TEST OF TIME

Montblanc’s Institut Minerva de Recherche en Haute Horlogerie where the stillness of time brings about artisanal reckoning of it

- JONATHAN HO

IN THE BEGINNING, there was the hand. Five fingers, controlled by heart and mind, extended by the tools, also made by hand, cutting, assembling, polishing and engraving; from start to finish, a work not just of the body but soul. In a time of standardised luxury production, Swiss haute horlogerie still distinguishes itself by championing something that no industrial machine can yet replicate: the artisan’s hand.

Though today, machines cut out components, perform rudimentary polishing and engraving, the final gestures are still made by the artisan, a tradition perpetuated since the birth of Swiss watchmaking. The Latin word “manufacture” like that of Montblanc’s Institut Minerva de Recherche en Haute Horlogerie is there to remind us of the primacy of humble hands.

The Minerva Institute, purchased by the Richemont Group in 2004, is one of the few manufactures that has been producing watches and movements continuously since its inception. Minerva, a famous name in movements, was founded in 1858 in the town of Villeret, Switzerland. Once a bustling centre of watchmaking, now Minerva is one of two companies that remain. Its eventual secondment to Montblanc has allowed Minerva to remain committed to its roots – making the finest mechanical movements, using traditional production methods mixed with modern ways of thinking and manufacturing.