Thursday, August 10, 2023

MONTBLANC – 1858 Geosphere 0 Oxygen CARBO2 Only Watch 2023

 

MONTBLANC1858 GÉOSPHÈRE 0 Oxygen CARBO2 Only Watch Unique Piece 2023

To see Montblanc’s Only Watch 2023 timepiece, you will not only have to bid on it, you will also need to use an ice pick to get to it.

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This is the fourth time Montblanc has participated in Only Watch and this time around, the Maison is offering so much more than a unique timepiece. The Montblanc Only Watch 2023 timepiece is a one-of-a-kind 1858 Geosphere 0 Oxygen that is introducing an entirely new middle case material that has captured CO2 inside. And if that isn’t ‘cool’ enough, the unique piece is encased in a block of ice (safe breakable glass) without oxygen inside, which means the watch’s future owner will need to smash it open with an ice pick to get to it, or leave it captured in time – it is entirely up to them!

A Case in New Material Creation

The new case material is created using a pioneering technological development that captures CO2 from biogas production and mineral wastes from recycling factories, thanks to a process of calcium dissolution and carbonation.

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The obtained powder containing CO2 is then combined with ultra-light and – resistant carbon fibre. Thus creating an innovative composite material shaped exclusively into a watch middle case: the CARBO2.

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In addition to the technological aspect of the case, the CARBO2 resulting material has a unique graphic aesthetic, with its dark shades depending on the particular mix of carbon fibre and CO2, lending itself perfectly to the Montblanc 1858 Geosphere 0 Oxygen. Like the intrepid alpinists and adventurers who dedicate their lives to exploring the planet’s mountainous wilderness, this new material is also opening up new paths of exploration.

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Reinforcing the world of adventure and exploration, the 43.5mm case comes with a luminous glacier blue outline of Mount Everest on the side that only the wearer can see. The older glaciers are, the less oxygen they contain and the denser they become, resulting in a deeper blue colour that has been depicted here on the case band, shining white by day and luminous blue by night. A beautiful picture of Mount Everest also adorns the titanium case back using Montblanc’s 3D laser technique that depicts the colour, depth and realism of this natural wonder.

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Next to Mount Everest, the 13 other highest peaks of the World are mentioned and marked in colour in tribute to alpinists who dared to climb them.

Zero Oxygen

This Montblanc 1858 Geosphere 0 Oxygen Only Watch 2023 one-of-a-kind timepiece joins the Maison’s series of “Zero Oxygen” timepieces and will introduce a new collection based on this piece that will be revealed in April 2024. Like all of Montblanc’s 0 Oxygen pieces, this unique piece features several benefits for explorers who need their equipment to work in harsh environments. 

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Zero oxygen inside the case not only eliminates fogging, which can occur with drastic temperature changes at altitude, but also prevents oxidization. Without oxygen, all the components last longer and will provide unfaltering precision over time. Each zero oxygen timepiece comes with a certificate as proof of this special, yet invisible, technology and guarantees that it has been successfully encased without oxygen.

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The timepiece is powered by the MB 29.25 automatic movement with Montblanc’s Manufacture worldtime complication, which includes turning Northern and Southern Hemisphere globes, a 24-hour scale, Day & Night indications, dual time display, and a date. The timepiece comes with a fluted bi-directional black ceramic bezel with the compass cardinal points and “OW” for “Only Watch” depicting West. The timepiece is fitted with an electric blue glacier pattern dial and the worldtime meridians in a spectrum of colours, in keeping with Only Watch’s 2023 rainbow colour theme. Completing the look is a black interchangeable textile strap, which top material is made of 100% recycled PET.

From the Top of the Mountain

In addition to the timepiece, the lucky bidder will receive an ice pick from Montblanc’s Mark Maker, world record-breaking alpinist Nimsdai Purja, who is the fastest man to climb all 14 of the world’s highest peaks above 8000 metres, a record he broke in six months and six days. He also ascended Mount Everest without supplementary oxygen for a collaboration with Montblanc in 2022

For this unique piece, Nimsdai has donated his ice pick and written a note to the watch’s future owner about how he sees the world in 100 years. This hand-written note, along with the watch, has been encased in a zero-oxygen ice-like capsule. To access the watch, the future owner will need to take Nimsdai’s ice pick to break the case, or they can, of course, leave this difficult decision to the next generation if they so choose. What would you do?

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About Only Watch

This year marks the 10th Only Watch charity auction, a biennial event that has raised over CHF/EUR 100 million to date. Only Watch was created in 2005 by Luc Pettavino – and under H.S.H. Prince Albert II of Monaco’s high patronage – to auction one-off timepieces to raise funds to support researchers around the world to accelerate their work to find a cure for Duchenne Muscular Dystrophy. Thanks to the mobilization of the watch industry, this initiative has become a highlight on the horological calendar for both brands and collectors. Montblanc is honoured to be part of this important journey and hopes that this year’s timepiece will bring as much enjoyment to its future owner as it did to the Montblanc team who worked on bringing it to life.

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TECHNICAL SPECIFICATIONS

Model:  Montblanc 1858 GEOSPHERE 0 Oxygen CARBO2 Only Watch Unique Piece

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 Ref.  Ident No. M132299

Movement
Montblanc Manufacture Calibre MB 29.27 (with world time complications)
Movement type: self-winding mechanical movement with universal time display
Number of rubies: 33
Power reserve: about 42 hours
Balance wheel: flat ring
Frequency: 28,800 times/hour (4 Hz)
Hairspring: flat


Display: Worldtime with turning northern and southern hemisphere globes, 24-hour scale
and Day & Night indication, Dual time indication; Date by disc

Case
CARBO2 fibre with captured CO2 and satinated finishing, white outline of Mount
Everest on the left side with blue emission
Bezel
Bi-directional black ceramic bezel, knurled finishing and engraved cardinal points
coated with a special OW (Only Watch) indication, blue emission of Super-LumiNova®1

Crystal:  Scratch-resistant, domed sapphire crystal with anti-reflective coating
Special joint that allow 0 oxygen inside the watchcase
Back: Titanium caseback with a 3D laser colour engraving of Mount Everest and rainbow names of the 14 highest peaks of the World
Dimensions Diameter : 43.50 mm in diameter; 13.00 mm in thickness
Water resistance:  about 100 meters (10 bar)
Crown: Black coated fluted stainless steel crown with Montblanc emblem in relief
Dial
Electric blue glacier pattern dial with white luminescent black rhodium-coated Arabic numerals and indexes,
white luminescent rhodium-coated hours and minutes hands, white luminescent dual time hand,
luminescent Northern and Southern hemispheres globes with rainbow-coloured meridians
White date on black background

Wristband
Material: Black Interchangeable textile strap with rope pattern
Buckle type : Double-folding clasp with fine adjustment system

Certified by the Montblanc Laboratory Test 500

🔰Edition
Limitation: Unique piece for Only Watch 2023

 🔴Prices    Lot 42    Estimated at CHF 25,000 - CHF 35,000 💰

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Press releases - 2023
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Wednesday, August 9, 2023

VULCAIN –NAUTICAL Caliber ‘Vulcain Cricket Manufacture V-10’

 

VULCAIN CRICKET NAUTICAL Caliber ‘Vulcain Cricket Manufacture V-102023

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 NEW CRICKET NAUTICAL
THE RINGING DIVER

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Following the launch of the Skindiver, Manufacture Vulcain continues to surprise and maintain the momentum on an upward trajectory, this time breaking the waves with the reissue of the Cricket Nautical – the legendary diving instrument first introduced over 60 years ago.

An aquatic cricket

In 1961, Vulcain could boast of being the only watch Manufactures to offer a diver’s watch equipped with an aquatic alarm – in other words, an alarm that could also be heard underwater. 

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Thanks to the ‘triple case back’ that acted as a resonance chamber, the Cricket Nautical reliably signaled when it was time to head back up. And it’s a performer on so many other levels, too. 

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The purists among scuba diving enthusiasts, fans of mental arithmetic and no-stop tables, will be partial to its functional possibilities; lovers of vintage timepieces, on the other hand, will surely take to its particular aesthetic.

Origin story

The Cricket Nautical was the fruit of research conducted by 3 experts who pooled their knowledge and experience and, together with Manufacture Vulcain, developed the very first diver's watch that would not only feature a system for determining no-stop dive times built right into the dial, but also sound a real alarm to signal the diver “time to get back to the surface!” – in a sleek package water-resistant to a depth of 300 meters. 

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The trio of passionate divers: Hannes Keller, a talented Swiss physicist/mathematician, occasional pianist, and deep-sea diving pioneer; Max-Yves Brandily, explorer and filmmaker; and Arthur Droz, a national certified diving instructor and representative of the C.I.A.S (Centre d'Investigations et d'Activités Sous-Marines – Center for Underwater Investigations and Activities).

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Here, Vulcain would like to pay tribute to Hannes Keller, who passed away last year, on 25 December 2022. On November 3, 1966, in Toulon, France, he reached the abyssal depth of almost 250 meters with a Cricket Nautical on his wrist. The record was witnessed and validated by none other than Jacques Cousteau, already a legend by then.

More than a diving watch, a diving instrument

Like its forebear, the Cricket Nautical stands out with ample dimensions for its time, the diameter of 42mm making it easy to use the watch and read the dial indications underwater. 

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Two superimposed dials – one fixed and the other rotating, adjustable with a dedicated crown at 4 o'clock – serve to determine decompression times. 

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Depending on the dive duration and depth set on the dials, the rectangular aperture displays the stop times required at the typical depths of 9, 6 and 3 meters when ascending back to the surface after an extended underwater excursion.

A full dive log

This is not the first Cricket Nautical. It's been on quite a few dives since 1961! To celebrate its 50th anniversary in 2011, the Vulcain Manufacture Le Locle produced a limited edition of 1961 pieces,  identical to the original model but taking advantage of modern technological advances to improve robustness and reliability.

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Just over a decade later, for its 60th anniversary, the new Cricket Nautical, equipped for the first time with a sapphire crystal, retains the same charisma. It comes in two versions, both faithful as ever to the original Nautical

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⦁    Black dial, faux-patina indexes and hands;
emerald green minute track

⦁    Black dial, white Super-LumiNova® hour markers and hands.
lagoon blue minute track

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Not least, the Vulcain Cricket Manufacture V-10 caliber underscores the new Cricket Nautical’s resolutely vintage character, a true tribute to the pioneering days of diving. 

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TECHNICAL SPECIFICATIONS


Model:  NAUTICAL Caliber ‘Vulcain Cricket Manufacture V-10
 

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 Ref:  VUL-NA-007 - Calf leather strap

 Ref:  VUL-NA-008 - Carbon texture water proof strap

Case
316L stainless steel no plating, Acrylic lens 
Polished and brushed finishing case, open & closed caseback,
push-in crown, round pushers at 2H, crown for turnning inner ring at 4H
Diameter: 42.00 mm
Thickness: 17.35 mm
Crystal:  Sapphire, domed, with anti-reflective coating (or domed plexiglass version)
The ‘Triple Case Back’ acts as a resonance chamber, allowing the alarm function to be used underwater or in a sapphire crystal version embellished with the stylized Vulcain "V"
Dial
Semi-matte black dial with decompression tables
4 Hands with luminous
Movement 
VULCAIN MANUFACTURE Cricket V-10
Hand-wound alarm movement (12 lignes or 27.07mm in diameter),
Decoration:  Nickel-plated treatment, blued screws, skeleton ratchets (on sapphire case back version)
Double barrel, equipped with the Exactomatic system, 165 components, 25 jewels
Equipped with Exactomatic system, 48° angle of lift
Decoration: nickel coating, blued screws
Frequency:    18,000 vibrations/hour
Power reserve:  42 hours
Functions:
Hours, minutes, central seconds, alarm, fixeddial with decompression-table indication and
60-minute graduated rotating inner bezel ring activated by a screwlocked crown at 4 o’clock
Alarm duration: approx. 20 seconds
Strap
Black leather strap, water-resistant carbon texture 20x18mm
Steel pin buckle

🔴Public price • Starting at 4,200 CHF / 4,862 $ / 4,356,60 € 💰

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Press Release - 2023
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PRESS CONTACT
VULCAIN:
Florie Maugeon
florie.maugeon@vulcain-watches.ch 

Tel / +41(0)32 930 80 14
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