This Explorer-Style Watch Is Engineered to Survive at Earth’s Highest Points

Montblanc is one of the most respected names in Swiss engineering, but for pens, not watches.

The brand is synonymous with opulent elegance in writing tools, but some of its best watches come from the vintage tool-inspired 1858 collection. A new mountaineering design might be the best-looking and most wearable addition yet.

Montblanc

The new 1858 Small Seconds 0 Oxygen looks like an archival design, and it kind of is, just not from Montblac. In 2006, through an acquisition by its parent company, Richmont, the renowned pen brand absorbed Minerva, a watch manufacturer with a strong history in pilot’s watches and chronographs.

Minerva’s respectable archive was folded into the Montblanc watch division to form the 1858 collection. It features chronographs, field, pilot’s, and dive watches, all blending early twentieth-century designs with modern detailing.

However, the new 1858 Small Seconds 0 Oxygen is as faithful to classical tool watch design as I’ve ever seen Montblanc get, and it is wonderful.

Montblanc

It has a straightforward, highly legible dial, reminiscent of classic explorer’s watches from Hanhart and Hamilton. The defining feature that runs through the entire 1858 collection is the cathedral handset, seen here with rhodium plating and white Super-LumiNova inlays.

As the title reveals, this iteration of the old-fashioned Alpine-assenting design features a small seconds dial with a railroad track oriented by numerals at the cardinal points.

There is a printed Arabic numeral hour track surrounded by a railroad seconds track. A framed, beveled date window replaces the 3:00 hour marker with a black disc and white numerals.

Less is more

The most appealing update offered by the 1858 Small Seconds 0 Oxygen is the 38mm case size. Most of the collection is sized at 40mm and up. This size lands closer to what a genuine vintage mountaineering watch would look like and hits the coveted “Goldilocks” zone.

Montblanc

The stainless steel case features long, gently sloping lugs and a large onion-shaped crown signed with Montblanc’s logo. It comes on a three-link steel bracelet with a folding clasp and push-button quick-release end-links.

An additional blue saffiano leather strap with a steel pin buckle is provided with the watch.

The air up there

Montblanc hides an impressive modern feature inside the 1858 Small Seconds 0 Oxygen’s vintage-inspired case. As an explanation of the name, all of the oxygen is removed from the air-tight stainless steel case.

This feature prevents the inner side of the sapphire crystal on the dial from fogging up at extremely high altitudes.

Montblanc

The caseback is decorated with an etching of Montblanc’s mountaineering coat of arms set against the Alps. It obscures the Montblanc Caliber MB 24.16 automatic movement underneath, which offers a 38-hour power reserve.

Availability and pricing

I appreciate the commitment to the look of explorer’s watches from the 1930s and 1940s exhibited here. It’s one of the most versatile and wearable options in Montblanc’s 1858 collection.

My only quarrel with this watch, and it applies to most of the 1858 collection, is the fixed compass bezel. It’s well-made with a ceramic insert and Super-LumiNova on the cardinal points, but you can’t properly use it as a compass because it doesn’t rotate. For nearly four grand, I don’t think that a rotating bezel is too much to ask.

The Montblanc 1858 Small Seconds 0 Oxygen is available now from Montblanc for $3,856.

Montblanc

Montblanc 1858 Small Second 0 Oxygen

Specs

Case Size	38mm
Movement	Montblanc Caliber MB 24.16 automatic
Water Resistance	100m

• $3,865 at Montblanc

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