The Minerva Villeret facility, located about 25 minutes away from Le Locle, is running strongly now and the skills and capacity of the Minerva operation have been allotted to Montblanc. The movement technology being used is developed by Minerva and used in the Montblanc Minerva collections.
Montblanc is following up its introduction of its Minerva production with two new watches.
The Villeret Grande Chronographe Regulator: (3 collections: piece unique (in platinum, 110,000 Euros), 8 pieces (18 carat white gold, 70,000 Euros), 58 pieces (18 carat red gold, 65,000 Euros), manual wound, monopush chronograph, home time indicator, power reserve, 47 mm, calibre MBM16.30.



Two versions of the Grand Tourbillon Heures MystÉrieuses (red gold, 8 pieces, 190,000 Euros, white gold, 8 pieces, 200,000 Euros): off center hour and minute, hands are free-floating, manual wound tourbillon movement, 48 hour PR, 47 mm, MBM65.60.
In the Montblanc range, a new chronograph is being introduced in the Nicolas Rieussec range. This is Montblanc’s true watch movement, produced in Montblanc’s Le Locle facility. Montblanc launched the line at SIHH 2008, and the steel versions of the watches will not be released until the spring of 2009. The new movement for SIHH is a chronograph, MBR110, available in 43 mm platinum (50 pieces, 39,000 Euros), rose gold (24,000 Euro) and steel (9,500 Euro). For the chronograph function, the disks turn, not the hand, and the movement is partly skeletonized.
On the ladies side, a new watch in the Star collection, the Pluie d’Étoiles, a round watch with diamonds, using an automatic movement with a 42-hour power reserve, in a 36 mm white gold case, with diamond sparkles on the dial (35,000 Euros).
In the Sport collection, Montblanc is introducing the Automatic Montblanc Sport Chronograph, 44 mm black DLC stainless steel case, power reserve of 46 hours, water-resistant to 200 metres, retail: 3950 Euros.


Source: Europa Star December-January 2009 Magazine Issue