BY HARLAN CHAPMAN-GREEN
Montblanc is a maker of more than just luxury pens, leather goods and fragrances, they also make wristwatches and have done for a while. To continue their efforts in the wristwatch segment, they are presenting two new diving-style watches for 2022, known as the 1858 GMT and 1858 Iced Sea Automatic Date. Let’s take a look.
Montblanc 1858 GMT Automatic Date
The 1858 GMT is a general daily beater from the brand. It comes in a 42mm case made of stainless steel and it looks like it’s designed to take some knocks. Still, there is an elegance to its wide hands and clean dial, unlike most sporty steel watches they haven’t written entire paragraphs about it on the dial. The GMT complication is quite well hidden too. Instead of a hand, the GMT display on this watch is a red square that moves around the edge of the dial, there’s also a GMT bezel too.
The rea; beauty of Montblanc’s GMT arrangement is that it can display half-hour timezones as well, certain cities use half-hour increments if they sit directly between two timezones, it’s uncommon but not impossible. These watches feature the calibre MB 24.33, other calibres similar to this are based on a Sellita ebauche so we expect this to be too, although it’s modified for that trick GMT function. That explains the healthy price tag of $3515 on the strap or $3730 for the bracelet. This watch can even have a customised caseback, which pushes the price past $4k. Both black and blue are available.
Montblanc 1858 Iced Sea Automatic Date
The 1858 Iced Sea Automatic Date range is the more visually striking of the two. With textured dials aiming to look like the random-yet-organised formation of ice crystals. It works, especially in blue. There’s also a black version which will probably be most popular, and there’s a green one too because green is the colour of the moment. These watches are 41mm in diameter and come with 300m of water resistance. They also have chunky hands for easy visibility in low light and a unidirectional rotating bezel which is a requirement of a diving watch. Inside each watch is the MB24.17 calibre, which is definitely a Sellita movement underneath. Each watch comes with either a rubber strap for $2975 or a tapered stainless steel bracelet for $3190. Visit Montblanc here.
