MONTBLANC COLLECTION VILLERET 1858 Marking Minerva‘s 150th anniversary: The Montblanc Collection Villeret 1858 with the extraordinary new face of the Grand Chronographe Régulateur.
With the Grand Chronographe Régulateur, the Montblanc Collection Villeret 1858 presents another new model that deviates strikingly from the image of the conventional wristwatch. The commitment of the Institute Minerva de Recherche en Haute Horlogerie to the tradition of authentic Swiss watchmaking should not be construed as nostalgia. On the contrary: the art of watchmaking has always relied on continuous innovation, of the kind still pursued passionately in Villeret to this day. For the Institut‘s express goal is to foster innovation and provide active support for new ideas and talent. It should therefore come as no surprise that, in addition to certain familiar elements, the latest member of the Montblanc Collection Villeret 1858 family boasts several new features that one would not necessarily associate with a traditional watchmaking workshop with a century and a half of history behind it.
The Grand Chronographe Régulateur is further proof of the innovative thrust that Montblanc has helped to instill at the Institut Minerva de Recherche en Haute Horlogerie and which it is hoped will generate one new movement every year. The most conspicuous features on the new chronograph are its regulator dial with a small hour circle at 12 o‘clock and a large centre minute hand. These are complemented by a second time zone display, a day/night indicator, a combined power reserve / winding display, the continuously running second hand and the chronograph function with monopusher operation, a large centre chronograph hand and all the other design features typically associated with the Institut Minerva de Recherche en Haute Horlogerie.
The regulator: a tribute to traditional timekeeping
Precision seconds pendulum clocks used to be found in many watchmaking workshops. Their unmistakable hallmark is the regulator dial with its large seconds and minute hands, together with a smaller subdial on which a small hand showed the hours. With their extreme accuracy and clearly visible seconds display clocks like these were an enormous help to watchmakers when adjusting the rate of their timepieces. The regulator dial therefore goes perfectly with the ‚garde-temps‘ philosophy that inspires the Institut Minerva de Recherche en Haute Horlo-gerie to make watches for the Montblanc Collection Villeret 1858.
Monopusher chronograph with column wheel control
The .30 calibre is a chronograph movement with a large centre seconds hand, a small
minute counter at 3 o‘clock and a classical column wheel with a horizontal clutch. The chronograph levers are painstakingly handmade. The ‚mise en fonction‘ is likewise carried out by hand, whereby the contact surfaces of the chronograph levers are closely observed through a magnifying glass as the various chronograph functions are checked. These, too, are then ground and polished to tolerances of hundredths of a millimeter. The steel components and chronograph bridges are manually chamfered and polished in the ‚V‘ shape typically associated with Minerva. While the levers are ground on a finely grained stone, the bridges are hand-decorated with Geneva stripes. The large, heavy screw balance with its Phillips balance spring oscillates at the classic speed of 18,000 beats per hour (2.5 Hertz), which enables the user to record times to an accuracy of one-fifth of a second. It is operated by a pushbutton in the crown, which is pressed to activate successively the start, stop and reset functions.
Second time zone and day/night display
A second time zone function is a great help to users who travel frequently. To meet this need, the Grand Chronographe Régulateur shows local time on the upper, skeletonised hour hand in the small hour circle at 12 o‘clock, while the blued hour hand below it shows the time at home. When the owner is in his home time zone, the two hands are in precisely the same position, but as soon as he changes his time zone, the local time hour hand is set to local time in one-hour steps using the button at 10 o‘clock. A small 24-hour dial with a day/night display keeps track of the time at home.
Power reserve display with winding zone indication
The watch has a genuine watchmaking innovation in the shape of a large power reserve display in the lower half of the dial, where two indicators provide two important pieces of information about the movement‘s running time. When enough power still remains, the two hands are precisely superimposed and indicate the remaining power reserve. When tension in the mainspring reaches a low point (French ‚bas‘), the upper hand remains static while the lower, red hand moves into the red area, indicating that the watch needs to be wound again by hand. This called for a mechanism consisting of 19 individual parts and has been pending for patent.
Collector‘s items in a limited edition
The Grand Chronographe Régulateur timepieces in the Montblanc Collection Villeret 1858 will be produced in strictly limited editions: unique pieces in platinum and editions of eight watches in 18 K white gold and eight in 18 K rose gold. The white and rose gold watches feature hand-guilloched gold dials with grooved patterning that creates a fascinating play of light. The cases are polished on all sides and have a convex bezel holding a high-domed sapphire glass with vertical sides falling away sharply. Closing firmly over the screw-in sapphire glass back cover is a hinged cover. This can be opened using a patented mechanism on the wristband lugs, which is invisible from the outside. On the outer surface are the inscriptions ‚Edition Limitée‘, ‚Montblanc‘ and ‚Fait Main à Villeret‘ (handmade in Villeret). The inner surface of the back cover bears the signature ‚Demetrio Cabiddu Maître Horloger‘, the name of the technical director at the workshop, who oversaw the development of the movement. This bears a gold-plated engraving of the words ‚Minerva Villeret‘ and can be admired through the sapphire glass back cover. There too, of course, is the Montblanc emblem, signifying the highest mountain in Europe with its six glacial tongues and, for many decades, European craftsmanship of the highest possible standard. It can be found as an inlay, made of genuine mother-of-pearl, in the winding crown of the new watches.
Hand-guilloched solid gold dials
The Grand Chronographe Régulateur timepieces feature solid gold dials with hand-guilloched ornamentation, bearing testimony to another great tradition in the art of watchmaking. The dial of the watches in white and red gold is decorated with finely grooved Clous de Paris patterning, while parts of the dial in the unique platinum models are inlaid with genuine mother-of-pearl.
Classical guilloche work is a machining technique used to apply a regular grooved pattern to metal surfaces and creates a fascinating shimmering effect. Although it is carried out with the help of a machine, it still counts as a classical watchmaking craft because the cutting template is turned and positioned by hand. The more delicate the desired guilloche, the more precise the individual steps need to be. This is why it takes so many years of experience before a craftsman has the skill to guilloche dials like those on the Grand Chronographe Régulateur timepieces with the required degree of accuracy. Only dials like these can rightfully be called ‚hand-guilloched‘. And this is the reason why the dials of the Grand Chronographe Régulateur watches proudly bear the imprint GUILLOCHE MAIN SUISSE.
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