Montblanc

Since Montblanc’s merger with Minerva, the Montblanc Villeret manufacture became Montblanc’s second manufacture. The Villeret and Le Locle manufactures continued on their operations, with Villeret focusing on the very high end haute horology segment with only around 200 to 250 timepieces produced per year (including bespoke timepieces). Le Locle on the other hand, focused on a wider range of price points, from time-only watches with outsourced movements (e.g. the basic Star and Timewalker lines) to watches with in-house movements with more complications (e.g. the Nicolas Rieussecs and Timewalker Twinflys), producing/assembling around 80,000 watches per year. Largely, these 2 manufactures operated rather independently with Villeret being more artisanal and Le Locle more industrial, generally speaking.

External parts Research & Development (Case – Dial – Hands – Strap)

After the design stage, Montblanc engineers develop and construct in 3D all the external parts of the timepieces drawn by the designers.  Numerous prototypes are then developed to validate the construction and aesthetics to ensure both the design and engineering aspects work well together.

Here, the teams need to make sure all parts work well together from both design and engineering aspects. This applies to the case, the dial, the hour/minute/seconds/chronograph/gmt hands, etc and even the straps! E.g. what dial color works best with blued steel hands from a design standpoint? Or red gold plated hands and indices? The width and thickness of straps relative to the case for both a balanced look as well as comfort on the wrist. Lots of iterations have to be tried and tested to get to a stage where the teams are satisfied with how all these parts work together as a whole on the watch.

Homologation of every new timepiece – performance test, drop test, water resistance, UV

The external parts and movement of the timepieces are tested before they are certified and approved.  A series of tests are performed such as shocks test for the watch head and movement, distortion and stretching for the straps, UV test on the dial and case as well as testing on the functions of the watch, e.g. if the chronograph function is performing well.

What is new to me here is the strap stretching test – I always take straps for granted and it’s good to know that Montblanc does test the straps it use to see if they fit the watch paired for them. I guess Montblanc also uses these tests to access strap suppliers. Interesting to see how this leads as they start using more and more “in-house” straps from their Leather manufacture in Italy.

Final Assembly of the watch and quality control

This is a stage of watchmaking where lots of care and a strict culture of precision is critical.

The assembly of a Montblanc watch must be done in silence and in a completely clean environment to avoid any dust or dirt getting into the watch, be it on the dial or the movement side. I have heard of horror stories from friends where they could see hair or dust on the dials of some of their watches or fingerprints on the movement plates or sapphire glass, sometimes even in brand new watches (more often after servicing). Having a top grade manufacture and servicing facility is absolutely needed to ensure quality control.

The following are the typical assembly steps in Le Locle:

–Assembly of the dial on the movement

–Assembly of the hands

–Functional and aesthetical control

–Final encasing

–Water tightness control

–Manual final functional and aesthetical control

Montblanc Laboratory Test 500 – to meet high quality standards

After assembly, for 500 hours, the timepieces are subjected to a variety of conditions a watch must endure when worn on the wrist. This simulates the daily wear and tear of the watch, numerous settings and re-settings of the crown, different climate conditions, and even usage of their functions with both “regular” as well as “rough” usage (e.g. simulating someone who presses a chronograph lightly vs someone who presses very hard and keeps resetting). Montblanc had announced many of its models to go through this rigorous 500 hour tests including the Nicolas Rieussec, Twinfly as well as the Heritage Perpetual Calendar watches. I believe gradually, Montblanc would want to extend this test to almost all its watch collections.

Only if timepieces passed this test can they be issued the Montblanc Laboratory Test 500 certificate and they can then be released for delivery and for sale. To me as a consumer, I must admit there is an element of marketing and PR to these tests. However, I do want my watches to be my lifetime companions (I want my timepieces to grow with me and my family, to hand them to my kids) – in this regard, I appreciate brands like Montblanc doing these rigorous tests simulating wear and tear of the watch before selling to customers.

I did a post on this last year and you can find more details on this link:

montblanc.watchprosite.com

Here is a quick recap. The following five tests are performed in the 500 hour tests:

- Winding performance and assembly control (4 hours)

- Continuous accuracy control (80 hours)

- Functions control (334 hours)

- General performance test (80 hours)

- Water resistance (2 hours)

Customer Service

With a large annual production of 80,000 watches per year, the Le Locle manufacture is naturally very focused on customer service and has invested in their watch servicing facilities and processes. Mechanical watches will naturally experience wear and tear as we wear them to work, for play, for travels, etc. For Montblanc owners who wear their watches almost daily (I personally know 3 or 4 of them in Singapore where their Montblanc watch is their only mechanical watch), their watch components are working 24 x 7, representing thousands of hours running without stopping.

Even for watches that are not running as often (for collectors who rotate their watches for e.g.), we all know regular check-ups and servicing are still important. Some components may need to be replaced for wear and tear, some parts may need oiling, some lubricants may need to be removed/replaced as they have become dirty after a few years (constantly in contact with metal parts). Officially, Montblanc recommends a service and check-up after every 5 years. Their full service includes the complete disassembly of the watch case and movement, oiling, checking the watch’s performance, case and bracelet polishing, changing of the seals to insure water resistance, final QA and aesthetics checks and water resistance. 

We PuristS will call this simply as “The Watch Spa”, something we all want our beloved timepieces to enjoy once every few years or so J

 Hope you have enjoyed this final write up on the Montblanc Manufactures series.

Cheers

robin