By Harlan Chapman-Green
Recently Montblanc’s been showing us a side that we haven’t seen in a long time with its watches. It’s brought back that verve, passion, the go go for great watches. Sometimes companies lose this for a bit, perhaps it’s not my place to say it but although the new Rolex YachtMaster 40 Everose Gold watch with the new strap is pretty handsome it’s not very ambitious, even for Rolex. Recently Montblanc seems to have woken up, remembered that they are Montblanc, one of THE go-to companies for luxury accessories such as cufflinks and pens as well as watches, and gotten to work on making some great pieces, the Heritage Chronométrie Ultra Slim is just one example from this year, but now it’s time to look forward to the new year.
One thing Montblanc with recent watches has done which has helped to no end is the cleaning up of its dials, by this, I mean making them very legible and following a set trend. This new classic inspired dress watch featuring a chronograph and an annual calendar, or to give it its proper name, Heritage Chronométrie Chronograph Quantième Annuel, has ten hands on the dial, making it a challenge for Montblanc to, as it were, ‘keep it clean’.
One of the main ways a watch company can do this is by utilizing colours on hands. Some watches make use of red or yellow, but as is the case with most golden watches the new Montblanc to both accentuate and differentiate. The accentuating part is easy to work out, but differentiation requires the viewer to put some grey matter to use. Every hand that is blued, with the exception of the subdial at six, is a register for the chronograph that’s been superimposed on another hand. The golden hands show the time and relating functions, in this case, an annual calendar. There’s a day of the week, date and month indicator all contained within three subdials. An annual calendar can always be accentuated further by the addition of a moonphase which Montblanc has thought of. Unlike the usual wheel type, this rotary indicator is pretty cool, displaying the four main stages of our most notorious satellite.
The movement inside this watch is an automatic winding caliber MB25.09 which runs at 4Hz and has a power reserve of 42 hours. The movement is cased inside a rose gold case which is 42mm in diameter and 13.83mm thick. The Montblanc Laboratory 500 Test (much like the Jaeger Le-Coultre 1000 Hour Control, only half as long) ensures that the movement is robust. For $20,500 this watch is really a great buy if you want more complication for less buck without compromise. For more info, please visit montblanc.com
HARLAN CHAPMAN-GREEN – CONTRIBUTING EDITOR
A keen bass guitar player, Harlan enjoys all the perks modern watchmaking technologies the industry has to offer. Although you might catch him sampling Omegas or the odd Rolex, Harlan loves all things Haute Horology, with his three favourite brands being Breguet, A.Lange & Söhne and Vacheron Constantin. He hopes to study timekeeping more in depth someday and will never be able to thank his father enough for introducing him to the industry. You can follow him on Instagram Read his articles here
