Montblanc is now introducing a 1858 Geosphere Limited Edition entirely dedicated to Reinhold Messner, the legendary climber and explorer.

“Reinhold Messner embodies the values we want to highlight with our Montblanc 1858 product line and the Spirit of Exploration. He is a living legend of outdoor exploration and mountaineering. With his fearless spirit and irrepressible sense of determination he is seeking to make his mark in the world, being a source of inspiration for adventurers across the globe” says Nicolas Baretzki, Montblanc CEO.

Montblanc & Reinhold Messner’s partnership

Reinhold Messner (born 17 September 1944) is an Italian mountaineer, explorer, and author. He is renowned for his pioneering ascents of the world’s highest peaks, and his variation of the Seven Summits Challenge, known as Messner’s List.

He made the first solo ascent of Mount Everest and the first ascent of Everest without supplemental oxygen along with Peter Habeler. He was also the first person to climb all 14 peaks over 8,000 metres (26,200 feet). In 1989-1990, he and German explorer Arved Fuchs were the first to cross Antarctica and Greenland on foot without the use of dog sleds or snowmobiles. In 2004, he was the first to trek 2,000 km (1,250 miles) across the Gobi desert. He has published over 80 books about his experiences, has served one term (1999-2004) in the European Parliament, where he championed environmental issues, and in 2018, he received the Princess of Asturias Award in the Sports category, along with fellow mountaineer Krzysztof Wielicki. He is now overseeing the creation of a number of museums dedicated to alpinism and the mountains.

“A reliable and high performing watch is an essential companion to any adventurer setting out on a major expedition. It is exciting to be associated with a watch inspired by Minerva and its rich heritage of manufacturing companions to so many adventurers before me who relied so faithfully on these professional watches. Also, a meaningful and personal reminder of the thousands of feet climbed over the course of my career as a professional mountaineer”, says Reinhold Messner.

Messner’s achievements and inspiring journey through a life led by passion are living proof that following your personal path of success and fulfilment defines you as a person, making him the perfect Mark Maker for the Maison, celebrating those who have already found true vocation and inspiring others to express their full potential on their own terms.

In 2018, Montblanc launched the 1858 Geosphere, a manufacture timepiece with a new way of displaying the indication of the worldtime in a bold way with two recognizable turning discs representing the northern and southern hemispheres. From the outset, the timepiece has been linked to the Seven Summits theme featuring Reinhold Messner’s version of the challenge. Referred to as “Messner’s List”, his route is one of four variations of how to climb the highest peaks on each of the seven continents and is considered the most difficult version of all.

It made sense to link Messner’s achievements with the Montblanc 1858 Geosphere as a starting point the turning globes on this timepiece include red dots with the world’s Seven Summits (from a mountaineering point of view, the Messner list is the most challenging one). The caseback features an image of the Mont Blanc mountain, the complete Messner list, a compass, and two crossed ice pick-axes. An engraving of Messner’s signature has also been specially added to the Limited Edition.

The timepiece is housed in a 42 mm special bronze alloy case with slim, curved horns that are decorated with both polished and satin finishings. It also comes with a fluted bi-directional bronze bezel featuring shiny blue ceramic and the four engraved cardinal direction points that are coated with Super-LumiNova®. The dial comes in a gradient blue color with rose gold-coated and beige elements, delivering a warm effect with harmonious contrasts.

Montblanc continues to set trends in terms of design and innovation especially in low light situations or at night. In the dark almost all the elements of the dial and bezel are luminescent, matching with the tool watch spirit of the 1858 product line. A new configuration of the glowing elements in SuperLumiNova® has been found with a splash of different colours. The hours, minutes, second timezone hands, cardinal points on the bezel, as well as the arrows (that are used for the compass) are highlighted in green SuperLumiNova®, while the globes with their continents, Arabic numerals, and indexes appear in blue SuperLumiNova®. This is a nod to the importance of the look of a watch at night and its power to create emotion and pleasure, as well as to build an even stronger bond with our historic tool watches.

The Montblanc 1858 Geosphere Messner Limited Edition of 262 pieces is powered by the Manufacture automatic Calibre MB 29.25, with a worldtime complication that includes two turning domed globes representing the northern and southern hemispheres that make a full rotation every 24 hours. They are surrounded by a scale with the 24 time zones, along with a day/night indicator. A second time zone is located at nine o’clock and a date window (linked to the local time) is positioned at three o’clock. The longitude reference meridian for both hemispheres is highlighted with a blue line coated with SuperLumiNova®. With this simple and vintage worldtime display, the Limited Edition 262 brings an instinctive way of reading the time around the world.

A luxury blue NATO strap completes the look of the timepiece, hand-made in France using traditional methods that make it not only light, soft, and extremely comfortable on the wrist but also highly resistant and quick drying. The straps are produced by highly-skilled experts on old manual shuttle machines called ‘Jacquard’ looms. Designed by Montblanc, they are developed, warped, and woven in the Julien Faure workshops for the Montblanc timepieces, in particular the 1858 product line. They are an authentic and powerful “Métier d’Art” preserved and championed by Montblanc.

The Montblanc luxury NATO straps are complex to make, using a large number of thin yarns on specialized machines. They are made in several steps that require dexterity, experience, and savoir-faire that has been transmitted from generation to generation by highly-skilled craftsmen. The manufacturing process makes the straps comfortable, soft, long-lasting, highly resistant, as well as light. This is something that cannot be achieved using industrial textile strap production methods. Furthermore, the colour of the straps remains unchanged over time as the textile is already coloured at the beginning of the process. The straps also dry quickly allowing the wearer to keep the watch on the wrist while swimming, for example. They are not only conformable and robust; they provide a distinctive look to every Montblanc watch thanks to a large choice of colours and motifs that the watch’s owner can adapt to his watch depending on his taste. There are different versions and colours of luxury NATO straps available in all Montblanc boutiques.

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(* Super-LumiNova® is not a trademark owned by Montblanc)