Cover Montblanc's Movement Assembly

Julien Miribel, Montblanc Fine Watches Trainer & Consultant, gives a glimpse of the magic behind their timepieces

Montblanc celebrates over 160 years of fine Swiss watchmaking from its Minerva roots, which date back to 1858. Since its inception, the brand has been renowned worldwide and is a leading specialist in creating professional timepieces. Developments such as stopwatches that can measure 1/5 of a second in 1911 and the first manually-wound monopusher chronograph in 1920 exhibit Montblanc’s mastery of its craft and its ability to innovate. Fine Watches Trainer & Consultant Julien Miribel talks about his personal background and how he has seen Montblanc’s watchmaking evolve over time.

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Above Montblanc Trainer and Consultant for Fine Watches, Julien Miribel

Philippine Tatler: How did you get into watchmaking?
Julien Miribel: I come from a place in Switzerland where historically, a lot of watch brands and facilities originated from. From pocket watches, clocks, and then finally, wristband watches. If you’re born there, it’s a natural choice for you to go into watchmaking. It’s part of the culture. My mother was a watchmaker and so were some of my cousins. So you grow up in this environment where there’s always a link between you and watches.

PT: As a certified Horloger Restaurater, you specialised in restoring historical timepieces. What was it like?
JM: I did four years of regular school and then after, when my teacher agreed, I was able to go into a restoration course. There are only about four people in a class who can reach this level. Then they give you an old pocket watch, remove some parts, and tell you to put it together without using the modern process.

It’s like looking at an old painting and not using a new oils for it, but studying what kind of oils they used at the time it was made. What kind of mix, what pigments to use, and the end result shouldn’t look like it was newly done. You need to make sure that you cannot see the difference between the old and modern spare parts. That’s the concept of restoration for watches.

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Above The Manufacture in Le Locle is Montblanc’s Watch & Quality Excellence Center
Tatler Asia
Above The Manufacture in Villeret, Montblanc’s Movement & Innovation Excellence Center

PT: Having seen and experienced all that, how is watchmaking different then and now?
JM: Watches have been very big the last 30 years. Consumers have grown in Asia, the Middle East, in USA… The demand for wrist hand watches have really exploded. Now you need to provide a greater number of watches for the consumer. But how can you provide so many watches with the same number of workers? It means that you need to use something faster. So machines have come in to reduce the time it takes to create watches with human hands. During the last three decades, if you see the curve of Switzerland’s export, it’s going over the roof. That’s the biggest difference now.

PT: How does Montblanc do this?
JM: Our timepieces are made in-house. Which means we create the idea, the concept, develop it, then produce every single part that we have inside. So for some of the collections that we have, we keep the traditional philosophy and craftsmanship of watchmaking based on Minerva history. Minerva and Montblanc are now the same company. We have been around since 1858, and have been through over 160 years of uninterrupted production of mechanical watches.

The range of Montblanc is really wide. We have different segments, and some segments are where the goal is to offer to our customer something very traditional. It’s not a concept of restoration, it’s more of offering a movement with a high value aesthetic done by hands, and not by machine.

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Above Balance wheel regulation

PT: Are most in-house timepieces done by hand?
JM: It depends on the collection. But all the watches go through the same technical 500-hour test: putting it in different positions, testing the pressure for water resistance, etc. Doesn’t matter the price range, the technical quality will be good. What makes a difference in terms of price then is the way you construct your watch and the way you do your movement.

PT: How do you develop new watch complications?
JM: So every extra feature of a watch, on top of an hour, minute, and second, is considered a complication. In creating these, one can take inspiration from the past. All complications in the modern era have been based on what has been done before—minute repeater, tourbillon, split second, calendar. But you can also go with innovation. If we have done something new, we can apply for a patent so they can study our drawing and construction. If they consider what Montblanc has done in terms of technique is different than what others have done, then they provide us with it, making that complication our own.

Montblanc has two sides: the side of tradition, inspired by Minerva’s, and we also have innovation, where we do something a little bit more smart than what has been done before.

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Above Montblanc Villeret manufacture workshop