The newest creation in Montblanc’s Collection Villeret 1858 features a delightfully surprising and trailblazing innovation. The new Ex Tourbillon Chronographe is a regulator watch with a large centrally axial minute-hand, a distinct hour display, an indicator for the time in a second time zone (with day/night display), a subdial for the seconds, a chronograph with a counter for 30 elapsed minutes, and an absolutely unprecedented tourbillon with a balance larger than the tourbillon’s rotating cage and positioned outside it.

The watch’s face boasts a typical regulator configuration. A large minute-hand and the chronograph’s elapsed seconds-hand share a common axis at the center of the dial. The subdial for the hours is shifted out of the center and occupies the lower half of the watch’s face. Additional displays portray a miniature solar system with a golden sun (the tourbillon) at the “12,” the Earth at the “6,” the moon in the form of a small 24-hour dial between the “4” and the “5” (as a day/night display for the time in a second time zone), and two other heavenly bodies in the form of the small seconds at the “9” and the chronograph’s counter for 30 elapsed minutes at the “3.” The last-mentioned display is semicircular, with two differently colored scales calibrated for 0 to 15 and 15 to 30 minutes, respectively. The tips of two unequally long and differently colored hands each serves its designated scale. 

 

 

The chronograph lever is elaborately finished by hand. A finely grained stone is used to polish the lever; the bridges are manually adorned with Geneva stripes. The large and massive balance oscillates at a frequency of 18,000 semi-oscillations per hour (2.5 hertz), which makes it possible to measure brief intervals to the nearest fifth of a second. The chronograph’s functions are operated sequentially by depressing a button in the crown.

Frequent flyers will appreciate the fact that the Exo Tourbillon Chronographe can display the time in two different time zones. The skeletonized hour-hand on the hours subdial indicates the local time, while the tip of the blued steel hour-hand points to the hour in home. When the wearer travels to a different time zone, he or she can press the button at the “8” to advance to the correct local time.

Only one unique piece of the ExoTourbillon Chronographe will be manufactured in platinum, 8 pieces in 18K white gold and 8 in 18K rose gold.

 

Text: ± Photo: Cortesía de las marcas / Brands Courtesy