Montblanc
Gearing up for SIHH 2016: Montblanc
An annual calendar with chronograph function (oh yes!), a new manufacture date complication (oh my!) and a TimeWalker fitted with their patented ExoTourbillon (oh hell yes!) – that’s what Montblanc’s bringing to SIHH 2016.
And those are just the pre-SIHH announcement pieces. We’ll have to wait to see what the maison ultimately unveils at Palexpo, but for now the initial pieces – they seem to suggest a lot about we what we can expect to see from Montblanc starting, Monday.
The, oh yes!
The Montblanc Heritage Chronométrie Chronograph Quantième Annuel builds on a complication we first saw last year in the Heritage Chronométrie collection’s Quantième Annuel. Suggesting that for 2016, the masion might possibly have taken upon itself to demonstrate how it is able to build upon the present complexities we admire in Montblanc’s horological stable.
The Chronograph Quantième Annuel features hours and minutes in the centre, small seconds and date at 12 o’clock, month at 9, day at 6, and moonphase at 3. The watch’s chronograph displays start with the central seconds, 30 elapsed minutes counter at 9 o’clock and the 12 elapsed hour counter at 6.
The, oh my!
The Montblanc Heritage Chronométrie Collection Twincounter Date is a complication fresh out of the maison’s watchmaking oven. The piping hot timepiece proposes the possibility of crisp and new interpretations of familiar functions that have been cooked up for SIHH 2016, with Montblanc’s special blend of awesome-sauce.
The Montblanc Heritage Chronométrie Collection Twincounter Date boasts central hours and minutes, with running seconds at 9 o’clock, and the a date counter at 3 o’clock.
The, oh hell yes!
This is the first time we get to see Montblanc’s magnificent ExoTourbillon incorporated into a watch within the TimeWalker collection. We’ve see the maison’s patented tourbillon previously in several Heritage Chronométrie timepieces, where the mechanism took on a rather regal note owing to the general classism conveyed by the Heritage Chronométrie collection. Housed inside a TimeWalker timepiece though, the ExoTourbillon seems to have instantaneously transformed into a teeth baring beast.
Who knows? This could be a sign of more complications and functions being transposed into collections they didn’t previously appear in. A demonstration of how versatile Montblanc’s mechanism design can be within its own horological ecosystem.
The TimeWalker ExoTourbillon Minute Chronograph features off-centre hours and minutes, as well as a date counter on same axis. The ExoTourbillon is essentially is a one-minute tourbillon, with an arresting mechanism that allows for more accurate time setting. The watch’s chronograph counters are placed in semi-circles just above the ExoTourbillon.
