Montblanc presents the first development of the Institute Minerva de Recherche en Haute Horlogerie and starts with new ideas into the next decade after celebrating the 150th anniversary of the founding of the watch Manufacture Minerva in 2008.
Following Montblanc`s anniversary celebrations marking the opening of the completely renovated manufactory building in Villeret, the experts at the Institut Minerva de Recherche en Haute Horlogerie are now concentrating exclusively on their core tasks: on the one hand, the preservation and cultivation of the high art of horology in accord with the authentic Swiss tradition and, on the other hand, the ongoing development of innovative technologies and concepts to assure a bright future for watchmaking. The Institut Minerva, that has been founded by Montblanc, is one of the last manufactures where a large portion of the traditional horological skills, with all their micromechanical refinements, are still meticulously performed by hand, almost as though each timepiece were individually crafted as a one-of-a-kind item. Traditions are upheld, but continual innovation is also indispensable to assure constant renewal and unflagging progress in the art of watchmaking, to set standards for quality and creativity in the future. This legacy is especially present at the Institut Minerva, where the staff lives and breathes it in their daily work.
Time Writer: Thanks to Montblanc, the Institut Minerva fosters new talent. With the founding of the Institut Minerva de Recherche en Haute Horlogerie, Montblanc has not only dedicated itself toward assuring the survival of a manufacture with a legendary chronographic tradition: the mission of the Institut Minerva is to foster young talents whose new ideas will enrich the art of watchmaking, which they’ll enliven with their innovative spirit and dynamism.
For this purpose, Montblanc created the “TimeWriter” concept, under which the company wants to introduce projects with independent creators that have great ideas and plan to establish themselves as independent watchmakers. It is foreseen to present a project every two years.
A complex industry such as watchmaking demands investments that are very often much too costly for young entrepreneurs to finance on their own, so through the help of Montblanc the Institut Minerva also contributes, both materially and intellectually, toward helping these ambitious individuals start their own business. Now, just two years after the founding of the Institut Minerva by Montblanc, its first remarkable project is ready for presentation. TimeWriter 1: Metamorphosis
The Metamorphosis embodies a creatively successful response to the following challenge: combining the principles of traditional watchmaking with the creation of something entirely new and unprecedented. This first project of the TimeWriter series, that is based on the Montblanc`s own chronographe calibre MBM 16.29 has set itself twin goals: to provide starting help to promising young talents and to combine tradition with innovation. With this background in mind, the foundation council at the Institut Minerva was most strongly impressed by the ideas of the two young watch specialists Johnny Girardin and Franck Orny, who envisioned a wristwatch with two faces. Of course, a watch with different functions distributed across two dials is not novel per se, but the way in which the Montblanc Metamorphosis transforms itself has never been seen before. By moving a slide down or up, this timepiece changes from a wristwatch with hour, minute, second display to a chronograph and vice versa. To achieve this metamorphosis in a purely mechanical manner, the two creators Johnny Girardin and Franck Orny were obliged to use all their skills as watchmakers and to borrow methods from the art of automatons construction – a traditional métier which, like watchmaking, has long been practiced in Switzerland’s Jura region. As a perfect blend of tradition and innovation, the revolutionary transformation mechanism is based on the magnificent, hand crafted chronographe calibre MBM16.29
The Metamorphosis watches will be crafted at the manufacture’s ateliers in Villeret, where the idea of the inventors will be brought to live by the profound know-how of the Institut Minerva’s experienced master watchmakers.
