Mapping A Path

Taking Montblanc’s 2019 novelties with us into the labyrinth of Vietnam's caves, WOW is reminded of the perils and privileges of watchmaking and the roads not taken

- Jonathan Ho And Ashok Soman

In our editorial discussions, the subject of our current cover caused considerable consternation. To be clear, no one disputes the virtues of the Montblanc 1858 Geosphere, in any material; the Luxuo editor even rocks one on his wrist quite frequently. No the difficulty emerges in what we have to say about the Geosphere since we have been covering it in one form or another since 2015. It first appeared as part of the very impressively named Montblanc Collection Villeret Tourbillon Cylindrique Geospheres Vasco da Gama. What happened was that the Geospheres part of this complication found a new lease of life in 2018 in a much more accessible line, with an easier to manage name. Happily, it then exploded in popularity.

One consequence of that success was a consistent desire on our part to feature the watch. Every time the conversation rolls around to what Montblanc watches deserve our attention, the Geosphere inevitably comes to mind. What we have never done though is put the watch on our cover – we do not recall any magazine that has, since 2018. When we looked at it that way, it seemed we had to act.

To be fair, this particular issue was not a likely candidate, given that we have already gone in-depth on bronze watches in issue #53, going so far as to put a time-only bronze watch on the cover then. That means we will not be getting into the material heart of the 1858 Geosphere in bronze – it was indeed a part of the aforementioned story on the contemporary bronze watch.