Montblanc brought in the 160th anniversary of Minerva with a doozy new 1858 collection at SIHH this year. While all four watches have been tastefully created and are inspired by spirit of spirit of mountain exploration, it’s the Montblanc 1858 Geosphere that really stood out among Montblanc’s novelties this year.
Powered by a brand-new manufacture worldtime complication, the tool watch-like aesthetic is designed to pay tribute to the Seven Summit mountaineering challenge. Though the limited edition with a case made from a bronze aluminum alloy is more appropriate for an outdoors-inspired watch like this, the watch is also available in stainless steel.
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The 42-mm bronze case has a brushed finish with polished, beveled edges that underline their shape and a bronze bidirectional fluted bezel with a black ceramic insert featuring the four cardinal points. The closed caseback features an engraving of the Mont Blanc mountain, a compass and two crossed ice pick-axes.
The matte black dial is dominated by two turning domed hemisphere globes, which make a full rotation in 24 hours. The northern hemisphere at 12 o’clock turns anti-clockwise, while the southern hemisphere turns clockwise. Both are surrounded by a scale with the 24 time zones, along with a day/night indication in contrasting colors. The longitude reference meridian for both hemispheres is highlighted with a white line coated with SuperLumiNova. As a nod to its adventurous DNA, the Seven Summits are marked on the globes with red dots.
Legibility is a big plus on this dial. A railway track minutes ring sits on the periphery of the dial, red gold-coated cathedral hands indicate time and the beige luminescent Arabic numerals and indexes contrast well with the black dial. Mont Blanc uses the historic 1930s logo on the dial again.
This watch is powered by the new Caliber MB29.25 which is a Selita SW300 movement with a worldtimer module developed by the engineers at Villeret. This 4 Hz movement has a power reserve of 42 hours.
The watch is water resistant to 100 meters and is paired with a cognac-colored aged calfskin strap with beige stitching or a new brown Sfumato aged calf leather Bund strap with beige stitching. The bronze edition is limited to 1,858 pieces and is priced at $7,330.
