Not just a pretty pen: 5 things you need to know about Montblanc, the watchmaker

Felix Scholz

Hugh-Jackman-Montblanc-Slider — Wolverine, living the Montblanc life.

Recently the Montblanc roadshow was in town, celebrating 90 years of their Meisterstück collection. The cornerstone of this collection is the Meisterstück pen, the default writing instruments for captains of industry and heads of state. Montblanc have distilled the spirit of this iconic pen into their range of ‘fine lifetime companions’. We took the opportunity to sit down with Mr Julien Renard, the President of Montblanc in the Asia Pacific region to find out what we need to know about Montblanc.

Montblanc-meisterstuck-pen — Writing instruments are at the core of Montblanc’s identity, but they’re much more than that.

1: More than pens. Fine writing instruments are the core of Montblanc’s business – and have been since the companies founding in 1906. But in the last 15 years Montblanc decided to get into the luxury watch business, starting with the popular Timewalker watch. Since then timepieces have become increasingly important to the brand. But Renard acknowledges it can be hard for the brand of fine ‘lifetime companions’ to be recognized as a watchmaker as well; “For sure, people in Australia know Montblanc for writing instruments and leather goods – but we’ve been doing this for 15 years now. Montblanc is one of the biggest players, at least within Richemont, in terms of watches. They’re not a niche business for us.” But even though they’re relatively new to the watch game they’re far from novices. Case in point, their new CEO….

Jerome-Lambert-Montblanc-CEO — Jerome Lambert, from JLC to Montblanc.

2: Jerome Lambert. You know Richemont (Montblanc’s parent company) are serious about scaling up the Montblanc watch collections when they bring Jerome Lambert – who spent his last 10 years turning the already great Jaeger-LeCoultre into one of the most impressive Swiss houses. Lambert is kind of like the Simon Cowell of watches, and you know that with his hand at the tiller Montblanc is going to be doing some interesting horological things. But Mr Renard stresses that Lambert won’t be throwing out the baby with the bathwater, as even though Montblanc has been making lots of noise in the watch space (mainly due to a certain perpetual calendar), he will respect the brands heritage and broad, multi-product luxury range. “Everyone is thinking that because Jerome is coming now the brand is going to focus on watches. Which is true and not true. We cannot change the heritage of the brand”.

Montblanc-Pulsograph — The Pulsograph demonstrates the top quality horology Montblanc is capable of.

3. Real watchmaking, not fashion watches. When Montblanc started making watches they didn’t mess around. Rather than outsourcing their production to anonymous Swiss factories, or build their own facility, they bought two watchmaking facilities and rebranded them. One of these factories, called Villeret by Montblanc is very important. Before Montblanc took possession it went by another name – Minerva. Not many people outside the watch cognoscenti will recognize the name Minerva, but it’s a very old and very respected Swiss house that has been making watches since 1855.

Montblanc-pulsograph-wrist — Just as gorgeous in the metal, on the wrist.

Montblanc was clever enough not to mess with a winner. Rather than throwing out all the expertise of one of the most highly regarded movement makers in Switzerland, Montblanc renovated and reinvigorated the facility. It’s where Montblanc make their most stunning high end complications, and they can make the lot. Everything, from A-Z. Including the escapement and mainspring. That’s some serious watchmaking chops that Montblanc have got their hands on. The combination of this caliber of watchmaking, combined with Montblanc’s luxury cachet is a surefire way to make some beautiful watches. Case in point – the pulsograph.

Montblanc_Meisterstuck_Heritage_Perpetual_Calendar — So much ink has been spilt dissecting the Montblanc Meistertuck Heritage Perpetual Calendar, bur that doesn’t mean we won’t spill a bit more – it’s an important watch.

4. The Meisterstück heritage perpetual calendar The Meisterstück perpetual calendar from Montblanc was one of the most shocking watches released at this years SIHH fair. Not shocking because of its design. It’s the epitome of a classically styled, traditional calendar watch (as befits the values of the Meisterstück collections). What shocked the watch industry was the price Montblanc offered the watch for. The Montblanc Perpetual Calendar is the best value perpetual calendar available on the market. Period. At this point you might have two questions. A: What precisely is a perpetual calendar? and B: How much does is cost? Well a perpetual calendar is a watch that tells you note only the day, and the date, but also the month and whether or not it’s a leap year. Montblanc’s version also throws in a moonphase indicator for good measure. It’s the complication preferred by elegant sophisticated types everywhere, simply because not everyone can do it. And this means they’re expensive. In steel you rarely see them below 20k, and in precious metals you can double that price. Except the Meisterstück Perpetual starts at $15,300 AU. That’s a game changer right there.

Hugh-Jackman-Montblanc — Nice guys wear Montblanc.

5. Hugh Jackman wears one. Australia’s loveable everyman Hugh Jackman is the newest member of the Montblanc family, becoming a brand ambassador earlier this year. And honestly, if they’re good enough for our Hugh, they’re good enough for me. But it turns out Wolverine has pretty good taste in watches too – he was given his pick of the Montblanc litter, anything from the entry level to the stratospheric, high end Villeret collections. And what did Jackman pick as his own personal timepiece? Mr Renard tells us he went with the Meisterstück Heritage Heritage Perpetual Calendar, in gold (naturally). Time+Tide were guests of Montblanc in Sydney.