You could qualify a town with just 929 inhabitants as sleepy. Villeret, in the Swiss canton of Bern, is indeed quiet. It’s stuck between two mountain ridges in the Jura, and apart from a pizzeria that serves Dutch beer instead of Swiss for some reason, the isolated place looks pretty much timeless. Still, time plays a very important role in Villeret. And for those who appreciate the capturing of time in a mechanical watch, Villeret is a place of great excitement. That’s because at Rue Principale 36, Minerva has its atelier. In the modest manufacture, watchmaking magic happens, such as manufacturing hairsprings and monopusher rattrapante chronographs. This is also where specialized artisans create the ultra-limited and complicated Montblanc 1858 Cylindrical Tourbillon Geosphere Around the World In 80 Days Limited Edition – Chapter Three entirely by hand and from start to finish…and then do it again.
The watch brand Minerva started in 1858, and to commemorate that, Montblanc, of which Minerva is now an integral part, uses the year as the name of a collection. A trilogy of exceptional timepieces was created to showcase all the aspects of Haute Horlogerie mastered at Minerva. Fratello traveled to Villeret to see and experience the last edition of the trilogy of Haute Horlogerie timepieces inspired by Jules Verne’s novel Around the World in 80 Days. The final chapter of the watch trilogy portrays the final leg of Phileas Fogg’s and his loyal French valet Jean Passepartout’s legendary adventure.
Experiencing the Montblanc 1858 Cylindrical Tourbillon Geosphere Around the World In 80 Days Limited Edition – Chapter Three
Let’s assume you know the story about Phileas Fogg. He’s the guy who bragged in the Reform Club in London that it would be possible to circumnavigate the globe in 80 days and set off to try. His race against time became the subject of a Montblanc watch trilogy made possible by the specialists in everything complicated, from movement construction to finishing, decorating, and different métiers d’art, at Minerva.
The Montblanc 1858 Cylindrical Tourbillon Geosphere Around the World in 80 Days Limited Edition depicts a race against the clock in a 47 × 16.6mm rose gold case topped with a laser-engraved rose gold bezel. For your information, the two previous watches came in white gold and proprietary Lime Gold. The generous case is the frame, and the dial is the canvas showing scenes from the last leg of Phileas Fogg’s and Jean Passepartout’s journey from Yokohama to London, passing San Francisco and New York. You “read” the adventure by starting from the left of the tourbillon. Let’s pause and not get underway hastily, though, because that tourbillon is something else and deserves full attention.
The mystery of the hairspring
Montblanc’s cylindrical tourbillon is a veritable work of horological art and finesse. The tourbillon, for instance, features a doubly curved, three-dimensional bridge with a convex form that harmonizes with the dial’s twin globes, which we will discuss later. Beneath it, the large cage completes a rotation every 60 seconds. Each bridge requires over seven days of handcrafting and polishing by a master watchmaker. The result is a flawless finish that highlights technical and artistic brilliance. By the way, the final watch is the product of one watchmaker who creates it from start to finish. And the assembly happens twice to ensure everything is technically and aesthetically flawless.
The cylindrical hairspring is a fascinating feature of the tourbillon. Unlike flat, traditional hairsprings, cylindrical ones are exceptional. They are considered the pinnacle of precision, and in the past, they were reserved for the best marine chronometers. Such chronometers were vital for navigation, enabling sailors to determine longitude with unmatched accuracy during long voyages. The Minerva facilities create this type of balance spring by forming an elastic metal wire concentrically in perfectly equal coils, stacked vertically rather than side by side. This construction eliminates the minor eccentricity of the center of gravity — a flaw inherent to flat springs — and ensures the best possible chronometric performance.
Revered in the past and admired in the present, a cylindrical hairspring remains a symbol of exclusive Haute Horlogerie. We saw the equipment used, were explained the difficulties, and saw a watchmaker in action, but the process is so exclusive and unique that we were not allowed to take any pictures.
Bridging the tourbillon
Hold your horses; we’re not ready for departure yet because there’s more to tell about the tourbillon in this watch. The hand-winding caliber MB M68.40 features a 91-part tourbillon mechanism that catches the eye with its doubly curved three-dimensional endless loop of the bridge. The convex form is not just challenging to produce but also a pain to finish to the highest standards, according to the watchmaker who explained the ins and outs of the watch to us. It takes a watchmaker over seven days to handcraft the distinctive tourbillon bridge and give it an immaculate polished finish.
Since we’re deep-diving into the movement, let’s continue to wait before hurrying to get on the train to the Humboldt Range in the Nevada mountains and further eastwards to board the steamboat Henrietta, because it will run out of coal in the middle of the Atlantic Ocean anyway. Let’s take a few more moments to admire the 281-part hand-wound movement inside the watch. The 3Hz caliber makes it possible to show you the local time with blued steel hours and minutes hands inspired by 19th-century pocket watches. And you can’t miss the two globes — for the Northern and Southern Hemispheres — that indicate 24 time zones along with the passage of the days/nights.
Ready to finish the voyage?
It’s time to finish the tour of the world and the dial now. We do that from left to right. After leaving San Francisco, the train gets blocked by a herd of bison, and the steamboat that takes the story’s heroes across the Atlantic Ocean runs out of fuel. That’s why we see Phileas Fogg at 6 o’clock, with a briefcase and playing cards in hand. To his left is Passepartout, clutching coins and his gas bill. Do you remember that he forgot to extinguish his burner before leaving London, which cost him a small fortune? To his right stands Mrs. Aouda, dressed as a bride and holding both wedding rings and a pomegranate flower, the bloom in the hue of her lips.
Behind them stretches a 19th-century world map highlighting London’s Pall Mall. A pocket watch at 3 o’clock shows 20:44, marking Fogg’s timely arrival at the Reform Club and the triumphant conclusion of his epic journey around the globe.
The dial is brass and mother-of-pearl, requiring nearly a month of work. Its upper section shows a mother-of-pearl appliqué. The lower portion, crafted from German silver, is laser-textured, hand-engraved, and finished with delicate miniature painting.
Highly exclusive traveling
The Montblanc 1858 Cylindrical Tourbillon Geosphere Around the World In 80 Days Limited Edition – Chapter Three (ref. 134294 / price on request) is a watch that showcases so many technical, functional, and aesthetic details that it’s hard to pick something that stands out. However, some details deserve extra attention, such as the two stationary miniature globes depicting the Northern and Southern Hemispheres. They show intricately engraved and hand-painted continents, oceans, and meridians. Around them, 24-hour world-time discs with day/night indicators circle — one rotating clockwise, the other counterclockwise. It allows the wearer to track sunlight and time across the globe. And speaking of wearers, only three people will have the opportunity to use this timepiece as an actual travel watch because only three will ever exist.
When those three people travel, they can adjust the indicators via the crown at 3 and the pusher at 8 o’clock. Pulling out the crown allows them to set the local time while synchronizing the world-time display on the two 24-hour globes. Once aligned, switching to a new time zone is easy: pressing the pusher at 8 o’clock advances the hour hand in one-hour steps without disturbing the minutes.
Final words on the Montblanc 1858 Cylindrical Tourbillon Geosphere Around the World In 80 Days Limited Edition – Chapter Three
Apart from the fascinating tourbillon, one of the nicest details shows itself on the upper-left of the dial. There, every non-essential wooden part of the steamboat Henrietta is chopped up to fuel the ship. This is a nice and humorous touch in a seriously complicated watch that shows Montblanc, through its Minerva atelier in Villeret, can play along on the highest levels of Haute Horlogerie. The watch taught us that a town of just 929 can be a hotspot — not for artisanal craft beer, maybe, but for mindblowing watchmaking.
