Horological Meandering

Minerva was not sold from Frey to Montblanc but beforehand in 2000 to Mr. Gnutti. Only in 2006 the company was sold to Montblanc.

Mr. Gnutti tried to transform Minerva into a luxury brand with grand complications and also high prices. For this reason he hired Demetrio Cabiddu, one of the best watchmakers and technical innovators around. Under his management the Gnutti-Minerva developed chronographs and horological marvels, some of them being offered at six digits already in 2005, a year before Montblanc joined the game. Nowadays there are dozens of watches available from that era on different platforms, being offered for prices between 20 and 60k. Gnutti was not at all successful with this high price strategy for Minerva, and Montblanc saved Minerva from being liquidated. So what everyones crying out loud for, which is purely Minerva labelled high end pieces, has not worked between 2000 and 2006 and would not have worked in 2007 as well. 

For proof see the attached screen shot and there are other sources available. 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.

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