Complications
Bill introduces the Montblanc Villeret TimeWriter II Bi-Fréquence 1000, a groundbreaking chronograph capable of measuring 1/1000th of a second. This post details the watch's innovative dual-balance system and announces an exclusive contest for the PuristSPro community, highlighting Montblanc's commitment to horological innovation.
Montblanc celebrates their latest creation, the radical and impressive Montblanc Villeret Timwriter II Bi-Frequence with all the members of PuristSPro with a special contest and prize, exclusively for the PuristSPro community!
CONTEST: Montblanc Villeret TimeWriter II Bi-Frequence 1000 
Following the Metamorphosis, this is the second TimeWriter project. The Montblanc Timewriter project is a bi-annual project hosted by Montblanc Villeret with groundbreaking independent watchmakers.
This latest TimeWriter, TimeWriter II was conceived by Montblanc Minerva Villeret long-time head-watchmaker Mr. Dimitri Cabbidu in conjunction with the young (33 year old), WOSTEP-certified, Spanish-Swiss watchmaker Mr. Bartomeu Gomila. The development for this piece started in at least 2007 if not prior, five years ago.
This TimeWriter II project is cumulative of over 5 years of research, thousands of man-hours, and over 20 patents!
The watch features a genuinely unique system. True to its Minerva heritage of making some of the best and most unique chronographs in the world, the TimeWriter II Bi-Frequence ups the ante again with a chronograph system that accurately measures down to the 1/1000th of a second. It achieves this by employing two balance wheels; (1) a large 18,000 bph balance for the time keeping functions of the watch and (2) a smaller diameter 360,000 bph balance wheel with a 10x wheel gear. For more information, please watch this video.
Truly an epic timepiece, featuring groundbreaking pioneering technology and one that is certainly the most interesting among chronographs, from Montblanc Minerva, the firm that is historically renowned for Chronographs.
CONTEST
The first Prize:
The person who will find out will win a trip to Villeret for him/her & a companion
a. Incl. flight tickets (business) to Zurich or Geneva
b. Overnight stay in a 5* hotel (1 or 2 nights depending on from how far the winner is coming)
c. Meeting with Bartomeu Gomilla and Dimitri Cabiddu
d. All diners and meals incl.
The second Prize will be:
A Montblanc writing instrument from the 100 years collection
The third Prize will be:
An -i-pad cover from our Montblanc leather collection
There are 2 balances in the Bi-Fréquence (as the name states is has 2 frequencies)
1) one balance for the time indication, that has 2,5 Hz (18.000 bph) à (this is the first frequency)
2) A second Balance for the chronograph (short time measurement) that has 50 Hz (360.000 bph) à (this is the second frequency)
Theoretically speaking, 360,000 bph cannot measure 1/1000 sec. – they can measure only 1/100 sec. (for 1/1000th you would normally need 500 Hz instead of only 50Hz)
S With 360,000 bph it is possible to measure 1/100 sec, meaning make the chronograph second hand "jump" 100 times per second with the "normal" gear train.
In order to measure 1/1000 sec, we had to come up with the idea of how to make 10 jumps between those 1/100 seconds (Dividing 1/100 by 10=1/1000th). The theory is simple. As you can see in the schematic, there is an additional gear that divides one second (one round of the chronograph second hand) by 10.
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PuristPro Contest on the Bi-Fréquence | ||
In general, the clutch of a chronograph – if it is vertical or horizontal – is an element, that allows to start or stop the measurement of time intervals. Which kind of clutch is used in the TimeWriter II Chronographe Bi-Fréquence 1.000? | ||
| A vertical clutch | 37% | |
| A horizontal clutch | 20% | |
| Another form of clutch | 7% | |
| No clutch at all | 35% | |
Which is the configuration of the gear train of the watch? | ||
| 2 barrels in serie that power 2 gear trains | 9% | |
| 2 independent barrels that power each 1 gear train | 68% | |
| 2 barrels in parallel that power 2 gear trains | 22% | |
How does the winding of the 2 barrels work? | ||
| By a system of wheels that wind one or the other of the barrels depending on the rotation direction of the stem | 81% | |
| By the stem pulled in a third position that allows the winding of the second barrel | 7% | |
| By a vertical clutch that allows to engage the winding pinion with one or the other of the crown wheels | 11% | |
Which is the particularity of the whip? | ||
| It allows to stop the chronograph balance | 22% | |
| It allows to start and stop the chronograph balance | 68% | |
| It allows to start the chronograph balance | 9% | |
The elements allowing the start, stop and reset of the chronograph are piloted by: | ||
| 2 column wheels | 7% | |
| A cam on two levels | 5% | |
| A column wheel on two levels | 87% | |
The resetting of the hundredth is done by: | ||
| A hammer on a heart-piece | 20% | |
| A lever that stops the rotation of an interdependent finger of the hundredth mobile in the zero position | 59% | |
| A vertical break that stops the rotation of the hundredth mobile in the zero position | 20% | |
Which is one of the functions of the homogenization wheel? | ||
| Regulate the speed of the escapement | 12% | |
| Regulate the speed of the hundredth mobile | 7% | |
| Regulate the speed of the thousandth mobile | 79% | |
By which means is the thousandth of a second indicated on the watch dial ? | ||
| By a hand placed on a system of levers and cams depending on the thousandth mobile | 42% | |
| By a hand placed directly on the thousandth mobile | 24% | |
| By a hand placed on a system of levers and cams depending on the homogenization mobile | 33% | |
The chronographe Bi-Fréquence 1.000 can measure a 1/100 of a sec. and a 1/1.000th of a sec. Is the lecture-possibility of both of them affected by each other ? | ||
| Yes | 40% | |
| No | 59% | |
Knowing that the hundredth mobile makes one tour per second and that the cam of the thousandth mobile is composed of 10 arms, which is then the time between the passage of each arm? | ||
| 0.1 sec | 22% | |
| 0.01 sec | 46% | |
| 0.001 sec | 31% | |
If you win the contest, over which distance the plane (line flight) that takes you to Switzerland will fly in 1/1.000th of a second? | ||
| 25mm | 16% | |
| 25cm | 75% | |
| 25m | 7% | |
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Total votes:54 | ||
These are quite a contest to win! The questions are much more technical this time around - not my strong point. Good luck everyone! Chris
what the heck is a lecture-possibility? Regardless, what a fascinating movement and a very exciting, and challenging, way to communicate its complexity and innovation! Totally impressed with the direction of Montblanc.
I really see the TimeWriter series becoming an impressive line like the Harry Winston Opus series. The TimeWriter series of watches will be every other year, and there will be some sort of a special chronograph related watch with some sort of special movement behind the functioning principle of the watch. Needless to say, this watch which is a prime example of one of the first TimeWriter watches, and its horological significance, will be a fine example in anyone's collection in the future. I loo
Can't wait to see the result. What's fun is to discover how amazing is the creativity involved in this extraordinary timepiece. And I do prefer this approach to the Tag Heuer one, it is very clever. Regards, Yves
You can imagine how far out of the box the pioneering designers had to go to get the concept for this watch to work. It's definitely special, somewhat revolutionary, and groundbreaking, furthermore considering how young Gomila is (I realize I'm being ageist here), it's especially impressive. Thank you for reading up about how this watch works. I hope it gave you more insight about how this awesome timepiece functions.
Good luck!
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