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jrwong23 (aka watchthebin)
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Montblanc Tourbillon Cylindrique Geosphères – Part One

The Montblanc Villeret manufacture is now also Montblanc’s movement and innovation excellence center. The manufacture, with the long history, accumulated expertise and tradition from Minerva, has over the past few years, developed very interesting high-end grand complications. Yes, the high end, finely finished chronographs from Montblanc Villeret are what they are famous for, since Minerva had always been well known for their chronographs. Equally impressive are their grand complications, for e.g. the Bi-Cylinderique Tourbillon, Exo-Tourbillon and Metamorphosis. These grand complications are all “super watches”, not only very finely finished and a joy to admire their movements but also highly innovative, with features and patents that are exclusive to Montblanc.


This year, at SIHH 2015, Montblanc continued this tradition of high innovation from their movement and innovation excellence center at Villeret, with the launch of the Montblanc Tourbillon Cylindrique Geosphères.





Concept of the watch
Here is a quick summary of the concept of this new grand complication:


1. Innovative tourbillon with cylindrical hairspring, double timezone indication and Worldtime on both the northern and southern hemispheres

2. A grand complication that pushes the boundaries of fine watchmaking with spectacular artisanal beauty

3. Worldtime with both hemispheres shown on 3 dimensional globes with Day & Night indication on rotating discs

4. The concept of this watch was inspired by Vasco da Gama’s voyage connecting the Northern and Southern Hemispheres

5. The Montblanc Villeret Tourbillon Cylindrique Geosphères pays homage to this great explorer and likewise builds a bridge between the two hemispheres, which is animated on the dial of this watch

6. Like all Montblanc Villeret watches, this is a very limited production watch. Only 18 pieces to be produced.



Inspiration from Vasco da Gama


This year, Montblanc honors the legacy of one of history’s greatest explorers, Vasco da Gama and this Montblanc Tourbillon Cylindrique Geosphères watch from Villeret pays the highest tribute amongst the other watches to honor Vasco da Gama. For 157 years, Villeret’s master watchmakers have practiced traditional Swiss watchmaking with the same combination of innovation, precision and determination that guided Vasco da Gama on his historic expedition. The unique design and function of this watch seek to express Vasco da Gama’s endeavors.











The hand-guilloché wave pattern on the dial illustrates the waves of the seas. The dial also has a very unique display of two hand-painted globes, which make a connected link between the Northern and Southern Hemispheres, where Vasco da Gama’s voyages crossed. The dial even has a compass rose inspired by the marble in Belem (Portugal). Finally, the cylindrical tourbillon expresses the mechanical precision that was essential for Vasco da Gama’s navigational achievements in 1498, when he discovered the sea route to India, using ancient precision navigation instruments such as the Nocturlabium and the Jacob’s or Cross staff.






The picture below illustrates the summary of the functions of this watch, as seen on the dial. I will be covering more details over this post and the next.



The Cylindrical Tourbillon

 

Unlike their flat counterparts, cylindrical hairsprings were regarded as the summum bonum and installed only in the finest and costliest marine chronometers in the old days. Valuable ship’s chronometers were indispensable for seafarers because only with the aid of a clock that continued to show the correct time with great accuracy for a lengthy period of time were mariners able to determine their longitude on the high seas. Today, a cylindrical hairspring continues to represent precision (and definitely artisanal beauty to me!) 



The challenge for Montblanc’s watchmakers was to miniaturize this type of hairspring and to install it in the tourbillon system of a wristwatch (much smaller than a traditional marine chronometer). Instead of being wound side by side, at increasing distances from a common center and all on the same plane, the individual turns of the balance-spring are all of equal diameter and are wound one atop the other in a different plane.


The benefits of the Tourbillon with Cylindrical Hairspring is that it eliminates the slight eccentricity of the centre of gravity, which has always been the Achille’s heel of conventional balance-spring and then improves the precision and performance of the timepiece. The terminal Philips curve contributes toward significantly improving the regularity of the breathing, thus further reducing the isochronism error. To be honest, I have not seen this watch yet but have seen the Tourbillon Bi-Cylinderique and I am not so interested in the precision or accuracy. The sheer beauty of the tourbillon bridge's finishing and movement of the balance/hairspring just blew me away with their artisanal value.


The cylindrical balance-spring is manufactured and regulated entirely in-house in the Montblanc manufacture in Villeret. As an owner of a Montblanc Villeret watch, I am always proud to know that there are very few manufactures today that have the know-how and craftsmanship to manufacture their own balance wheels and hairsprings. Without these abilities in-house, Montblanc could never have developed the cylindrical hairspring for the Tourbillon Cylindrique Geosphères Vasco da Gama (or would have done so alot slower and more expensive). The tourbillon mechanism is made of 91-parts revolving in 1-minute around his own axis.  







I will be doing another post to explain the double timezone and worldtime functions of this watch, as well as the spectacular artisanal beauty of the dial (the hand painted 3D globes are truly a work of art!) and the movement. More to come soon on this work of art on a wrist! Stay tuned.


Cheers

robin