Sunday morning reading-- random articles from around the world about Montblanc
I thought I would start this new thread topic for Sunday mornings (GMT-5)
I will try to repost interesting Montblanc articles or photos every few weeks here on the forum for us to enjoy with our morning coffee!
Let me know what you think of the idea
Enjoy, Mike
Article 1: Reposted from International Herald Tribune. 1/17/2011 By Vicotria Gomelsky
VILLERET, SWITZERLAND — Hiking tours of the Jura Mountains, the range that runs along Switzerland’s western border with France, often stop in this picturesque municipality, population 914, because it provides direct access to Combe-Grède, a well-known gorge that cuts through the rugged landscape.
Foodies know the region as the source of Tête de Moine, or Monk’s Head, a gourmet cheese once considered so valuable that it was used as currency.
Connoisseurs of haute horlogerie, however, recognize Villeret, perched on the banks of the River Suze in the canton of Berne, as the heart of the Saint-Imier Valley, the smallest and least known of Switzerland’s three major watchmaking centers, behind Geneva and the legendary Vallée de Joux.
Although the village does not have the cachet of La Chaux-de-Fonds nor the size of Biel, its neighbors in the valley, it is possible to gain an understanding of how watchmaking began in the Jura, and how it continues to thrive, through a reading of Villeret’s history.
“Farmers needed something to do in the winter — that’s how it all started,” said Keith Strandberg, international editor for the Watch Journal, a specialty watch publication. “Villeret is like a lot of little towns in Switzerland, which are surviving because of watchmaking. And they’re perfect for it. Watchmakers love the mountains.”
The industry began here in the 17th century after the Huguenots arrived in Geneva, fleeing persecution in France. Over time, the master watch- and clockmakers among them began outsourcing production to farmers in the Jura, who used the fallow months between October and May to fulfill Europe’s growing demand for timepieces.
“These guys were the unsung heroes,” said Aurel Bacs, international co-head of watches for Christie’s in Geneva. “They made complicated movements, and sent them to Geneva or Paris or London where they were signed by distinguished makers.”
Today, only a handful of these venerable supplier firms survive. Frédéric Piguet, the renowned movement maker, is one. Nouvelle Lémania, a chronograph manufacturer famous for supplying Patek Philippe, is another: but for years now both firms have belonged to the Swatch Group, the behemoth of Swiss watchmaking.
In Villeret, a little-known factory that remained independent until 2006 lays claim to the same vaunted tradition. In 1858, Charles-Ivan Robert opened a workshop on the site of an ancient mill; in homage to his fascination with Roman mythology, it was called Fabrique d’Horlogerie Minerva. At the time, Blancpain was the only watchmaking game in town, having been founded by Jehan-Jacques Blancpain in 1735 in a chalet near the Minerva facility.
It was an auspicious time to enter the business — not only for Mr. Robert in Villeret, but also for his competitors down the road in Saint-Imier, the village to which Breitling, Tag-Heuer and Longines all trace their origins.
Over the next century and a half, those celebrated makers moved out of the area, with the sole exception of Longines. Minerva, however, remained in Villeret, where it pioneered the development of precision timekeeping with its esteemed chronograph calibers. The firm’s reputation peaked in the 1950s, a decade or so before the quartz revolution decimated the mechanical watchmaking industry, driving scores of Swiss companies into bankruptcy.
Against all odds, the independent firm survived through the darkest days of the 1970s, hanging on to the ultimate symbol of longevity: its original location.
“Why is everyone so proud of this?” asked Alexander Schmiedt, director of watches for Montblanc, whose parent company, the luxury industry holding company Financière Richemont, acquired Minerva in 2006. “It’s about having an uninterrupted competence. We found a living history.”
As Mr. Schmiedt showed a visitor around the Minerva factory, he paused in front of a cabinet to open a drawer brimming with vintage enamel dials dating to the turn of the last century. He then pulled a faded, yellowing ledger from the shelf and read its contents: “On May 5, 1939, a client from Paraguay bought 12 caliber 1320s at a price of 60 Swiss francs,” he said, referring to the internal reference number for one of Minerva’s original movements.
Since 2008, Montblanc has relied on this trove of archival material to produce its contemporary Villeret 1858 collection of roughly 250 timepieces a year, priced from €30,000 to €200,000, or $39,000 to $260,000, apiece.
One model in the collection is the new Vintage Pulsographe. With an enamel dial made using the high temperature “grand feu” technique and a pulsograph scale, once popular among physicians, the watch is an example of how Montblanc has co-opted the Minerva legacy.
Of the factory’s 37 current employees, ages 21 to 60, about 20 are holdovers from Minerva’s days as an independent supplier. “We hired some people, but we tried to keep it a family company,” Mr. Schmiedt said. “It’s the complete opposite of industrialized mass production.”
Under Demetrio Cabiddu, Minerva’s technical director since 2001, the factory is one of the few in Switzerland that can legitimately call itself a manufacture, a term of prestige that distinguishes companies that make every bit of their watches from those that buy components for assembly and marketing.
Thanks to its affiliation with Minerva, Montblanc controls almost every aspect of its Villeret production, down to the spiral springs coiled inside the balance wheels of its timepieces — a super-specialized watchmaking function often outsourced to the Nivarox-FAR subsidiary of the Swatch Group, which, by pure coincidence, owns a Villeret factory designed by the French architect Jean Nouvel for Cartier in the early 1990s.
It is a long way, in spirit at least, from this timeless Jura village to the city salons where luxury watches are sold, but that is, in many ways, the point. Even Blancpain, which left the village in the 1980s, still offers a highbrow collection that carries the Villeret name, paying homage to the power of a creation myth.
Article 2: Reposted from Wall Stret Journal Blog. 1/17/2011 By John Revill
A surge in Asian sales was the story behind Compagnie Financiere Richemont’s 33 percent increase in third quarter sales.
Booming sales in China along with increased spending by Chinese tourists coming to Europe to buy luxury Cartier jewelry and high-end Roger Dubuis and Piaget watches, were responsible for much of the upswing.
Not really surprising, but what about some of the less obvious Asian markets—like Mongolia?
Wandering around the 21st Salon International de la Haute Horlogerie (SIHH), I bumped into the director of Ulaanbaatar’s only Montblanc boutique. Indeed the only Montblanc boutique in the entire country.
Amgalan Enkhbazar opened the store last year and since then business is doing well: “People in Mongolia used to worship mountains, so the name Montblanc—as the biggest mountain in Europe—has a particular appeal to them,” he said. “Customers also buy things to bring them luck and it is important to have luck in business and life.”
In the past, Mongolian families used to hand down highly decorated snuff boxes from father to son. Now this is being replaced by Montblanc pens and watches Mr Enkbhazar said: “Traditionally when people have a pen, it shows they are highly educated and they are really proud to have these pens,” he said.
Pens sell better than watches, partly because the Dalai Lama also uses a Montblanc pen. Most Mongolians are Buddhists, so they want to follow their spiritual leader’s choice of writing instrument.
Mr Enkbhazar said: “We were very cautious at first, but now people are coming more and more to our store. Income levels in Mongolia are very low, but rising and so are our sales. People want to show off their success.”
Customers come from all around the country to buy products at his store, and he added he would maybe like to open another boutique.
Well, what do you buy the Mongolian who has everything?
This message has been edited by mkt33 on 2011-01-30 06:41:58
Thanks for....
posting them.....
It will be interesting to see how Montblanc develops and will be viewed in
the future years.....
Special attention, my friend, should be given to the Minerva line...
Great watches, although quite expensive....
Cheers