Horological Meandering

Thanks for your comments, allow me to clarify ...

 

To help me respond for clarity:

Marc-Oh yes, for sure. I did not say that the Frey family sold to Richemont/Montblanc. I just said it was sold. I left out that the first sale was made to Gnutti as that would have taken a whole bunch more of typing on what Gnutti tried to do with Minerva. I can see how one could easily assume that Richemont/Montblanc were the immediate buyers from the Frey's so thanks for making that clear.

As for the date of the sale, I too have seen numerous articles that quote 2000 as the date of sale. However, I recall seeing a press release that said 2002. This is the reason I said 2002 in my initial post. It's interesting to note that the papers of my Pythagore are dated June 2002 ... but that of course is the date of sale and not the date of production. 

I am in touch with Beppe Menaldo (CEO/Director of the Gnutti owned Minerva) and I'll ask him if he recalls when exactly the sale happened.  I'll also look through my archives to see if I can find the press release.  Will update again here if/when I find out more.

Gnutti was not at all successful with this high price strategy for Minerva, and Montblanc saved Minerva from being liquidated. 

Marc- Not sure if Montblanc "saved" Minerva  ... or that Gnutti was " not successful". In some ways Montblanc saved Minerva (as they bought it), but lets also remember that Gnutti was charged in court for other things and his entire empire was therefore in jeopardy. I do not know if Minerva itself was making or losing money at the time. But I do know that they had to rework a whole ton of dyes and machines from Frey to adjust to what they wanted to do and this tool close to 2 years and lots of money. So yeah, perhaps more of an issue with Gnutti vs Minerva itself? I don't know enough about the sales and cash flow situation of Minerva at the time to have an opinion.

It's easy to bash on Montblanc but beforehand one should get the facts right. They saved a marvel with lots of money and thought it wise not to follow the unsuccessful path of Gnutti but to rebrand into Montblanc-Minerva.

Marc-Not sure where I had "bash on Montblanc" ... I merely said that I prefer to see Minerva on the dial and that their prices "massively more than the original Minerva’s". I did say that the finishing from Montblanc is excellent ... the pieces from Minerva Villeret that is.

Hope this clarifies andI  look forward to hearing back from you. It will be interesting to combine our research and discuss further ... as some parts of Minerva to Gnutti to Richemont ownership are a little bit sketchy at times.

Best wishes from Singapore.

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