Montblanc- Can You Take Me Higher!

With a name so evocative of Europes highest peak, is it any surprise that Montblanc keeps scaling new heights?

- Celine Yap

Anyone who has a vague interest in haute horlogerie would find it difficult to ignore what Montblanc has been doing in recent years. The brand’s sweeping transformation from a pen-making specialist to a bona fide luxury maison has been nothing short of awe-inspiring. It’s like in filmmaking when they say deux ex machina, or God from the machine—a plot device where a solution to a situation magically appears from thin air, righting all the wrongs and bringing everything to a desired equilibrium. The difference though is that in films, this may often seem contrived and awkward, and what happened at Montblanc was not only natural and logical, but long overdue.

That singular event was the appointment of Jerome Lambert as CEO, who has very recently gone on to become group CEO of all Richemont watch brands. In just four short years, Lambert swiftly restructured the company and brought its three divisions closer together: pen-making, leathermaking and watchmaking. This was how Montblanc began to gain a steady reputation as a purveyor of the best luxury goods on the market: pens from Germany, leather from Italy and watches from Switzerland.

THE MINERVA STORY

Montblanc has a vast collection of timepieces ranging from the entry-level Star series through such timeless trendy pieces as the TimeWalker and 4810, right up to the stuff of connoisseurs’ dreams like the 1858. For a while, Montblanc also dabbled in high-concept horology with the Metamorphosis project, which yielded such watches as the TimeWalker Chronograph 1000 that measures time accurate to one-thousandth of a second. Suffice it to say, it’s got something for every level of watch appreciation, whether you’re a horology novice or a seasoned collector—even if you’re only getting a watch because it looks cool and matches your leather accessories.