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.
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.
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.
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