Showing at WatchTime New York 2018: Montblanc 1858 Monopusher Chronograph


WatchTime New York, America’s luxury watch show, returns to the Big Apple in October! As we count down to the big event, taking place at Manhattan’s Gotham Hall on October 26-27, we continue to showcase many of the new timepieces that guests will discover there. This week, we preview the limited edition, green-dialed version of the Montblanc 1858 Monopusher Chronograph.

Montblanc 1858 Monopusher Chronograph LE - reclining
Montblanc 1858 Monopusher Chronograph Limited Edition 100

The watch is one of several new pieces from the revamped 1858 collection, which takes its name from the founding year of Minerva, the historically acclaimed maker of chronographs that was acquired by Richemont and absorbed into Montblanc in 2006. With 2018 marking Minerva’s (now Manufacture Montblanc’s) 160th anniversary, Montblanc has incorporated many of its historic design codes into this modern collection, along with a “mountain exploration” theme (Montblanc is, after all, named after a mountain).

Montblanc 1858 Monopusher Chronograph LE - flat
The 1858 collection pays tribute to the year of Minerva’s founding.

The 40-mm stainless steel case has slim, curved lugs with polished and satin finishing, a rectangular pusher at 2 o’clock to start, stop, and zero the chronograph, and a large, vintage-style fluted crown. Under the domed sapphire “box” crystal, the smoked green dial offers several period-appropriate details from early Minerva watches, such as the cathedral-shaped, cloisonné-style hour and minute hands, the railway minute track, the tachymeter scale on the dial’s outer edge, and a circa-1930s Montblanc logo in a historical font. The bicompax dial design also recalls the collection’s namesake era, with small seconds at 9 o’clock and a 30-minute chronograph counter at 3 o’clock. The applied Arabic hour numerals, like the hands, are coated with Super-LumiNova.

Montblanc 1858 Chronograph Monopusher LE - dial CU
The cathedral hands and historical Montblanc logo are among the dial’s vintage-inspired details.

The movement, visible through a sapphire caseback, is Montblanc’s Caliber MB13.21, designed as a modern successor to the Minerva chronograph Caliber 13.20, launched in 1920, which was among the very first manually wound monopusher chronograph movements developed for use in wristwatches. Like its historical predecessor, the movement has a large balance wheel, a traditional frequency of 18,000 vph, and a column wheel and horizontal coupling to control the stopwatch functions. Even more notably, it features the V-shaped chronograph bridge whose design was protected by Minerva back in 1912, along with the now-iconic hand decorated Minerva arrow. Haute horlogerie decorations abound, including circular graining on the rhodium-coated German silver plate and côtes de Genève and hand-chamfered edges on the bridges. Composed of 239 parts, including 22 jewels, it offers a power reserve of 55 hours.

Montblanc 1858 Monopusher Chronograph LE - back
Montblanc Caliber MB13.21 is on display through a clear caseback.

The watch, whose full name is Montblanc 1858 Monopusher Chronograph Limited Edition 100, comes on a green alligator leather strap, made at the Montblanc Pelleteria in Florence, Italy, which harmonizes with the dial. It will be limited to (you guessed it) 100 pieces.

Interested in seeing the Montblanc 1858 Monopusher Chronograph Limited Edition 100 in person? You can do so at WatchTime New York this October at Gotham Hall in New York City. Get your tickets here.

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  1. Randy Rogers

    Myself, I prefer the Blancpain Monopousoir, with all applications off the Crown, without the additional Pusher @ 2 O’clock, much cleaner in design.

    Reply
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