Montblanc

Following the launch of Montblanc Singapore’s “Celebrating the Spirit of Meisterstuck” exhibition last Fri, there were a series of dinners organized for Montblanc collectors, friends and retailers. I was fortunate to be invited for a dinner on Monday this week, organized by Sincere Fine Watches together with Montblanc Singapore.

The venue of the dinner is at the same place as last Fri’s exhibition launch party, i.e. Ngee Ann City’s Civic Plaza in Singapore.  I won’t be repeating what I had posted about the exhibition launch and party and you can read my previous post here: 

montblanc.watchprosite.com

Before dinner commenced, I walked over to Julien’s exhibition area and looked at the Minerva calibres again. I tend to look at the chronograph movements more as Minerva is well known in this complication but this time, I saw a very nice movement too (I saw it on last Fri but didn’t spend too much time on it). This time, this movement caught my eye.

Here is a much nicer picture taken by Fx some time ago.

This is the beautiful caliber 16-18, which is a Retour-A-Zero complication found in the Montblanc Villeret Grande Seconde au Center watch. A beautifully finished movement with a useful complication, allowing users to reset the seconds to zero at the pull of the crown (for those of us who want to reference another source of time, say to monitor accuracy).

2 great articles I found here, written by our moderators, Art and Mike:

montblanc.watchprosite.com

http://www.watchprosite.com/show-forumpost/fi-652/pi-/ti-623776/t--montblanc-villeret-1858-grande-seconde-au-centre-retour--zro-chapter-2/

I am quite interested in this complication and will read up more about it. Maybe my 2^nd Villeret?

(I pray my wife doesn’t ever read this post…)

Soon we were all asked to sit down for dinner.

Here is a menu. I have promised my Montblanc Villeret that for Mon’s dinner, I would bring him along as his sibling the Star Worldtime, attended last Fri’s party.

Is the food more yummy or the beautiful caliber 13.21 found in my Montblanc Villeret chronograph grand feu enamel? J

Appetizer and soup were great to start the dinner. I was seated beside Sincere’s CEO, Mr Ong Ban and he shared the story of how Sincere had partnered Montblanc in the region to educate their customers on the beauty and traditional craftsmanship of Montblanc Villeret timepieces since the launch of the Collection Villeret series by Montblanc back in 2007/2008. Some of his customers, who are all watch connoisseurs, ended up buying Montblanc Villeret watches and even created bespoke Montblanc Villeret pieces.

During the dinner, Montblanc watches were shared with guests. I spent more time on my favorite collections, namely the new Meisterstuck Heritage series as well as the Montblanc Collection Villeret series.

First introduced in SIHH 2014, the new Meisterstuck Heritage series is a new collection of great value classical timepieces that I feel has a lot of potential to grow Montblanc’s watch category. I spoke to some of my fellow collectors and customers of Sincere Fine Watches that evening and all of them spoke highly of this collection. Comments like “great price points for complications”, “classical looks that will appeal to more people”, “feels and looks well crafted” were common responses. This bodes well for Montblanc.

I really love the case design of the Meisterstuck Heritage series, especially the ones in 39mm as they fit my small wrist very well. Here are some pictures of my 2 favorites, the Meisterstuck Heritage Perpetual Calendar and the Moonphase. See the elegance of the case, the bombe dial with a sunburst light effect, the applied indices varying in length across the dial to create a very nice symmetry effect. The Moonphase is starting to grow on me more lately, especially in rose gold. Sheer beauty and a nice feeling on my wrist with just the right heft in rose gold!

A very nice picture of a rose gold Montblanc Villeret taken by my guest for the evening. I didn’t really see this piece – could my guest remind me which piece this was? Pls share more photos too thanks!

Finally, a buddy wrist shot with my friend Julien. His Minerva chronograph in steel with the beautiful 16.29 calibre! It must be a very rare watch! I seldom see these Minervas around. Some photos of his Minerva and my Montblanc Villeret, with calibres 16.29 and 13.21 side by side.

MB is on the right track as it seems with the Villeret range of high end chronographs/complications. It is now in my grail list and hope to own one in the near future.

The dinner selection looks delicious and those pics are making me hungry.

Thanks for sharing !

Cheers !