Sunday, October 18, 2015

Montblanc Perpetual Calendar Heritage Spirit Timepiece: The Sapphire Dial Skeleton Watch



You can say by the title that this watch has a lot of success in it. The Montblanc Heritage Spirit Perpetual Calendar Skeleton Sapphire Dial timepiece is a visual tour de force, but is it all that it seems to be at first look? It has the style, the appearance & the complication that starts to delight the perfectionists' collective fancy. But will it fall back because of one highly argumentative fact that the mechanism is not an in-house movement?


Let’s first overlook the artistic qualities (or drawbacks if you don’t like sapphire dials) of this watch & perpetual calendars for a moment. They tend to be the examples of the very highest levels of horology. The strong reason for this is obviously the fact that a perpetual calendar is a very difficult thing to produce. And that’s not because the watches that contain perpetual calendars are luxurious. What I mean by this is that the price should not explain the complication. On the contrary, the complication should explain the value of a watch.


So, if a perpetual calendar can be completed at a lower cost to the brand by applying a new manufacturing procedure, then it should be satisfactory for that brand to provide the watch to consumers at a lower retail price. That can be done by including the more basic elements in the procedure of manufacture, or by any other means available to it without losing too much quality. That's what we're experiencing here with the Montblanc Heritage Spirit Perpetual Calendar Skeleton Sapphire Dial Timepiece. It's not economy, that’s the honest truth, but it is a lot cheaper than one may expect for a watch featuring so many useful outputs.

I really admire the Montblanc Heritage Spirit Perpetual Calendar Skeleton Sapphire Dial Watch. I think it does have a lot to explain for its price tag of $20,800. What it does more to that is toss down a gauntlet to other brands manufacturing similarly complicated watches (But at a very different price point). I'm still a huge fan of in-house production, and would appreciate to see an in-house movement of this timepiece at this price. But it is an honest truth that it is a realistic wish. It's a fascinating piece that sits somewhat easily in the devices of perpetual calendars. But I think it is possible to find some success even if that achievement is based on its artistic appearance alone.



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