u/Watch_Commission_NYC

This is watch collecting insanity, and something that a normal person or a casual watch owner would consider wasteful, pointless, and possibly even stupid.

I had the Montblanc Heritage Chronométrie Monopusher, featuring a salmon dial set in a steel case and a warm-grey leather strap. Like a classic watch from the 1960s it has a steel caseback, in this case engraved with a picture of the Minerva watch factory, a brand that Montblanc integrated in the early 2000s. I say “had” because I actually gifted it to my assistant’s son upon graduating from university.

I adored that watch, it was so quintessentially early 1960s. It’s a monopusher chronograph, but on the minute subdial at 3 o’clock it actually shows three-minute increments. That was to time the payment intervals of phone calls. I experienced the last gasp of that system when I was calling my parents from a payphone while going to school in England in the early 1980s.
 
But I came to realize that this was an internal homage to a Minerva chronograph. Montblanc acquired that brand as well as the factory in Villeret, which is actually depicted on the back of the homage.
 
Once I knew there was a rarer version out there, I began looking. I’m not a vintage guy, but I’m all in on neo-vintage. I found this real Minvera from 2019, limited to 100 pieces. It is smaller and thinner. Manual wound, it is actually a pulsograph, but it still has the three-minute increments on the subdial to indicate telephone time.
 
The most important difference between the new watches is the movement. Caliber MB 13.21 is a direct descendant of the Minerva caliber 13.20, which was used in some of the company’s most attractive chronographs from the mid-20th century.
 
The dial is somewhat more sophisticated, with blue markings and text, though both watches feature the identical copper-colored dial. The Minerva also has blued hands, which is both elegant but also glints wonderfully in the sun and makes the watch more legible.
 
As a nice touch, both watches feature the same smokey dark brown-grey aligator strap. Both feature the name on the dial, though in a logo different from the contemporary brand. I wish they had committed to the Minvera brand.
 
The insanity I started with is that this Minerva costs ten times as much as the “regular” Montblanc. Normies will never understand, but I thought I’d share the story here.

Lots more pics and details on my website, as usual.

The Parmigiani Fleurier Tonda PF is a great example of how design can be subtle but incredibly important. My father liked to say that the glory of God could be beholden in the human face: two eyes, a nose, a mouth, and some hair, yet every face looks different… and for some small reason one can be considered ugly while another is beautiful enough to launch a thousand ships.

Parmigiani Fleurier does a lot right. Everything in the current collection is beautiful, but it runs deeper than that: The movements are intelligently designed but also handsomely decorated. The microrotors have a guilloche design while the plates are polished with Geneva stripes. More importantly, the clever rethinking of popular complications has come to define the brand over the last couple of years, with timers, chronographs, and GMTs that hide the function when not in use, reducing the watches to subtle two-handers.

This the Tonda PF GMT Rattrapante, a simple time-only watch with white gold hands and the Milano Blue dial. If you find yourself in a different time zone you can simply push the button near the 8 o’clock side of the case and it will move the hour hand to your current time, while leaving a darker rose gold-colored hour hand at your home time. When you return home you simply push the button in the crown, and the two hour hands snap back together, once again hiding the darker hour hand and leaving you with nothing but the current time.

If you want to be pedantic you could point out that this watch is neither a GMT but rather a dual-time zone watch, and it isn’t really a Rattrapante either. But that’s a pretty Killjoy thing to do.

There may be a hundred different metal sport watches available in the market, many with a blue dial. Ever since Audemars Piguet launched it’s Royal Oak this has been the defining look, yet so many fail in terms of design. This Tonda does nothing new, yet manages to be all together elegant, sporty, and sleek. There’s a fluted bezel reminiscent of various Rolex designs but much more refined, there’s a call-back to Omega’s Aqua Terra case, but the mix of matte and polished links on the bracelet take the watch deep into the territory of jewelry.

Today’s images feature the OG Blue Steel, Ms Grace Jones, created by her then-husband Jean-Paul Goude.

Speake-Marin has always had an odd way of pairing a respectful nod to traditional watchmaking with a modern, design-driven approach. There’s something quite Anglo-Helvetian about it all. England and Switzerland each have storied pasts. Each country is struggling to have a clear view on who it wants to be next, and what role it should play shaping the world, as if that was still an option for either of them.

In that same way, Speake-Marin references the past with novel ideas, forging an independent path. Most of the watches are part of its Piccadilly line, a traditional-looking watch with straight lugs shooting out of the case wall, with thick knuckle endings that emulate a screwed strap. It still uses springbars though, which makes changes straps very easy. The crown makes its silhouette look like a navitime tool watch, more for captains than pilots. The watch looks tough, but then the brand has been quite successful by placing elegant open-worked movements within this drum-shaped case.

This is the Openworked Dual Time. Its wonderfully contemporary architecture shows that this watch was designed to live without a dial. The bridges are key to the concept, showing several layers and distinct edges, all intergral to the watch’s appeal. The dials float while the numerical rings are angled, giving the subdial a recessed look. The color palatte is well-matched in the numerical font, while the hands look like they came from a 19th century clock but give it a whimsical approach without becoming cute.

Speake-Marin created a number of bright color combinations. This one is called the Terracotta, and ships with a white rubber strap that makes it a quintessential summer watch, though a simple black leather strap in the winter turns it from beach club to nightclub. I like the weird frosted surface. The chaotic elements offer a 24-hour time dial, and a small seconds dial sits at a funky angle while a retrograde date horseshoe surrounds it at the top right of the dial. That small seconds dial between 1 and 2 o’clock has become Speake-Marin's signature feature. It’s kind of weird how the open design gives an emphasis to the main spring barrel while hiding the balance wheel on the back of the watch.

Speake-Marin makes these watches in 38mm and in 42mm. The trend has been back to cases smaller than 40mm, but I like bigger watches, so this is the 42mm version. I consider that to be pretty much as large as I am willing to go, with the notable exception of Bernhard Lederer’s CIC. I still remember when Panerai had its big moment in the 1990s, no pun intended, with a historic call-back to its war time naval adventures.

The watch world is filled with history, functions, and design that are respected and considered important. It is is difficult to stand out. Like a lot of craft-driven industries it is also male dominated. Maybe it is part of Speake-Marin’s design quirks and subsequent success that are a reflection of a company that is owned and led by a woman. Christelle Rosnoblet has done a great job introducing elegant yet technical designs while staying independent. That’s not easy. Combining tasteful design with interesting horology could benefit a lot of watch companies trying to figure out their spot in the marketplace.

Possible blasphemy ahead, so continue with caution: I think if Breguet ever had the courage to try its hand on something slightly more contemporary, this watch could be an interesting reference point, but these days it takes a younger brand to forge new paths.

The custom strap by Alex Crown using black alligator and Hermes’ famous orange Togo leather really ties Eric Giroud’s watch design together elegantly. He may be best known for his many MB&F pieces, including the M.A.D 1 and 2.