By Meor Amri Meor Ayob
Montblanc is one of the most prolific modern watch brands to have come out of Switzerland. Since the establishment of Montblanc Montre S.A. in Le Locle, Switzerland back in 1997, Montblanc has come out with many new designs. For SIHH 2016, Montblanc recently previewed its latest offering, the Heritage Chronométrie Twincounter Date.
This is a very classic dress watch with conventional dimensions. Made out of stainless steel, the watch casing is 40 mm wide with a thickness of 9.85 mm thick. The silvery-white dial has a nice satin-finishing with sun-burst effect. The crown is located at the traditional 3 o’clock position. The surface of the crown has the highly recognisable Montblanc emblem etched on it (you can see it in the photo below). The main hands are straight sword hands with a combination of hour markers as well as prominent Arabic 12 and 6 numerals. Minor minute markers can be found at the peripheral of the dial. All the main markers and hands are plated with red gold to contrast against the silvery-white dial.
At first glance you would easily mistaken the watch to be a mono-pusher chronograph as the left and right two sub-dials with their blued sub-hands looks uncannily like chronograph counters. In reality, Montblanc utilizes a sub-dial (on the right), rather than the more traditional window aperture for the date function.
This watch is powered by Montblanc’s in-house manufactured MB 24.23 automatic calibre with a 38-hour power reserve.
An elegant alligator leather strap made by the Montblanc Pelletteria, the brand’s own leather manufacture in Florence, Italy completes the package.
To ensure quality and precision, the timepiece is certified by the Montblanc Laboratory Test 500 that simulates rigorous real-life situations for a total of 500 hours. Based on the latest information, the retail price has been set by Montblanc at Euro 2,790.
I do have to take my hat off to Montblanc for all the energy expanded thus far introducing new watches and increasing its product offering to the public. I guess for a ‘new-kid-on-the-block’, this effort is expected. Anything less would place the brand under “Specialty/Unique Brand Category” like Harry Winston or Parmigiani Fleurier instead of a “Major Brand Category” like Tissot, TAG Heuer or even Omega. To have available watches for every category from the most basic to the most complicated bejeweled timepieces takes time and energy.
I personally would not consider getting this watch. In all honesty, the design is not remotely unique. For example, Seiko has been using the same concept of a sub-dial date function under the Brightz line for many years now, in fact, there is also a sub-dial for a day function as well.
Anyway, Montblanc would have to start somewhere. At least, Montblanc is not too proud or stuck-up against starting from the bottom considering the franchise it has already built via the writing instrument division. That I respect. For more info, please visit montblanc.com
MEOR AMRI MEOR AYOB – CONTRIBUTING EDITOR
Meor Amri is a passionate watch collector from Kuala Lumpur, Malaysia. Having bitten by the horology bug in 2010, he has written extensively about the watch scene and has assembled a large collection of watches (excessively!!!) on his own free time. His blogs on the same subject are: Eastern Watch & Western Watch Read his articles here
