Montblanc can trace its roots back to 1906, when Hamburg banker Alfred Nehemias and engineer August Eberstein developed an ingenious built-in ink reservoir that eliminated the need for his Simplissimus pen to be dipped – the norm at the time. Seeing the potential, a group of entrepreneurs – called Wilhelm Dziambor, Christian Lausen and Claus Johannes Voss – snapped up the business, called it ‘The Simplo Filler Pen Co.’ and set it on the road to global calligraphic fame.

In 1910 the company was renamed  Montblanc, the association with Europe’s highest mountain being intended to demonstrate its superior standards of craftsmanship. The distinctive logo, first used in 1913, represents the mountain’s snow-capped peak and its six glaciers: but the only objects it would appear on for the next 65 years were pens. 

That all changed in 1977, when Montblanc was bought by the British gentleman’s outfitter Alfred Dunhill, after which its entry-level pens were discontinued and its premium Meisterstuck model (launched in 1924) given prominence. The Dunhill name first became inextricably linked with luxurious fountain pens back in the 1920s, when its hugely expensive creations – decorated with Japanese Maki-e lacquer – became high-society status symbols. And with the acquisition of Montblanc in the 70s, Dunhill’s association with writing instruments could be rekindled once again.

Seeing greater potential in the brand, Dunhill also began to apply it to other luxury items, notably small leather goods and luggage. When it merged with Cartier in 1993, Montblanc went with it and became part of the Vendôme Group: now, Richemont.

It was Richemont, of course, that grew Montblanc into the luxury goods giant that it is today (estimated to turn over around $1bn per year) and, in 1997, saw potential in creating Montblanc-branded watches.

And so, just-shy of a century after Montblanc first set down its penmanship roots, I made my first visit to the Montblanc watchmaking base nestled in the Jura mountains. That was in 2005: a dozen years after the brand became part of the Richemont group, and eight years after the arrival of its first watch. It was also on this particular visit that I realised this wasn’t the first time the Montblanc name had appeared on a timepiece.

Unbeknownst to Richemont at the time, a watch company called ‘Mont-Blanc’ had been established in 1889 and was still on the register: meaning the modern-day Montblanc had to officially buy it, despite the original having gone out of business in 1930.

Back in those early days of contemporary Montblanc watch making, Montblanc Montres was run by Hamdi Chatti, previously with Cartier and subsequently the man responsible for establishing Louis Vuitton as a serious player in the horological game. During Chatti’s tenure at Montblanc – which lasted until 2010 – watch production increased from a mere 20,000 pieces per year in 2000, to an astonishing 200,000 by the time he left.

The offering was grown largely through unremarkable models, in lines such as the Summit, Timewalker, Sport and Star collections, all of which were assembled from bought-in parts at the Montblanc Montres atelier in Le Locle, an apparently traditional residential villa built in the early 1900s.

What isn’t immediately apparent from the roadside is that a gravel-covered terrace at the back of the house doubles as the roof for a contemporary, glass-sided building; inside, around 100 staff continue to assemble, test, check and dispatch watches today.

Although the operation projected a plausible combination of craftsmanship, authenticity and serious horological intent back in 2005, there appeared to be three obvious obstacles standing in the way of success for any watch with ‘Montblanc’ written on the dial.

The first was that the name is clearly more synonymous with writing instruments than timepieces; the second, was that Montblanc had no heritage in watchmaking from which to seek inspiration at a time when many of its long-established rivals were capitalising on their pasts; the third was that it wasn’t a manufacture capable of producing its own components.

The latter two, in particular, were problems that Richemont’s bosses set about to address tout suite. In 2006, it bought Montblanc both some heritage and some craftsmanship in the form of Minerva, a historic watch maker based in the tiny Jura town of Villeret outside St Imier (home to Longines). 

Minerva was founded in 1858 as H. & C. Robert and, by the 20th century, had made a name for itself not only by producing good watches, but by developing some exceptional in-house calibres and establishing a particular reputation for the chronograph complication. By the early 1930s, when wristwatches had deposed pocket watches, Minerva had become a recognised manufacturer of sports models and its 13-20 CH column-wheel calibre became an all-time classic thanks to a combination of its excellent functionality and exquisite appearance.

Despite its potential, Minerva went bust in 1934 and was purchased out of bankruptcy by Charles Haussener and Jacques Pelot in 1935. The shares moved down the generations for the rest of the century until Minerva was picked up by Italian investors at the turn of the millennium: by 2006, it was in a strong enough state again for Richemont to take note.

As well as getting the historic and appealing Minerva dial name, Montblanc also got the brand’s iconic ‘arrow’ logo, the building it has occupied since 1902 and sufficient vintage watches, old movements, photographs, design drawings, marketing material, ledgers and other ephemera to attest to Minerva’s historic status: and, therefore, to enhance Montblanc’s horological credibility.

The association with Minerva has, indeed, created a halo effect around Montblanc’s higher-end pieces, some of which it identifies with the 1858 nameplate (taken from the year of Minerva’s founding as H. & C. Robert).

What is more – and just to add another element to the mix – the decision was also taken to use the name of Nicolas Rieussec on some of Montblanc’s manufacture chronographs: all in tribute to the man who pioneered the ‘inking’ chronograph in 1821 as a method of recording horse race results. It’s a canny move: providing as it does a link between the themes of time and pens.

One of the first significant products to emerge from the Minerva acquisition was the remarkable Metamorphosis of 2010, a piece created under the banner of the Institut Minerva which was set-up in 2008 to foster independent talent by giving different young watchmakers the chance to create a new project every two years.

The Metamorphosis, conceived by Johnny Girardin and Franck Orny, featured a slide on the side of the case which activated a beautifully choreographed, 15-second sequence during which six ‘wings’ covering what appeared to be a standard dial opened up, allowing a hidden chronograph subdial to rise from within. Just 28 were made, and they were priced at £170,000 apiece.

The following year saw the arrival of the stunning Vintage Pulsographe, a 58-piece, £30,000 limited edition watch based on a 1920s Minerva; subsequent landmark models included the superb Heritage Chronométrie Chronograph Annual Calendar of 2016, which featured four subdials and no fewer than 10 hands.

But while the Minerva connection was clearly doing its job of bringing hardened horolophiles to Montblanc watchmaking, the offering as a whole still needed a serious make-over. For this, the brand called on Davide Cerrato, the bold designer who had put Tudor back on the global map with the smash hit Heritage Black Bay (and is now CEO of Bremont).

Cerrato joined Montblanc in 2015 as head of its watch division and quickly set out to establish that Montblanc and Minerva were a single unit: not two separate entities. To that end, he capitalised on Minerva’s chronograph roots to create the retro-looking Timewalker Manufacture Chronograph, a piece launched in 2017 to coincide with the start of the brand’s five-year partnership with the Goodwood Festival of Speed.

Cerrato also created the 1858 Geosphere line, a series of watches based on ‘professional’ Minerva models from the 1920s and 30s and incorporating a pair of rotating spheres that serve as a world time complication. That model was intended to be Montblanc’s hero watch, and also to enhance the brand’s association with mountains and the outdoors in general – and, although Cerrato left Montblanc over three years ago, the Geosphere remains a key piece in the current 1858 range. 

Cerrato’s successor Laurent LeCamp – the current managing director of watches at Montblanc – is also majoring on the outdoor theme. He demonstrated his belief in it two years ago with the launch of the Iced Sea models, featuring dials inspired by the patterns formed in the glacial ice of the actual Mont Blanc massif’s impressive Mer de Glace. Separate from 1858, the Iced Sea has since become Montblanc’s top-selling collection, accounting for 23 per cent of turnover, according to LeCamp. Its success was enhanced at this year’s Watches and Wonders with the launch of three new versions – the hero piece being the O Oxygen Deep 4810 featured on these pages. The ‘4810’ in the name refers, of course, to the height of Mont Blanc – although, by strange logic, it’s an extreme dive watch said to be capable of withstanding that very same depth beneath the waves.

The 43mm titanium case features a back engraved with a 3D-coloured image based on the view of ice as seen from beneath: an effect achieved by laser-generated oxidisation that leaves matte and shiny finishes on the metal to create dramatic contrasts of colour and texture. And as with the original Ice Sea watches, the 4810’s dial has been created using the gratte boise technique to give a finish inspired by glacier ice. Here, however, it is coloured blue and treated with an attractive smoked effect.

As the name suggests, the watch also joins Montblanc’s existing series of watches which possess cases completely devoid of oxygen: a feature that the brand claims eliminates the fogging caused by severe temperature swings, and prevents oxidisation of the movement (which can eventually lead to corrosion). The COSC-certified watch, which comes with a certificate to confirm its oxygen-free-status, is supplied on a quick-change black rubber strap.

Also joining the Iced Sea collection are two automatic date models, the first featuring a black glacier pattern dial inside a ‘bronze-tone’ case crafted from cupro aluminium, an alloy made from a mix of aluminium and copper that is more resistant than regular bronze but still patinates uniquely. As for the case, it carries a nicely contrasting, bi-colour bezel and a back featuring a 3D engraving of a diver. The second watch is in steel with a new, burgundy dial, black ceramic bezel and a quick-change steel bracelet. Both models, finally, feature a new Iced Sea logo based on a vintage Minerva export seal.

The 1850 line-up, meanwhile, is joined by a new geosphere model called the O Oxygen Carbo2 LE 1969. The ‘O Oxygen’ aspect is explained above, but ‘Carbo2’ refers to the fact that the barrel of the case is produced by blending carbon fibre with a powder made from captured waste carbon dioxide. This in turn creates a tough, lightweight material that is designed to fade from black to grey over time.

A blue gasket around the dial signifies the ‘zero oxygen’ feature, while a luminous ‘glacier blue’ outline of Mont Blanc made from varnished Super-LumiNova decorates the barrel, above which is placed a bi-directional compass bezel made from titanium. And if you’re wondering what the 1969 of the model refers to, that was the year in which Montblanc ambassador and legendary mountaineer Reinhold Messner became the first solo climber to scale Les Droites, Mont Blanc’s fearsome north face. 

In addition to these four new watches, Montblanc will also launch a new, limited edition high-end piece – the 1858 Minerva Monopusher chronograph, the latest watch in its Unveiled line, which features five sapphire crystal windows around the case that enable the superb skeletonised, 291-part hand-wound movement to be seen in its full glory. An all-new calibre, the MB M17.26 is a reversed version of previous movements, meaning its most animated components are displayed on the dial side – along with some beautifully-blued bridges and a polished bridge in the shape of Minerva’s signature ‘devil’s tail’.

The 43mm case, meanwhile, is fitted with a white gold fluted bezel (precious metal bezels being a feature of Montblanc’s Minerva manufacture models) based on Minerva’s first, which was made in 1927. Just 100 examples will be made – so be prepare to scale above the competition to call one yours.