THE SANDS OF TIME
After ascending the mountains, delving into the forests and exploring the icy world of glaciers, the Montblanc 1858 Geosphere looks to the desert for inspiration
CONCEIVED FOR MILITARY use in the 1920s and 1930s, the legendary professional Minerva chronographs embodied the spirit of exploration both in form and function. Montblanc has, in recent years, reinterpreted these historical timepieces in the form of the 1858 collection, linking the past and the present through history, complications and style.
Key among the Montblanc 1858 watches is the Geosphere with its two distinctive domed turning hemisphere globes and in-house worldtime complication. Inspired by the explorations of legendary mountaineer Reinhold Messner, the new Geosphere Limited Edition 1858 pays tribute to his five-week solo trek across the Gobi desert in 2004.
Reproducing the rocky terrain colour scheme, the timepiece harmoniously combines a satinfinished bronze case with a special engraving on the case back, a bi-directional shiny brown ceramic bezel, a smoked brown and beige lacquered dial, and a matching vintage-brown Sfumato calf strap.
Inspired by Reinhold Messner’s 2004 trek, the case-back unveils a unique engraving that shows the Gobi Desert’s famous Flaming Cliffs, also known as Bayanzag, that were on Messner’s route across Northern Asia. The cliffs are famous for the significant paleontological discoveries that have been found there, especially those unearthed by the American paleontologist Roy Chapman Andrews, who in 1920 found fossilised dinosaur eggs and specimens of Velociraptors. Roy Chapman Andrews gave the name to the location, referring to the red or orange colours of the sandstone cliffs that light up like fire at sunset. The case back also depicts a wind rose compass with a decoration representing the wind whose patterns are inspired by traditional Mongolian ornaments.
Montblanc uses a very special technique to highlight the Gobi desert on the back of the watch giving it an authentic rendering in three dimensions, providing depth and realism. Made of titanium, the metal must first be structured, which means that the decoration will be engraved by laser, taking into consideration the relief of the drawing. Then the desired finish (matt and shiny) is also achieved by laser. Finally comes the colouring phase. The colours are created with laser-generated oxidation. It is the level of oxidation that determines the final colour obtained. Montblanc is one of the most advanced Swiss Maisons to use this technology on such a large surface. This innovation is in line with the brand’s spirit of exploration.
Special attention has been paid to the dial with smoked brown to beige. A lacquered finishing combined with warm rose goldcoated elements, such as hands and applied indexes, complete the overall design of this modern tool-style watch. For great readability, the day/night indicator, the cathedral-shaped hands, the indexes, the compass indications, and the hemisphere globes are all hand-coated with beige-coloured Super-LumiNova.
The Montblanc1858 Geosphere Limited Edition 1858 is powered by the Manufacture automatic Calibre MB 29.25. This distinctive complication displays two hemispheres that bring an instinctive way of reading different time zones. The timepiece has two domed turning hemisphere globes at six and 12 o’clock, which are surrounded by a fixed scale with the 24 time zones and include a rose goldcoated and brown day/night indicator (for both the Northern and Southern hemispheres). The longitude reference meridian for both hemispheres is highlighted with a black line coated with Super-LumiNova. Furthermore, a second time zone, used as a home time indication, is located at nine o’clock and a date aperture (linked to the local time) is located at three o’clock.
The mechanism is easy to set. In crown position 2, the user first adjusts the turning hemispheres by aligning the GMT/UTC line to London time (highlighted as a black colour line on the domes) then adjusts the minutes. The two globes are then synchronised. The Northern hemisphere turns anti-clockwise and the Southern one clockwise. The next step is to set the hour hand in line with the local time (in crown position 1, with the quick hourly increment adjustment system / the globes are not turning), this also adjusts the date. Finally, the second time zone, which can be used for the home time, is located at nine o’clock and can be set via a corrector positioned at 10 o’clock. Rounding out the design is a vintage-style brown Sfumato calf strap with beige stitching.
A MODERN ODYSSEY: REINHOLD MESSNER
The Gobi Desert is Asia’s largest one, spanning 1,600km across China and Mongolia, and is the fifth-largest in the world. It is also recognised as one of the most famous paleontological sites in the world where important fossils can be found. The desert is a combination of sand and exposed bare rock. It plays an important role in history as part of the great Mongolian Empire, serving as the location of several important cities along the Silk Road.
In 2004, Italian mountaineering legend Reinhold Messner was the first to trek solo 2,000km across the Gobi desert, alone and without any logistical support. His epic hike through the West Gobi and over the Altai Mountains became an unprecedented borderline experience for him, physically and mentally, and an act of self-determination with an uncertain outcome. “Gobi cannot be won, because the look at this emptiness is almost unbearable,” he wrote later in the book Gobi.
In addition, Messner is renowned for his pioneering ascents of the world’s highest peaks, and his variation of the Seven Summits Challenge. He made the first solo ascent of Mount Everest and the first ascent of Everest without supplemental oxygen along with Peter Habeler. He was also the first person to climb all 14 peaks over 8,000 metres. In 1989, Reinhold, his brother Hubert and German explorer Arved Fuchs were the first to cross Antarctica and Greenland on foot without the use of dog sleds or snowmobiles.
Messner is now overseeing the creation of six museums dedicated to alpinism and the mountains. Messner’s achievements and inspiring journey through a life led by passion are living proof that following your personal path of success and fulfilment defines you as a person, making him the perfect Mark Maker for the Maison, celebrating those who have already found true vocation and inspiring others to express their full potential on their own terms.