Montblanc

mkt33
[PuristS]
5252

• Show profile
• Show other posts

Back to Basics, Montblanc Style -- A Trip to Villeret

During the past few years we've seen some pretty amazing timpieces displayed during the SIHH and Baselworld fairs.  The Debethune Dream watches,  Christophe Claret's Dual Tow, Concord's Quantum Gravity, and the Greubel Forsey's EWT were some of the pieces from the 2009 season which pushed our interpretation of horology to its limits.  While these are the avant garde projects of smaller unique ateliers it can be argued that their influence have shifted the industry towards producing more complicated timepieces with less emphasis on the traditional, more classical approach of watchmaking. 

This is why the Montblanc Villeret collection stood out and caught my attention when they were introduced two years ago.  The big balance wheels, the in house spirals, and the artistically formed bridges completely hand finished; these watches were refreshing affirmations that traditional concepts and skills were not forgotten. 

Yes, I can hear a few friends (including Dr. Bosse) already reminding me that the current collection existed in Minerva's inventory before its acquisition by Richemont.  Yes, I can also hear the cries of others who claim this is all a marketing makeover by Montblanc to quickly gain horological legitimacy in a heated industry.  Whatever your impressions are can I offer a personal observation? 

I view Richemont and Montblanc as caretakers and catalysts for what already existed at Minerva.  The infrastructure, know how, personnel, and even products were already in place but unfortunately their potential were never realized due to the continuous barrage of administrative and financial difficulties. By providing financial stability, the marketing, and the distribution experience, Montblanc "uncorked"  Minerva  and gave it a chance to breathe and grow.  Without Montblanc, Minerva with all its cherished history, would have gone the way of the Dodo bird and all the skilled artisans out of jobs.

But does my personal observation hold water?  Or am I just another optimist who fell hook, line and sinker for a well thought out marketing campaign.

I asked Don Corson, the PuristSPro watchmaker/moderator, if could visit Montblanc's Institute Minerva de Recherche en Haute Horlogerie in Villeret and bring back his opinion. If anyone could smell out marketing BS it was going to be Don.  I also knew Don created all his personal masterpieces mostly by hand so he could bring us an unique prospective from a watchmaker's vantage point.  So without further delay here is Don's report.  I'll let you be the judge.  Please don't forget to leave a word of thanks for Don!

Enjoy,

Mike

A Visit to the Institute Minerva de Recherche en Haute Horlogerie

The precursors of today’s Institute Minerva de Recherche en Haute Horlogerie in the village of Villeret reach back 150 years.  In 1858 Charles Ivan Robert founded his first workshop in a building across the street from the present factory.  His business was doing the final assembly and adding the "assortment", the escapement and balance assembly, to movements supplied by Fontainmelon.  The present premises was built in 3 stages, which are easy to see.  In the picture below the nearest portion is parts manufacture, the middle development and administration and the furthest part houses the "watchmaking" activities.

Across the street is the house where the business originally started.  Just out of the picture to the left is the original Blancpain workshop.

Looking in the other direction we see the house that the family Robert built as their residence later on.

It is apparently one of the idiosyncrasies of the Minerva factory that they never threw away old stock, like happened at so many companies.  They have an enormous old stock such as we see here, old dials.

The factory run by the Robert family used many trade names, one of which was Minerva.  This name was registered in 1884.  It eventually became the strongest market name and the entire factory took on the name at a much later date.

The prime period for Minerva was the first half of the 20th century.  They somehow slipped their way through the quartz revolution without changing their products or ways of doing things.  Minerva kept its head above water, but kept getting smaller and smaller until 2006 when they were purchased by Richemont.  This changing of hands and grouping together with the new brand Montblanc gave Minerva the fresh wind it needed to get a sales organization up and running that is on the par with the movements and watches that it is producing and has always produced.  Minerva may be the only watch company of this age that has really continuously produced watches for all these years without a break.

Now at the head of Villeret 1858, as the Minerva group at Montblanc is now known, is Mr. Alexander Schmiedt, here modeling his 16.29 mono-pusher chronograph, one of the first prototypes.  This was the first of the new Minerva calibers.  It looks almost identical with the old calibers, but no parts are interchangeable.  It is, as are the other new calibers as well, a new caliber using all the newest knowledge where it helps and retaining the best of the traditional work.

The dial in this case is guilloché gold and mother-of-pearl.

Let's start a little tour of the factory now, following, more or less, the material flow from raw material to finished watch.  Here we are in the stamping shop.  At Minerva they purchase raw material in the form of metal band and rod and make all their parts, with few exceptions, in house.  The new calibers use only three materials; carbon steel, beryllium copper and maillchort (german silver).  They also have a stock of brass which is, however, only used in older calibers and for setting up the machines.  Here we see a 40-ton and a 70-ton press.  They are used to stamp out the blanks that will then be machined to make the flat parts like the plate, bridges and springs.

Here we see a basket of blanks for the plate of the tourbillon.  This is enough blanks for several years production, but many pieces are also needed for setting up the machines at each step and some will be destroyed underway.  At the right can be seen some brass blanks that were used to set up the initial CNC.  They will not go any further, however.

A blank after machining to produce a barrel bridge.




The obligatory picture of the cooling oil jets in a CNC machine.




This shop also has an electro-erosion machine.





Here a sample of the parts that are made here.  Steel springs and levers...

plates and bridges in maillchort (German silver)...





and other parts include balance wheels, escape wheels, the anchors and the chrono column wheels.

After leaving this shop the parts start their way through finishing.  One of the problems of machining metal like this is that as the metal is worked, it warps like wood does.  To maintain perfect dimensions the parts are all made a little too thick and  then "rectified" to dimension.  Here we see such a rectifying machine that uses a diamond slurry to slowly grind larger pieces to be perfectly flat and to the desired thickness.

 
Here the edges of the escape levers are being ground true.

In front the raw levers, behind the finished ones.  Can you see the difference?   But it makes a difference!

In Villeret they are trying to maintain the best of traditional ways of doing things and to take as much advantage as possible of their long tradition.  Each one of the machines in this shop has a specific purpose and is to do a specific operation.

For example, this machine is for doing all the drilling and reaming operations necessary on the edge of the plate, for example for the stem and the dial foot screws.  Once set up such a machine can be more accurate than a CNC machine and is less subject to wear causing inaccuracies to crop up over time.

This machine is set up to cut the recess for the sliding pinion of the setting mechanism.

In the next installment I will continue with activities related to decoration and watchmaking.

Don

Site Info.