Montblanc

Montblanc presents a watch edition in which China, the Middle Kingdom, occupies the centre in the truest sense of the word: the Montblanc TimeWalker World-Time Sinosphere time-zone watch in a limited edition of 88 timepieces.

The Montblanc TimeWalker World-Time Sinosphere is based on the Hemisphere world-time watch, which was launched earlier this year, depicts simultaneously all 24 time zones at a glance, and is available in two models – one for the Northern and one for the Southern Hemisphere.

For the TimeWalker World-Time Sinosphere the Northern Hemisphere model – on which the names of places and cities in the Northern Hemisphere represent the world’s 24 time zones – was naturally chosen as basis. Exclusively on the World-Time Sinosphere, the UTC +8* time zone is not signified by Beijing or Hong Kong (as on most other world-time watches), but by the word “CHINA” clearly printed in red.

The specialness of this new timepiece is also evident in the design of its dial, the centre of which is occupied by a gleaming red gold appliqué depicting a map of China surrounded by the pale grey contours of its neighbouring land masses. Rotating around the Middle Kingdom is the entire world, or rather the world-time ring with its 24-hour scale which, using red for nighttime hours and grey for daytime hours, shows the hour and the time of day or night in whichever zone is oppositely positioned along the dial’s periphery. The wearer can instantly see which hour has chimed on clocks in all of the world’s time zones.

A red gold plated sword-shaped hour-hand and minute-hand, each with luminous coating, sweep above this scene, as does a slim counterpoised second-hand. This trio shows the time in the wearer’s current zone by sweeping past Arabic numerals and indexes coated with red gold and applied along the dial’s periphery. To further express the exclusiveness of this special model, which is made in a limited series of 88 timepieces, the words “CHINA EDITION” appear in golden micro-print at “7 o’clock”. The dial is surrounded by a 42-mm bicolour case made of stainless steel with a bezel of 18 karat 5N red gold. Likewise made of 5N red gold is the finely fluted crown inset with Montblanc’s emblem.

This watch is worn either on a brown alligator-leather strap with large reptilian scales and a stainless steel pin buckle or on a bicolour metal bracelet made of stainless steel with 18 karat red gold caps and secured by a triple-folding clasp. A sapphire crystal in the back reveals the winding rotor and the movement, which boast the quality characteristics of Swiss watchmaking tradition. Self-winding mechanical Calibre MB 4810/410 shows the hours, minutes and seconds in the selected local zone, as well as the times in all 24 of the globe’s time zones. The date appears in a window at “6 o’clock”.

China Standard Time: One Time Zone for 1.3 Billion People

With regard to the rules governing time zones, China is one of the most interesting nations and relies on a globally unique system. Despite the facts that China extends 4,200 km from its easternmost to its westernmost province and spans five different time zones, the whole country uses China Standard Time CST (UTC +8). Unified timekeeping is one factor that has contributed to the speedy and powerful upswing that China has undergone during the past thirty years. To enclose a huge territory and 1.3 billion residents in just one time zone also means that everything functions, and everyone works and communicates, in a unified time system. Attendance times are uniformly valid nationwide in offices and factories, as well as in agriculture and transportation.

With China Standard Time, this export-oriented economic power also offers its foreign trade partners a decisive advantage when they contact Chinese partners: a foreigner needs only to bear in mind the time difference between China and his location, and he needn’t consider any time differences within China. It’s a small but important part in the mosaic of China’s economic success.