I want to share a very personal experience (some of you would have read this sharing before): I was really fortunate that very soon after I started collecting fine watches (the first being my VC Traditionelle in Sep 2012), I got invited to a Montblanc event, met Julien, the watchmaker from the Villeret manufacture, got drunk with champagne… but awoken when Julien showed me the Montblanc Villeret caliber 13.21 and I couldn’t stop thinking of Montblanc Villeret watches since… lots of research followed and I ended up reading a lot of the Montblanc manufactures and also watching their videos.

This 3 part video of the Montblanc manufacture at Villeret was the deepest watch poison pill I ever had, closely followed by Julien’s showing me of the caliber 13.21, followed by Vlad and Fx in various forms (but that is another story for another day) as well as many “dangerous” articles I read on the internet, especially from PuristSPro, which had the most write-ups on Montblanc Villeret. I would like to share these videos here again with PuristS friends. If you have not watches these videos, I strongly encourage you to take a few minutes to watch them.

What are your impressions after watching these videos? Do you "smell" oil and steel like me when I watched them? 

The assembly of the Timewalker 100 Chronograph movement in Villeret

Back then, I watched these videos over and over again until the videos’ background music kept playing in my head! Obviously, the poison of the beauty of the movements and purity in upholding traditional watchmaking techniques seeped deep into my heart. There are so few manufactures who actually produce their own balance wheel and spring inhouse in the most traditional way like the Villeret manufacure of Montblanc. After buying a few more fine watches in 2013, I finally took the plunge in Aug 2013 to get my first Montblanc watch, my Montblanc Villeret grand feu enamel chronograph! I happen to wear this watch today and I still love it as much after all these time!

My love for Montblanc watches started with the Villeret range but soon, I started learning more about their watches manufactured or assembled in Le Locle as well. My first love for Montblanc watches manufactured in Le Locle was their famous Nicolas Rieussec watch collection but alas, they were too big for me. Nonetheless, the curious me started to research on the Montblanc Le Locle manufacture and I also recall having very strong memories from this video:

To be completely honest, I was more seduced by the Villeret manufacture initially as it is truly unique and completely pure in traditional watch making methods, not to mention their status as an Artisanal Atelier with bespoke timepieces creation. Even though I have not visited the manufacture, I could also smell metal and oil when I watch these videos and even when I look at my watch movement under a loupe! 

What is even more exciting is that these 2 manufactures, with complementary competencies, started collaborating more and more. The Heritage Pulsograph, a watch collection from Le Locle, with the Villeret caliber 13.21 as well as the Timewalker Chronograph 100 signaled the start of using Villeret movements in Le Locle assembled watches in 2014. More recently, the Montblanc Heritage Chronometrie ExoTourbillon minute chronograph is an even more concrete example, where the ExoTourbillon Patent and know-how from the Villeret manufacture is now cascaded into a new movement designed, developed and manufactured in the Le Locle manufacture (with a more assessable price than the grand complication ExoTourbillons from Villeret). Judging from the rapid progress made in a short span of less than 2 years, we can only expect more good things to come when Montblanc synergizes these 2 manufactures even more in the next few years.

In the next few posts, I will provide some more detailed insights into each of these two manufactures. Stay tuned J