It's just 12 years since Montblanc launched its first timepiece collection, but already it is considered a serious player in the high-end watch market.
Last year, the watchmaking arm of the luxury goods brand debuted its first movement, MBR100, developed entirely in-house and unveiled in the Montblanc Star Nicolas Rieussec Monopusher Chronograph series.
The series was inspired by Nicolas Rieussec, who was credited with inventing the chronograph almost 200 years ago. He was awarded a patent in 1822 that described a timepiece with two rotating discs that marked elapsed time using ink-filled, nib-like pointers. Montblanc was drawn towards the chronograph movement because the word means writers of time (chronos is time and graphein is write) in Greek.
The debut of that Montblanc movement marked its ambitions to become a verticalised watchmaker. Hamdi Chatti, Montblanc's managing director for watches and jewellery, said the company wanted to become a master of movements and eventually develop all its timepieces in-house. 'Age doesn't matter if you do it right,' he said. 'Montblanc came to Switzerland because the network is here. We went to the heart and started building up from there.'
At this year's SIHH, Montblanc added the Star Nicolas Rieussec Monopusher Chronograph Open Date to the collection, which enables the owner to view the inner workings of the watch.
The MBR110 Calibre is based on the MBR100, and is a hand-wound movement with a time display, rotating date disc and chronograph, which features a classic column wheel control with a disc clutch.
