At Hong Kong’s Watches and Wonders Fair this year, Montblanc introduced the Metamorphosis II, a watch that takes its name quite literally. With the slide of a lever, it transforms: subdials retract to reveal a wholly different display and set of functions. Read on to see how it works.
The Metamorphosis II further develops a concept from the Montblanc TimeWriter I: Metamorphosis, which Montblanc introduced in 2010. Now in a fully rounded rose-gold case with a 52-mm diameter, the Metamorphosis II provides a more classically elegant version of the transforming watch. At first blush, the Metamorphosis II employs design cues drawn from other Montblanc dress watches. The dial has a regulator-like design: a seconds hand is mounted at the center, along with a retrograde minutes hand that arcs just slightly more than 180 degrees. At the top is a recessed hours subdial with Roman numerals. The subdial at 6 o’clock shows the date, with the hand beneath a sapphire bridge. The main part of the dial, where no displays are shown, has a barleycorn guilloché finish.
On the left side of the case, one finds a slide that can be pulled down toward 6 o’clock. Pull this trigger and the watch transforms before your eyes. Both subdials split apart, becoming “wings” that retract out of sight. In their place are new displays: now the watch becomes a monopusher chronograph, activated through the crown. The central seconds hand snaps to 12 o’clock and becomes a chronograph seconds hand. The chronograph minutes can be read off the 6-o’clock subdial, now a 30-minute rotating disk with a stationary needle at its top. The hours subdial at 12 o’clock remains, but now its indexes are Arabic numerals.
The watch’s transformation requires a great deal of mechanical know-how: of the Metamorphosis II’s 746 components, 494 are just for the metamorphosis function. If the slide on the case resembles a minute-repeater slide, it is for good reason: it’s attached to an auxiliary mainspring, which provides the considerable power needed to open and close the subdial wings. The chronograph functions independently, so that even if you switch back to the classical view, you can continue to time events. The Montblanc manufacture movement, MB 67.40, is a hand-wound chronograph caliber with column wheel and horizontal clutch. It runs in 85 jewels at 18,000 vph. The watch is water-resistant to 30 meters and comes on a black alligator strap. The Metamorphosis II is being produced in a series of 18 pieces, all in rose gold. It costs 270,000 euros, or $344,000.
See below for a video from the brand and to see the Metamorphosis II in action:
