Montblanc

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This golden goose is being cooked, but what a glorious meal

The new Minerva chronographs watches are beautiful, the complete package. Though a more ornate dial may better match the price point, my initial impression is that this dial is perfect for a traditional chronograph. Why add $6000 to the MSRP and land up with a dial that is fussier and fragile?

The presence of lesser watches with the same dial may be unappealing, but these lesser watches also eat most of the design overhead. Without the affordable time-only models, the chronographs would cost a lot more too.

A lot of people bit on the gargantuan pieces, as there was a feeling that the slightly uncomfortable case size was a worthwhile compromise. We’d never seen such value in a hand-finished traditional chronograph with this level of finishing, but apparently it scratched a real itch. Montblanc is owned by a conglomerate and cranking these great chronographs out seems to be sustaining their Minerva workshop. Private ownership would probably do the same thing and this is more appreciated than artificial scarcity. It’s priced at $28k and limited in production because of the real human care that goes into the finishing, not artificial scarcity and powerful marketing. In a way, it’s an equally fine but more inclusive product.

Each year Montblanc gets closer to the ideal Purist chronograph and the pricing remains pretty good. Eventually the goose will be cooked and design team will have to move in a new direction. At that point, you’ll have a full body of excellent, under appreciated references to choose from. By then, the ownership experience should be better as well.

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