Jrwong23's 2014 post introduces the Montblanc Star Twin Moonphase, a significant novelty from SIHH 2014. This article offers an insightful look into the watch's unique complication, which displays moon phases for both hemispheres, and provides a glimpse into its manufacturing process at Montblanc's Le Locle manufacture. It highlights Montblanc's evolving approach to watchmaking and the Star collection's maturation.
Dear PuristS and friends of Montblanc,
I hope you have enjoyed Mike's and my posts so far on the history and evolution of the Montblanc Star collection. As a relatively young collector, it was an eye opener for me to see pictures of the pioneer Montblanc Star watches (not "vintage" yet!) and their evolution from simple quartz/automatic watches to useful complications such as the Worldtime and the Complete Calendar (in Mike's recent post).
Over the next few posts, Mike and I will share more on the latest member of the Star Collection, a 2014 novelty introduced in SIHH 2014 - the Montblanc Star Twin Moonphase. We will be sharing some "insider" photos from the Montblanc LeLocle manufacture and I hope PuristS will enjoy these posts
A teaser post for now
To be completely honest, the ignorant me didn't even know that moonphase appears differently in the Northern and South Hemisphere until this Twin Moonphase watch was launched and I started reading more about it during SIHH 2014. One great post of this watch and complication was written by our PuristSPro moderator, Magnus aka Ornatus-Mundi, and this was the first time I learned about this cosmic law on moonphases appearing on earth. See this link for Magnus' excellent writeup on this watch during its SIHH preview.
I really didn't know before (or probably have forgotten my primary school science lessons!) that the lunar phases follow one another in the same sequence regardless of an observer’s location: full moon is full moon and waxing moon is waxing moon, but the geometries of the waxing and waning moon as seen from the Southern Hemisphere are mirror images of their counterparts as viewed from the North!
The Montblanc Star Twin Moonphase is equipped with a new movement exclusively used by Montblanc, i.e. the Montblanc calibre MB29.13. The automatic calibre has a Sellita movement as its base, with a Dubois-Depraz module, which is developed exclusively for Montblanc's use.
This unique complication allows its owner to observe the moon’s phase in both hemispheres and gives the age of the moon in days. I find this complication very interesting even if it may not be the most useful for us living in the Northern hemisphere. As an employee of an MNC with a global function, I need to know timezones very well and I also work with colleagues in South Africa, LATAM and Australia. Once on a global call, I made a comment "Oh, the moon is full today" - when I was looking at my Patek annual calendar and my colleagues in South Africa was confused. Now besides monitoring their timezones, I will know their moonphase too if I had this Twin Moonphase complication! And for folks in the Southern hemisphere, I am sure this will be useful for them.
Here are some pictures taken in the Montblanc LeLocle manufacture (pictures courtesy of Montblanc LeLocle manufacture) on the assembly of the Star Twin Moonphase. We will share more pics in the next few posts. Some features of this calibre:
> Traditional construction of the movement with screwed elements (no bridges to maintain them)
> A classical moon-phase display with its characteristically shaped window (to emulate the geometry of the waxing or waning moon as it appears to viewers in the Northern Hemisphere) is combined here with a pointer for the moon’s age in days. This slim hand is positioned diametrically opposite the conventional moon-phase display in the lower half of the lunar subdial, where it points to symbols that show the appearance which the moon’s phases present to viewers in the Southern Hemisphere
> The date and moon-phase displays can be easily adjusted in single-day increments via two buttons inset into the flank of the case.
I like the
guilloche decor alot on the dial (I took the pic below during the Montblanc-PuristSPro dinner in Singapore some months back). Although the dial is not symmetrical due to the date indicator on the right, I find its design bold and works well with the Star collection's overall design DNA (something like this may not work well with the very traditional looks of the Meisterstuck Heritage range for instance). I will cover more on this in my coming posts in terms of design/case/wrist comfort, etc.
Hope you have enjoyed this post. I promise more to come soon
cheers
robin
This message has been edited by jrwong23 on 2014-05-29 02:10:54 
