Monta has been around since 2016, but the St. Louis-based brand credits its 2017 field watch, the Triumph, with “saving” the brand and helping to establish the design language that has been a feature of all Montas since.
That design language can largely be thought of as “Rolex lite.” While I’m sure Monta would never advertise this, the brand’s models are largely influenced by those made by The Crown. This is unsurprising given that the founders of Monta are also the brains behind Everest Bands, which makes aftermarket rubber straps for Rolex watches.
Monta’s Rolex vibes have only grown over the years, with the brand’s Oceanking diver and Skyquest GMT more closely resembling their Rolex influences — the Submariner and GMT-Master II, respectively — with each generational update.
Now, it’s the Triumph’s turn, as Monta has finally updated its Rolex Explorer-inspired field watch — and it’s now much closer to its muse than ever before.
Explorer III?
The new second generation of the Triumph makes significant changes to the watch. For one, the stainless steel case has been bumped up to 40mm from 38.5mm, now clocking in at the same size as Rolex’s larger Explorer model. The bezel and slab side of the case, both of which were brushed on the original Triumph, are now mirror-polished, mimicking the more refined look of the Explorer.
Of course, the most notable update can be found on the dial, which really dials up the Triumph’s Explorer-ness. While the prior generation featured all Arabic numerals save for 12 and 6 printed on the dial inside the applied indices, with 3 and 9 being the most prominent, the new version loses these printed numerals entirely.
