BY DHANANJAY PATHAK
With SIHH 2019 slated to commence on 14th January 2019, the excitement is starting to build up as participating brands have begun taking the veil off their upcoming releases which would be showcased during the event. So, what we have for you today are some SIHH 2019 novelties from MontBlanc’s Star Legacy collection. The Star Legacy line of watches from Mont Blanc are traditional looking dressy timepieces and there are five new watches would be added to this line up next year: the Star Legacy Automatic Date 39mm, the Star Legacy Automatic Date 42mm, the Star Legacy Full Calendar, and two new Star Legacy Nicolas Rieussec Chronographs. So, let’s have a brief look at these new offerings.
Montblanc Star Legacy Date 39mm and 42mm
First up we have the simplest and classiest looking watch of the new lot, the Montblanc Star Legacy date. The white dial features an intricate Guilloche pattern that adds a lot of personality to the watch and also provides a perfect backdrop for the applied black Roman numerals. There is a date window above 6, which is a certainly much better placed in comparison to those 3 o’clock dates, but we do feel that this dial would have looked cleaner and more elegant without the date. The hour and minute hands are leaf-shaped whereas the second’s hand is a slender baton with a counterbalance shaped like the brand’s logo. Rendered in blue the entire handset is well proportioned and provides a nice contrast to the white background. Dimensions play a very important part in case of a dress watch and it is good to see that Mont Blanc has kept that in my mind by creating 2 separate variations of this timepiece: a 39mm version for small/medium wrists and a 42mm variant for larger wrist sizes.
All in all, the Montblanc Star Legacy is a discreet looking watch with a timeless design that would never go out of fashion. The Star Legacy 39mm is priced at $3,050 whereas the 42mm version would retail at $3,160. Both models would come mated to a blue Pelletteria sfumato leather strap.
Montblanc Star Legacy Full Calendar
Next, we have the Star Legacy Full Calendar, the elder and feature-rich sibling of the Legacy date. The white Guilloche dial shares the same basic setup as the Legacy date which includes the applied Roman numerals as well as the blued handset, but with a few more extras. Firstly we have the date, which has been implemented here using the cleverer and more traditional pointer date mechanism. Instead of having a date disc, the 31 dates have been printed around the central guilloche area and the date can be read using the red disc tipped pointer hand. Then come the day and month of the year which has been neatly placed in two separate windows just below the Montblanc branding. Finally to complete the set of calendar complications we have a moon phase display just above the brand’s logo at 6. And while there is a lot of action taking place on this dial, I would really like to applaud Montblanc for the implementation, keeping the dial clean and highly legible. The fully polished case on the Montblanc Star Legacy is aptly sized at 42mm and features an extra pusher at 4 to facilitate changing the date.
So, in case you are on the lookout for a dress watch which is packed to the gills, the Montblanc Star Legacy could be of interest to you. The watch would once again come attached to a blue Pelletteria sfumato leather strap and would be priced at $4,820
Montblanc Star Legacy Nicolas Rieussec Chronograph
Last but not least, we have the most distinctive and intriguing new Star legacy model, the Nicolas Rieussec chronograph. The anthracite dial is an amalgam of several different finishes giving it an ornate look. But the real beauty of this dial lies in the way the different functionalities have been presented in a unique layout. The main timekeeping functions are taken care of by an off-center circular section finished in matt, which has been divided into two layers: the upper layer that keeps track of the minutes and hours along with a day/night indicator at 9, and the bottom layer which is used to track a second time zone with the GMT hand and hourly spaced white dots. The chronograph minutes sub-register and the running seconds have been presented in the form of tow rotating satin finished discs, both of which can be read simultaneously using a centrally mounted double index. Completing this dial is a large date window at the bottom, which is quite easy to read and has also been nicely framed keeping it in sync with the aesthetics of this dial.
Being 44.8mm wide and around 15mm thick, the Montblanc Star Legacy Nicolas Rieussec Chronograph is a not a watch that is going to shy away under those cuffs but is rather going to make its presence felt on the wearer’s wrist. The stainless model would put you down by $10,200 and the 18kt red gold model would cost $22,650. Visit Montblanc here.
