The professional Minerva watches from the 1920s and 30s that were used in the military and for mountain exploration have now inspired the new 1858 collection by Montblanc, as it pays tribute to the 160 years of the Minerva Manufacture and its extraordinary heritage.
Montblanc's parent company Richemont had acquired Minerva in 2007 and transferred it onto the charge, and balance sheet, of Montblanc.
These Minerva watches were legendary. Highly accurate, legible and robust for use in extreme conditions. They are the perfect inspiration for this new collection, which celebrates and aims to embody 'The Spirit of Exploration'.
The new collection comprises of five different designs: 40mm automatic watches and 42mm chronographs, a 42mm Manufacture Worldtime Geosphere, a slender 40mm wristwatch with a 13-line monopusher chronograph movement, and a new multiple-purpose pocket watch with a 24-hour indication and equipped with a 16-line monopusher chronograph movement.
The Automatic, Chronographs and Geosphere models are also water-resistant to 100 meters, ensuring performance in all environments.
Distinctive aesthetics, innovative complications, a mix of materials and a choice of different case sizes - there's plenty to choose from from within this vintage-exploration inspired new line.
For example, the Worldtime Geosphere sees the combination of a special alloy of bronze that evolves over time, with innovative and useful in-house complications.
Cases are satin-finished and horns have been slimmed down with polished, beveled edges, allowing for a more comfortable and sleeker fit around the wrist. Fluted crowns also add to the throwback nostalgia of the period timepieces.
On the dial, luminescent cathedral-shaped hands with "cloisonné" design have been slightly domed and colour-contrasted, Arabic numerals coated with SuperLumiNova®, railway minute tracks have been added along with the original Montblanc logo from the 1930s era with its historical font and emblem of the Mont Blanc Mountain.
Each timepiece is unique thanks to the use of living materials such as bronze cases and aged calfskin leather straps.
Montblanc Pelletteria, the Maison's centre of leather excellence where ancestral craftsmanship, state of the art technology and enduring design come together, are responsible for a distinctive range of vintage straps, such as Bund strap, that match the aesthetical codes of the collection.
Also available are high-quality woven "NATO" straps, handcrafted in France at a traditional weaving manufacture that has been in production for over 150 years.
To give it that extra assurance of robustness, all the Montblanc 1858 models undergo over 500 hours of simulated wear, with specific testing and controls under extreme conditions.
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