Montblanc Dual Carbon Sport Chronograph 

1-Year Review

by Michael Ting

© May 2011

On the eve of our 10th anniversary celebration, I thought I would present a long-term 1 year review of the Montblanc Dual Carbon DLC Sport chronograph.  My example is now approximately 14 months old.  It is being worn in rotation with four other watches although, quite honestly, this watch has seen much more wear and tear: the Montblanc quicky became my "go to " weekend and travel watch because of its contemporary looks and versatility.

The all black case is 44mm in diameter, 15.8 mm thick and weighs in at 165 grams.  On the wrist the MB sport wears small and tall because of its cylindrical shape, short curved lugs, and wide bezel.  While this description may discourage some, it works well on my 7.5 in wrist.  It is a chunky and heavy sports watch and pulls it off without looking rediculously large.

Even after a year, the unidirectional bezel ratchets well with minimal play over its 120 click course.  Its matt finish contrasts well against the highly polished case but even so the milled breguet numerals denoting time intervals are functionally useless under poor lighting conditions. 

 A small thoughtful detail that I didnot even notice for six months was the small lip along the interior rim of the bezel which essentially rises up to protect the side of the flat sapphire crystal. This is a really nice touch...for those of us unfortunate enough to know how brittle sapphire crystals can be!

Compared to other MB watches the antireflective coating on the sapphire crystal of this model is superior.  There is no color tinting and the dial is clearly visible even under harsh light. 

Symmetric rehaut rings and textured backgrounds highlight the chronograph functions.  The minute counter jumps to mark off the minutes while the hour counter moves continuously.  The printing is sharp with interesting touches like the word "Automatic" which is printed in silver ink while everything else is in white (sorry my photo doesn't capture this slight variation).

The small continuous seconds counter at 9 oclock is visually balanced by the magnified date indicator.  Thankfully the background color of the date wheel is black to match the dial.  The date function changes slowly... taking approximately an hour to transition through to the next date.

The luminosity is excellent and I still enjoy the way the indicies were worked into the rehaut ring. Like its Tantalum counterpart ( click here ) the hands are all sword shaped and filled with luminous paint, enabling the owner to run and read the chronograph even at night.

Notice the little wells in which luminous pain have been applied.

The crown and chronograph actuators are polished stainless steel.  The Montblanc star adorned crown screws down to provide a 200m water resistance. 

The action of the chronograph is crisp with distinct breaks, similar to other Valjoux chronographs since Montblanc's calibre 4810/510 is essentially a rebadged 7750.  After a year all the counters still reset perfectly to 'zero' and there is minimal recoil with chronograph activation. 

The performance of this watch has been consistant.  Out of the box the watch was +15 sec/day but after 3 months this settled down to +5 on the wrist and it has held this level of accuracy since. On the timing machine yesterday the results are pretty similar to real world experience. 

Note that the movement used in the Montblanc Sport Dual Carbon is not a COSC version like its Tantalum cousin but does it really matter?

The power reserve held steady at 41-43 hours during this past year, well within the watch's specification of 46 hours.

The thickly padded alligator strap has held up well to wear over the past year.  The thickness allowed me to strap this heavy watch in place comfortably all day.  The curved plastic endpiece plesantly reduced the empty space between the strap and case.

The triple fold stainless steel deployant buckle is large and generic except for the "beaver tooth" which secures into square strap hole securely.  I've never seen this implementation before.

Of course the most important feature of this watch is the dual carbon coating.  This is different than the traditional DLC coating which is now commonplace.  As described below, the case manufacturing process involves 6 steps.  By the end of the coating process the hardness has been increased 2.5X over a standard stainless steel counterpart.

 Beside being a magnet for fingerprints, the coating has done extremely well during its first year.  I see absolutely no scratches and no flaking of the coating.  In fact after a quick wipe, the watch looks brand new!  

What did I like most about this watch after 1+ year of ownership?

- The dual carbon coating

What would I change about this watch after 1+ year of ownership?

- The solid sword hands which obscure the chronograph functions during some parts of the day. This will be easy enough to fix when the two year warrenty period runs out.  I will swap them out with skeletonized ones.

At a listed retail of just above 5000 USD at the time of my purchase, the Dual Carbon Sport Chronograph is a nice way to experience the new "Montblanc" before jumping into the Rieussec or Villeret catagories.  There are very few watches with the dual carbon hardening process, the only other 'Hard Black' model cost significantly more without the chronograph function.  I liked it so much that I purchased a second example to give to a recent graduate and close family friend.

Now this will be the watch gracing my wrist at IGOTT-2

I'll put my baby up in a real world endurance challenge at IGOTT, let's see if any other competitors will withstand the test...or will they be wearing quartz to the race track?

Comments, suggestions, and corrections to this article are welcomed.  

See you all in Vegas,

Mike

Author's FTC disclosure:  I have not received any direct compensation from Montblanc for this article.  This watch is from my own personal collection and purchased directly from an authorized Montblanc dealer.

Copyright May 2011 - Michael Ting & PuristSPro.com - all rights reserved