Montblanc

I just shared on News Central. 

www.watchprosite.com

This seems like quite a "secret" project and a nice surprise from Montblanc as I didn't see this Montblanc TimeWalker Pythagore Ultra-Light Concept during the Black and White week in Singapore (even though I saw a few other watches under embargo which I cannot share for now until the time is ripe)

Ken, Fx, Nico - any of you saw this TimeWalker Pythagore Ultra-Light Concept in the metal before? Or any other Purist? If so, please share live pictures for I do not have them.

Some features of this watch which sounds pretty exciting (adapted from the press release):

The TimeWalker Pythagore Ultra-Light Concept focuses on very high end innovation and R&D on its case to make it super light weight.. Montblanc's engineers have worked on a combination of black DLC titanium for the horns and ITR²®Kevlar®/Carbon elements for the middle case, case back, bezel and crown, making the new TimeWalker Pythagore Ultra-Light Concept one of the lightest mechanical timepieces in the world — a mere 14.88 grams.

ITR²®, otherwise known as Innovative, Technical, Revolutionary Resin, is a composite material charged with carbon nanotubes. It is extremely difficult to manufacture, with only a handful of specialists able to make watch cases out of it. It is eight times lighter than steel and four times lighter than titanium. Montblanc continues to innovate with this outstanding material by combining it, for the first time, with Kevlar®/carbon, a highly resistant synthetic fibre, to reach utmost robustness, creating a world première in case-making materials.

Case is 40mm, a good size for a sports themed watch. It is not a sports watch per se as the water resistance is only 30m. The case construction is also reinforced by the horns made of titanium that have been skeletonized, satin-finished and treated with a black DLC coating for scratch resistance. The Maison has also equipped the case with an ITR²®Kevlar®/Carbon crown adorned with the Montblanc emblem. Mineral glass on both the dial and the case back of the timepiece also helps keep weight to the minimum. Of course, mineral glass is easier to scratch than sapphire glass so something to take note of here. However, kudos to Montblanc for the level of detail exercised here to keep the watch to the lightest possible weight.

On the dial, the very visible calibre MB M62.48 is handcrafted and skeletonized.The decision to skeletonize the movement was not only an aesthetic choice, however, as careful attention was paid to keeping the overall weight to a minimum. Even the small seconds subdial at six o'clock has been skeletonized for additional lightness and transparency. This anthracite subdial has been crafted out of super-light anodized aluminium and applied directly to the titanium mainplate, along with its elegant red-tipped Minerva arrow for increased legibility.

In terms of the movement, the design of the movement is inspired by the historic Minerva Pythagore movement with its straight architectural bridge shapes that follow Pythagoras's Golden Ratio. Pythagoras discovered that beauty was associated with the ratio of small integers, and by respecting these ratios he could create perfect harmony with proportions. The Montblanc Calibre MB M62.48 is the modern-day interpretation of the historical Minerva movement that was designed in 1943. This contemporary movement has been completely redesigned in terms of materials and finishing. The skeletonized main plate and the five bridges have all been crafted out of titanium for an extreme lightness, while preserving the robustness of the movement. So this is the first Montblanc Villeret movement I know that does not have bridges crafted in German silver. The result is a highly contemporary, ultra-light movement of only 4.73 grams

 

Hopefully one day I can see this in the metal. If I have more info, any live pictures, I will share asap!

Cheers

robin

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