A little while ago we looked at two new models from Montblanc, the Heritage Chronométrie ExoTourbillon Minute Chronograph and the limited edition Heritage Chronométrie ExoTourbillon Minute Chronograph Vasco da Gama, about which you can read at this link. Today the focus is on another ‘pair’ from Montblanc’s Heritage Chronométrie 2015 collection which also consists of a regular production model and a limited edition version but this time, the complication is an annual calendar.
First up is the regular model. It resembles 2014’s annual calendar, but sans leap year indicator. This new annual calendar is a comfortable 40 mm and 9.5 mm thick, and will be available in both stainless steel and 18 carat red gold. For the red gold version, the applied markers and hands are also red gold. The annual calendar needs to be adjusted manually once a year, at the end of February, via the crown.
Through the caseback can be seen the automatic MB Calibre 29.18 which is Montblanc’s reworking of a Sellita SW200 into an annual calendar. Power reserve is forty-two hours.
As seen at the top of this post, the limited edition model has the same basics as the previous model and like the limited edition version of the Chronométrie ExoTourbillon Minute Chronograph, the differences are inspired by Vasco da Gama. Rather than the half-moon shaped moonphase indicator of the regular model, as you can see this one has a deep blue circle around the moon phase indication, with the Southern Hemisphere night (one always feels the need to do a shout-out when our hemisphere is noted by replica watch brands) via the Southern Cross. This limited edition is also available in stainless steel and rose gold versions, with a depiction of his ship on the sapphire caseback.
The stainless steel edition is in a limitation of 316 (the number of days it took de Gama to travel from Lisbon to India), and the red gold, 238 (the height, in metres, of Cape Point, South Africa) pieces.
So, which new annual calendar do you prefer?