If you’re a fan of classic timepieces, you’re going to love the new additions to Montblanc’s Metamorphosis and Exo Tourbillon collections.
For a company that cut its teeth making refined writing instruments, Montblanc has made some serious headway in the watch world since it joined the Richmont family, and the newest additions to its High Watchmaking collection bolster that position for lovers of haute horology.
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Among the company’s newest additions is a striking blue rendition of the Montblanc Star Legacy Metamorphosis Limited Edition. A timepiece that literally transforms itself, the new Star Legacy Metamorphosis Limited Edition 8 boasts two faces powered by a hand-crafted and highly complicated calibre MB M67.60 movement. The transformation between the two faces is equally complex and involves more than 320 individual components moving in harmony and synchronicity.
In addition to this, the Exo Tourbillon construction contains over 100
components alone and the whole timepiece is composed of no less than 718 components, all traditionally hand-crafted at the Montblanc Manufacture in Villeret. And you thought they only made pens.
The mechanism of the new Star Legacy model is activated by a sliding lever on the side of the case (similar to that of a minute repeater mechanism) that is connected to a dial and which is comprised of a fixed part and moveable shutters, which can be opened and closed depending on the desired face.
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When the shutters are closed, the watch’s face displays a worldtime function at six o’clock in the form of a turning, domed Northern-Hemisphere globe surrounded by a 24-hour scale and a day/night indication. At 12 o’clock, the rhodium-coated balance wheel with blued
hairspring and 18 screws, beats at the traditional frequency of 18,000 oscillations per hour.
When its shutters are opened, the dial reveals the beauty of Montblanc’s patented oneminute Exo Tourbillon, held in place by a sapphire crystal bridge, and representing the sun at 12 o’clock. A jumping date disc appears around the Exo Tourbillon while at six o’clock, a realistic, three-dimensional moon with its exact position in the sky, as viewed from Earth, turns constantly around the globe in a gyroscopic way, exactly as it would make its journey around the Earth. The moon is presented against a backdrop of aventurine that shimmers like a starry night sky.
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The astronomical moonphase complication is highly precise and only needs to be adjusted by one day every 122 years. In addition, all the functions powered by the high-end mechanism – the hours, minutes, seconds, worldtime and moon phases – continue working irrespective of the chosen face.
Montblanc has also added to its Exo Tourbillon line with the arrival of the Montblanc Star Legacy Suspended Exo Tourbillon Limited Edition 18, at the heart of which beats the patented Suspended Exo Tourbillon complication, developed entirely in-house over three years. The “Exo” is derived from the Greek for “external” or “outside” and refers to the large balance wheel which is positioned outside of the tourbillon’s rotating cage.
The Montblanc engineers’ idea, when developing the Suspended Exo
Tourbillon, was to create a one-minute tourbillon that would be more visible, further revealing its beauty. This particular patented construction allowed them to keep a large and impressive balance wheel, eliminating the need to increase the size of the movement or the
case.
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In terms of performance, the Exo Tourbillon saves more energy than a conventional tourbillon as the cage is smaller in size and free of the weight of the balance wheel. It is also balanced by two gold pillars that equilibrate the cage.
Following pure horological tradition, the Manufacture movement calibre MB M16.68 is entirely decorated in the Montblanc Manufacture in Villeret with hand-crafted finishings such as Côtes de Genève stripes, inner angles, circular graining, beveling and a mirrorpolished pawl with the hand-finished Minerva arrow.
The entirely polished 44.8 mm case comes in 18K white gold and features a sapphire crystal on the case back which reveals the hand-finished manually wound movement as well as the Exo Tourbillon from the front to the back.
A piece for true complication lovers, the sophisticated three-dimensional dial of the Montblanc Star Legacy Suspended Exo Tourbillon Limited Edition 18 is constructed in eight different parts that have been decorated
using traditional watchmaking techniques. The base is in 18K gold and has
been highlighted with a hand-made guilloché pattern in places, and a sandblasted decoration in others, with polished steps framing the different finishing techniques. A refined guilloché pattern completes the aesthetic.
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A silvery-white dome at 12 o’clock, with an azuré decoration in the centre, houses the hours and minutes counter, mirroring the three-dimensional effect of the Suspended Exo Tourbillon. Little wonder the new edition, which is presented with a blue alligator leather strap, is limited to just 18 pieces.
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