Company profile: Montblanc was founded in 1906 in Hamburg as a company making pens. In 1977 it was bought by Dunhill, and subsequently became part of the Richemont Group. Montblanc Montre S.A. was founded in 1997 in Le Locle, Switzerland, manufacturing timepieces. In 2006, the Richemont Group purchased the Fabrique d’Horlogerie Minerva SA (founded 1858), with…
You think you’ve seen this watch somewhere before? In a way you’re right, because it is very similar to the Jaeger-LeCoultre Master Calendar (reference 1558420) launched in 2013 and replaced this year by the Jaeger-LeCoultre Master Calendar Meteorite Dial. Comparison with the Jaeger-LeCoultre Master Calendar The similarities aren’t just visual: the Montblanc piece is (like…
This watch is a limited edition version of the Montblanc Heritage Chronométrie ExoTourbillon Minute Chronograph, basically the same watch, but with a sapphire caseback decorated with a drawing of the São Gabriel, the ship that Vasco da Gama used for his pioneering voyage to India in 1497. In addition, the upper part of the dial…
There has been a lot of talk about the Apple Watch following its presentation on Monday 9 March 2015, and in particular about the 18-carat gold Apple Watch Edition whose price starts at $10,000. At first sight, that sort of price puts it into the luxury product bracket, where Apple would like to be. The…
This is a good example of Montblanc’s push to make complication watches more accessible. €38,000 sounds a lot, but for this sort of watch is an extraordinarily low price when compared to most tourbillons, particularly considering that it features the ExoTourbillon, a Montblanc exclusive rather different from the normal tourbillon, and a monopusher chronograph, with…
Montblanc’s products for 2015 confirm the brand’s strategy of attacking the market on two fronts, high-priced complication watches with in-house movements (reflecting the Villeret manufacturing unit, previously Minerva, where watches are made by hand using antique machinery) and very competitively-priced pieces based on third-party movements with small additional complications. The Montblanc Heritage Chronométrie Dual Time…
The Montblanc Bohème Perpetual Calendar Jewellery was first presented in August 2014 in Shanghai and so it was also part of Montblanc’s watches highlighted at SIHH in January 2015. It is the women’s version of the men’s perpetual calendar watch that caused a real surprise at SIHH in 2014, becoming the world’s most accessible perpetual…
At SIHH (January 2015) Montblanc confirmed their power and prowess as a watch brand, with an exceptional collection of new products ranging from sophisticated pieces with in-house movements developed at their Villeret manufacture, previously the historic brand Minerva, to watches with third-party movement and modern design to appeal to a younger section of the market.…
Bentley is a watch brand founded in La Chaux-de-Fonds, Switzerland, in 1948, and it now makes quartz and mechanical watches. Its new products that will be presented at Baselworld 2015 include the Bourbon Power Reserve, a limited-edition piece with a gold case and alligator straps. The dial has a guilloché finish, and it has a…
In a brief press release issued on 4 March 2015, the Swatch group said that the District Court of Amsterdam “set aside” the arbitration award issued on 21 December 2013, on “purely formal reasons” that have been contested by the Swatch Group, who will file an appeal. The final decision will be taken by the…
It is very refreshing to see from time to time a watch that operates using a completely new system and a new way of displaying time. HYT pioneered the use of displaying the hours with coloured fluid in a capillary tube, pumped around by a pair of bellows, in their H1 and H2 watches. H3,…
Ornatus watches are all about the dial, hand-engraved with intricate motifs that have the timeless perfection of mandalas, recalling the rose windows of medieval churches, and the circular knot motifs that were of such fascination to Leonardo da Vinci. Each Ornatus watch is individually crafted and so the purchaser develops a special relationship with the…
At Baselworld, running from 19 to 26 March, Junghans will be presenting models of its Meister range in new colours. The brand has provided an anticipation of what will be seen in Basel with the Meister Chronoscope, in a deep blue sheen which Junghans poetically say is based on the colour that “can be observed…
The Geneva Motor Show runs at Palexpo in Geneva from 5 to 15 March 2015, and the exhibitors include watch brand TAG Heuer who will be returning to the same venue four days after the car show has ended, for Baselworld from 19 to 26 March. To mark its presence at the Motor Show, TAG…
This is a watch that demonstrates the depth of Jaeger-LeCoultre, whose range includes superb classical models, dress watches, jewellery watches, sports watches, and super-technical pieces such as this. The Master Compressor Extreme LAB 2 was originally launched in 2010, and this year a new version has been presented, with blue highlights instead of red, a…