SIHH 2015: Montblanc Heritage Chronométrie ExoTourbillon Minute Chronograph

Yes it's yet another Montblanc piece from SIHH. What can I say? I am very impressed with their offering. And their price points. ridiculous. How ridiculous? I mean, this is a brand that is offering a tourbillon and a chronograph (albeit a pretty useless one), with date in pink gold case for around about $55K Aussie. Although that amount may move up slightly no thanks to the strong Swiss Francs and the weak Aussie ruble.

My pals on the ground at SIHH mentioned that the finishing of the Montblanc isn't quite up there yet. I think they will get there. In time. Granted, if you're paying the price of a nice Mercedes A250, you'd want better finishing on the movement (yes, this can be seen thanks to hi-res images these days. Have a close look at where the tourbillon is). But this could be because the watch is a prototype, but even then, this sort of price for a tourbillon from a Swiss Manufacture is quite unheard of.

With the sort of style and pricing and marketing push I think their inhouse silbing, closest in terms of price point, ie, Baume & Mercier could be in a little bit of trouble. I don't think JLC will have issues... just yet...

So let's have a look at this Montblanc Heritage Chronométrie ExoTourbillon Minute Chronograph. I wondered about the double sided hands of the chronograph. When the hands are pointing at 12, the other side would kind of just hang off the stepped dial and kinda be limboing in mid air. Not sure how well that would look. The balance itself and the thick bridge across the top of the tourbillon looked a little... inexpensive from the hi-res images. Other than that, it's a beautifully designed piece, perfectly symmetrical and layout is proportional. Plenty to love.

MSRP: 38,000 Euros