PALPABLE DESIRE

Montblanc Managing Director of the Watch Division Laurent Lecamp talks with us about creating desire. He has identified three pillars, all of which are to be found in every new Montblanc watch this year

-  ASHOK SOMAN

The late Rolf Schnyder exhorted me to remember that not everyone who works in watchmaking does so for passion or even for profit. Sometimes, it is just a job that pays the bills, like many other jobs. He never really expanded on the point, but it has stuck with me over the years. I keep it in the back of my mind when I meet watchmakers and executives in the trade, to avoid my own biases. Montblanc’s watchmaking boss Laurent Lecamp definitely has a passion for the storytelling aspects of watchmaking and is amazed by the work watchmakers do. Not just the results, such as the meticulously finished movements emerging from the Minerva manufacture, but also the act of finishing itself. The art of finissage, in other words.

You can see the evidence for this yourself, if you watch the video where Lecamp discusses the glacier dials of the Iced Sea Automatic. It does not come across fully on camera, but his eyes light up with complete authenticity. This is more obvious in person, as the WOW team discovered when we met him at Watches and Wonders Geneva. For the 1858 Iced Sea Automatic Date, one of our highlights from the fair, it is even more remarkable that the specific technique to create the dial was suggested by the supplier, and Lecamp’s astonishment that 30 processes go into making one dial is palpable.