Montblanc

SIHH 2015: Why I'd Buy The Montblanc Heritage Orbis Terrarum Watch

 

PuristSPro moderator and long-term Montblanc fountain pen collector Patrick_y tries to be critical of the Montblanc Heritage Orbis Terrarum Watch and finds his job so difficult he decided to focus on what was done right about the watch. 





Despite now being past Basel 2015 and SIHH 2015 many of the watches are still very memorable, especially the Montblanc Heritage Orbis Terrarum that was launched at SIHH 2015.  This watch is the latest iteration of the original World Time concept first pioneered by Louis Cottier in the early 20th century and the first Montblanc world time watch I'd consider procuring for myself.  PuristSPro moderator, Amanico, an expert with Louis Cottier's World watches, already wrote a very comprehensive review of the watch.  You can read Amanico's superb review of this superb timepiece here:

montblanc.watchprosite.com

As an attendee of the SIHH 2015 show, I found the Montblanc Heritage Orbis Terrarum watch to be the star of the show.  And then, being famously critical, I tried to find mistakes that had been made with the watch...  And wow, I really found almost no faults with the piece!  Out of desperation, you'll see that I've found some minor faults with the watch, and they're listed below. 

PROS:

1.     1.  Despite the fact the movement is an off-the-shelf Sellita movement, it's actually a fairly integrated movement, meaning the base movement and the world time mechanism functions harmoniously as one integrated movement rather than two succinctly separate pieces.  MB29.20, still comes off ever so slightly thick though. 

2.    2.  Design, the design is great with polished and brushed surfaces. 

a.     It has a very small Montblanc logo, I like watches with minimal branding. 

b.     A nice big size; 41mm diameter, and a slightly thick 12mm. 

c.      Perfectly legible dial.  Spacing between cities is legible. 

d.     Font size isn’t too small. 

e.     Information is well conveyed.  Conveys more information than some other world time watches in an even easier-to-read layout.

f.      Day/night indicator on the central map (which is a disc made of sapphire crystal), something that the Patek Philippe 5130 doesn’t have. 

3.     3.  Montblanc chose to produce this watch in a steel version. I'm not forced to buy it in gold.  

4.     4.  Price-point: 5000 Euro price (steel on strap version) is a good deal!  Excellent price performance. I really see the value and the economic utility is substantial. 

5.     5.  In addition to its beautiful dial design, it also has an elegant Germanic brushed case design (steel version has brushed side). 

6.     6.  Excellent serviceability, Montblanc has more boutiques worldwide than just about any other Richemont watch brand.

 CONS (some of these are almost not worth mentioning)

1.     1.  The case is very solid and Germanic in design, but the movement is entirely Swiss.  (Full disclosure, I fully support interracial marriages of cases and movements!)  

2.     2.  The watch is a bit thick, as mentioned before.  (Perhaps the only legitimate comment here.)

3.     3.  The case back of the watch has engraved letters that utilize a font could be more delicate and aesthetically pleasing.  (I know, it's on the back where it isn't seen.)

4.     4.  The name.  Heritage Spirit Orbis Terrarum?  That’s a mouthful and difficult to remember.  (I feel like an unreasonable grade school teacher blaming a student's parent for choosing an atypical name for the student.) 

The Orbis Terrarum watch does look good on my wrist, in fact it's so good on so many levels (not just the aesthetics) I could compare it to the Patek Philippe 5130P WorldTimer that literally costs over 10x the price of the steel Montblanc Heritage Orbis Terrarum.  I am a Patek Philippe fan, and even I have to concede that this Montblanc Orbis Terrarum is a worthy contender to the 5130 World Time. 

What are your thoughts?  Would you buy this piece with your own money? 

This message has been edited by patrick_y on 2015-04-08 15:29:12