Montblanc Flexes Its Heritage at Watches & Wonders

Jeremy Freed April 15, 2024

Montblanc’s presentation at Watches & Wonders speaks to its status as one of the world’s most ambitious and underrated watchmakers. The brand, of course, is best known for its pens like the iconic Meisterstück, which have been the writing instrument of choice for world leaders and titans of industry for more than a century. Montblanc is, however, no less adept when it comes to timepieces thanks to its acquisition of famed Swiss watchmaker Minerva in 2007. The new watches revealed in Geneva this past week, which range from ultra-deep divers to a museum-worthy skeletonized monopusher chronograph, encapsulate what Montblanc does best.  

Montblanc 1858 The Unveiled Minerva Monopusher Chronograph

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A truly impressive level of thought and innovation went into this limited edition, which features five apertures in the case that illuminate the hand-finished manually wound movement from all sides. The monopusher chronograph movement, which is something of a Minerva signature, has been built on pillars and flipped back-to-front, all the better to allow an unobstructed view of all 291 components through the sapphire crystal. Other details like the white gold fluted bezel (a nod to a historic 1920s design), the distinctive arrow emblem, and the Maison’s signature “V”-shaped bridge all speak to Minerva’s heritage. Limited to 100 pieces.

Montblanc Iced Sea 0 Oxygen Deep 4810

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Following the launch of the Iced Sea Collection, a line of diver’s watches with distinctive “frozen” dials, in 2022, Montblanc goes deeper with the Iced Sea 0 Oxygen Deep 4810. Rated water resistant to 4,810 meters – the height of the brand’s namesake mountain – it brings a new level of performance and aesthetic detail to the collection. As the name implies, the 43mm titanium case is hermetically sealed and oxygen-free, which both prevents fogging at sub-zero temperatures and prevents corrosion over time. Also per its name, the case back is decorated with a 3D engraving of a diver’s eye view of sea ice and the dial is laser-engraved with a likeness of the Mer de Glace, one of Mont Blanc’s largest glaciers.

Montblanc Iced Sea Automatic Date

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The Iced Sea diver’s watch collection gets a further update with two new case and dial combinations: a stainless-steel version with a burgundy glacier pattern dial, and one with a black glacier pattern and a case made from a unique bronze-tone alloy. Both dials are finished using Montblanc’s gratté-boisé technique to give them their namesake icy texture, and stamped with a new Montblanc Iced Sea logo inspired by a vintage Minerva export seal.

The bronze-tone model is made from cupro aluminum, an alloy of aluminum and copper that offers the same unique patination as bronze with superior resistance to corrosion and rust, with a new bi-colour unidirectional anodized aluminum bezel whose rich shade of brown complements the case alloy’s golden glow. The other, whose burgundy dial is said to be inspired by the setting sun glinting off a glacier, is paired with a black ceramic unidirectional bezel and fitted with an interchangeable stainless-steel bracelet.