Villeret 1858 at SIHH (Salon International
de la Haute Horlogerie), Geneva.
Minerva has been focussing on timekeeping
through the 150 years since its
foundation and over the years taken the
chronograph to the peak of perfection.
“Minerva stands for traditional, inhouse
Swiss watchmaking in the truest
sense of the term. It involves a degree
of painstaking craftsmanship that is
rarely seen. It was to quell the growing
danger that the skills and craftsmanship
intrinsic to the art of Swiss watchmaking
might drift into oblivion that Montblanc
and Minerva joined forces to establish
the “Institut Minerva de Recherche en
Haute Horlogerie,” explained Schmiedt.
Only a handful of watch manufacturers
can look back on such a long, uninterrupted
history, and over the years
Minerva has held fast to the working
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methods traditionally associated with Swiss watchmaking at its best: the art of
haute horlogerie, which is practised
largely by hand. Only a select group of
master watchmakers today are familiar
with the procedures and techniques required
for this rare and most exclusive
form of watchmaking. Important components
like the generously sized balance
with its high moment of inertia are
made in-house, the active length of the
tailor-made balance springs is counted
by hand as it was in bygone ages, and the
“Mise en Fonction” of the chronograph
control carried out meticulously by hand
for each individual movement.
The Montblanc Collection Villeret
1858 are timepieces that demand such a
high level of specialised craftsmanship
and finishing that annual production is
limited to just a few hundred watches.
Movements, of which each type is limited
to a maximum of
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288 pieces, have been specially developed for these
watches. The figure 288 stands for the
sum total of two gross (one gross
equalling twelve dozen), which is a traditional
unit of measurement in watchmaking.
Central to the development of
new movements is the focus on classical
garde-temps (timekeeper) philosophy,
with special attention being paid – in
view of Minerva’s history – to the
chronographs. In terms of their form,
all movements build on the outstanding
legacy of Minerva set new standards
with the unmistakable aesthetics of its
beautifully shaped bridges and levers.
Each timepiece in the Montblanc
Collection Villeret 1858 is accompanied
by a set of lithographs presented in a
leather-bound case: historic depictions
of the old Minerva manufacture, landscape
impressions of the Jura mountains,
illustrations of watch movements, |
