HANDS-ON: The Montblanc Heritage Chronometrie Annual Calendar Vasco da Gama

The story in a second:

Montblanc keep hitting it out of the park with their attractive calendar pieces, like this tribute to Vasco da Gama. Too often, Australians are left out in the cold when it comes to special releases and limited editions. For such a giant country we’re a pretty small in the global watch industry. We are the one percent. As in 1one percent of the global market. So it’s a pleasant surprise to see that Montblanc have catered to patriotic Aussies by releasing a watch emblazoned with the Southern Cross, the Heritage Chronometrie Annual Calendar Vasco da Gama. Now, I feel ethically obliged to state that Montblanc didn’t actually make this very attractive annual calendar specifically for the Australian market, but like Crowded House, Mel Gibson and Pavlova I’m going to claim it anyway. The official story behind this annual calendar has more to do with pioneering Portuguese explorer Vasco da Gama. The moonphase indicator is inset within a blue lacquer subdial, which depicts the stars of the southern hemisphere, as they would have appeared to da Gama in 1497. The Southern Cross has pride of place because of its importance as a navigational tool. Also Australia. Obviously this piece has more functionality than just telling you where the moon’s at. It’s an annual calendar, meaning it only needs to be adjusted at the end of February. Design wise it’s a classic and clean interpretation of a complication that’s often overly busy. The 40mm red gold case is everything you could want from this sort of watch, but it’s the dial that really sings. The minimalist font, slim sword style hands and railroad style chapter ring all work together to display the hefty amount of information on offer cleanly and clearly. Even the moonphase aperture, far from dominating the dial, balances out the three calendar subdials. The only jarring element is the off-centre Montblanc branding – but where else could they fit it? The bad news is that this watch is quite limited, with only 238 pieces being made. Montblanc say the 238 refers to a lighthouse on the Cape of Good Hope, a pivotal point in Da Gama’s journey around the globe. It’s cute of Montblanc to make the tie-in, but we would have been just as happy if they made it an edition of 250 and left out the marketing spin.

Montblanc Heritage Chronométrie Quantième Annuel Vasco da Gama Australian price

The limited edition annual calendar has a retail price of $17,230.

Original images by Kristian Dowling/Time+Tide Images