule collection also comprises a Meisterstück fountain pen, rollerball and ballpoint, as well as orange ink and a leather notebook. New leather products, also with Naruto imagery, include crossbody bags, a tote and pouch, as well as smaller leather goods.

The Montblanc Summit 3 Smartwatch x Naruto is priced at $1,570 – $1,760.

by
Keep Reading
The Watches

Under the Radar: The Montblanc 1858 Iced Sea Automatic Date

 

All week we’re reviewing 2022 debuts presented during Watches and Wonders 2022 that, perhaps, you didn’t read too much about in the first wave of online reporting.

As Montblanc’s first diving watch, the 1858 Iced Sea Automatic Date catches your eye with its ‘frozen’ dial. Not actually ice (though that would be impressive) the dials on all three versions of this 41mm steel dive watch artfully mimic a glacier.

Up close on the dial of the new Montblanc Iced Sea Automatic Date.

More specifically, the dial makers report that they climbed up to the glacial lakes of Mont Blanc to find their muse. Ascending via the Chamonix Valley to the Mer de Glace (Sea of Ice), Montblanc designers say they “were captivated by the texture of the glacial ice with its interlocking network of crystals that have been frozen in time for millennia.”

The dial work, made possible with an age-old technique called gratté-boisé, is stunning. The dial’s depth and intricate crags and crevices are all better when viewed live than they appear in pictures.

The new Montblanc Iced Sea Automatic Date.

And turning the watch over reveals a case back with a three-dimensional relief engraving of an iceberg and a scuba diver exploring the waters below.

As a certified diving timing instrument, conforming to the ISO 6425 norm, the 1858 Iced Sea has undergone the Montblanc Laboratory 500 Hour Test to ensure that it is shock resistant, anti-magnetic, extreme temperature resistant and water-resistant (to 300 meters). The 12.9mm-thick steel case protects an automatic Sellita movement.

This watch also includes a wet-suit adjustable v-shaped stainless-steel tapered bracelet that the wearer can easily swap for a rubber strap without the need to return to the boutique or use of any tools.

Montblanc offers the 1858 Iced Sea Automatic Date with three different dial colors, blue, green and black, each with a matching unidirectional bezel.

Prices: $2,975 to $3,190.

by
Keep Reading
The Watches

Watches and Wonders 2022: Montblanc Flips a Minerva Chronograph

Montblanc has long taken full advantage of the inherent beauty of its historic Minerva caliber MB 16.29 monopusher chronograph, displaying the movement’s fluidly interconnected bridges, plates and gears to great advantage through the back of multiple limited edition watches.

The new Montblanc 1858 Unveiled Secret Minerva Monopusher Chronograph.

With the new 1858 Unveiled Secret Minerva Monopusher Chronograph, a 2022 debut highlight offered in a steel and a ‘lime’ gold case, Montblanc flips the movement over to display all its eye-catching curves and finishes directly on the dial side of the watch.

What might appear to be a skeletonized movement is actually the side of the caliber Montblanc has typically framed for the viewer in recent debuts via a clear sapphire caseback.

In order to reverse the caliber, Montblanc added twenty-one components while retaining the caliber’s familiar Minerva arrow and the V- shaped bridge. All the German silver components are intensely polished using Montblanc’s own special snailed diamantage coquille motif and methods. And echoing vintage movement design on display, Montblanc re-introduces a fluted bezel first seen in 1927 to frame the reversed caliber.

Montblanc fits both 1858 Unveiled Secret Minerva Monopusher Chronograph models with an engraved caseback with an image of the firm’s Villeret manufacture and the v-shaped mountains in the background.

The Caliber MB M16.29 inside the new Montblanc 1858 Unveiled Secret watch.

Montblanc will issue two limited editions of eighteen and fifty-eight pieces, in Lime Gold and stainless steel respectively. The Lime Gold version comes with green hands and numerals and is attached to the wrist with a green alligator leather strap with grey stitching. The stainless-steel edition, with its white gold fluted bezel, comes with a blue alligator leather strap with blue stitching. Prices: $33,500 (steel) and $48,000 (lime gold).

 

Also new for Montblanc, as seen at Watches & Wonders 2022:

 

The Montblanc 1858 Minerva Monopusher Chronograph Red Arrow, a 42mm steel-cased column-wheel chronograph (with Caliber MB M13.21), a limited edition of 88.   Price: $30,500.

The Montblanc 1858 GMT Automatic Date (above), a 42mm two-time-zone model. Price: Starting at $3,515 and up to $4,100 for model with personalized caseback.

The Montblanc 1858 Iced Sea Automatic Date (above), a steel Montblanc dive model (the brand’s first) with special glacier-effect dial in green, black or blue. Stunning dial. Prices: $2,975 to $3,190.

The Montblanc 1958 Geosphere Chronograph 0 Oxygen, a Zero Oxygen 44mm titanium adventure watch. Price: $8,600, limited to 290 pieces.

 

We’ll show you more about these debuts in future posts.

by
Keep Reading