Today we present Montblanc's Nicolas Rieussec Rising Hours for Monaco
MONTBLANC
Montblanc began in Hamburg as the Simplo Filler Pen Comanpany in 1906, following it founding by Claus-Johannes Voss, Alfred Nehemias and August Eberstein. Producing up-market pens, the first model, the Rouge et Noir, was released in 1909 followed in 1910 by the pen that was later to give the company its new name, Montblanc.
The "White Star" trademark logo first appeared in 1913. It is a white, stylised six-pointed star with rounded edges that represents the snowcap of the Mont Blanc from above. The number "4810" is also frequently seen in model numbers and other uses, and refers to the height of Mont Blanc in metres.
The company makes several models of pens with the top of the line Meisterstück, first appearing in 1924, being something of a flagship. The Montblanc Writers Editions commemorate the life and work of a particular writer and new models in this series are released each year. These pens usually bare an engraving of the writers signature on the cap and a symbol of their most important work engraved onto the nibs. The company also produce limited edition pieces with releases of 888 or 4810 being common numbers. Limited edition pens are often adorned with gemstones such as rubies and diamonds and 18ct gold. For some issues, the White Star has been fashioned out of mother-of-pearl.
The Montblanc brand is on other goods besides pens, including watches, jewellery, fragrances, leather goods and eyewear.
The company was acquired by Dunhill in 1977, following which lower price pens were dropped and the brand was used on a wide range of luxury goods other than pens.
Today, Montblanc forms part of the Richemont group, one of the largest luxury goods companies in the world which also owns;
Alfred Dunhill Limited.
Baume & Mercier SA
Cartier
Chloé International
IWC International Watch Co. AG
Lancel Sogedi
Lange Uhren GmbH
Jaeger-LeCoultre SA
Officine Panerai
Piaget SA
Vacheron Constantin SA
Van Cleef & Arpels SA
NTBLANC: The Fortune Number 88 Limited Edition Skeleton Fountain Pen
Solid 18K rose gold lattice of interlocking 8s over translucent precious resin. Eight rings circle the cap and cone, and the clip is decorated with a diamond-studded 8. Medium 18K red gold nib engraved with yin-yang symbol. Outer box, inner box, display box, papers. Limited Edition: 59/88.
Price realised: US$23,750
- See more at: http://www.pawnbank.com.au/fine-writing-instruments-auction-at-bonhams/#sthash.ggDv1bck.dpuf
Solid 18K rose gold lattice of interlocking 8s over translucent precious resin. Eight rings circle the cap and cone, and the clip is decorated with a diamond-studded 8. Medium 18K red gold nib engraved with yin-yang symbol. Outer box, inner box, display box, papers. Limited Edition: 59/88.
Price realised: US$23,750
MONTBLANC- The Fortune Number 88 Limited Edition Skeleton Fountain Pen
ONTBLANC:
The Fortune Number 88 Limited Edition Skeleton Fountain Pen - See more
at:
http://www.pawnbank.com.au/fine-writing-instruments-auction-at-bonhams/#sthash.ggDv1bck.dpuf
We featured Mont Blanc in a post that covered the Fine Writing Instruments Auction at Bonham's, San Fransisco in December of last year.
MONTBLANC: The Fortune Number 88 Limited Edition Skeleton Fountain Pen
Solid 18K rose gold lattice of interlocking 8s over translucent precious resin. Eight rings circle the cap and cone, and the clip is decorated with a diamond-studded 8. Medium 18K red gold nib engraved with yin-yang symbol. Outer box, inner box, display box, papers. Limited Edition: 59/88.
Price realised: US$23,750
- See more at: http://www.pawnbank.com.au/fine-writing-instruments-auction-at-bonhams/#sthash.ggDv1bck.dpuf
Solid 18K rose gold lattice of interlocking 8s over translucent precious resin. Eight rings circle the cap and cone, and the clip is decorated with a diamond-studded 8. Medium 18K red gold nib engraved with yin-yang symbol. Outer box, inner box, display box, papers. Limited Edition: 59/88.
Price realised: US$23,750
MONTBLANC- The Fortune Number 88 Limited Edition Skeleton Fountain Pen
MONTBLANC: The Fortune Number 88 Limited Edition Skeleton Fountain Pen
Solid 18K rose gold lattice of interlocking 8s over translucent precious resin. Eight rings circle the cap and cone, and the clip is decorated with a diamond-studded 8. Medium 18K red gold nib engraved with yin-yang symbol. Outer box, inner box, display box, papers. Limited Edition: 59/88.
Price realised: US$23,750
- See more at: http://www.pawnbank.com.au/fine-writing-instruments-auction-at-bonhams/#sthash.ggDv1bck.dpuf
Solid 18K rose gold lattice of interlocking 8s over translucent precious resin. Eight rings circle the cap and cone, and the clip is decorated with a diamond-studded 8. Medium 18K red gold nib engraved with yin-yang symbol. Outer box, inner box, display box, papers. Limited Edition: 59/88.
Price realised: US$23,750
- See more at: http://www.pawnbank.com.au/fine-writing-instruments-auction-at-bonhams/#sthash.ggDv1bck.dpuf
| |
| Montblanc Fortune Number 88 Limited Edition Skeleton Fountain Pen, US$23,750 at Bonham's Auction, December 2012 |
The video below features the Montblanc Nicolas Rieussec Rising Hours, upon which, this years donation to Only Watch is based. It features a fascinating hour display.
The Rising Hours watches from Montblanc are dedicated to Nicolas Mathieu Rieussec (July 20, 1781 – June 18, 1866), French watchmaker and inventor of the chronograph, a major leap forward in timekeeping.
Early in his career, Rieussec had endeavoured to make a name for himself and the young watchmaker began to gain recognition when he was named a Watchmaker to King Louis XVIII in a royal warrant dated January 31, 1817:
“On this thirty-first day of January, eighteen hundred and seventeen, the King at Paris, having been made fully aware of the good life and moral conduct of Sieur Nicolas Mathieu Rieussec, and of the distinguished reputation he has acquired in his profession of Watchmaker, desires to confer upon him a mark of his favour and of the protection with which he honours him; for this purpose, His Majesty has granted and does grant him the title of his Watchmaker so that said Sieur Rieussec can enjoy all the honours, prerogatives and other benefits thereunto appertaining; His Majesty desires and intends that he may use said Title at all gatherings and on all public documents...”In France during the early 1800's, horse-racing had gathered a great momentum as a popular sport and social gathering. Rieussec saw the need for a method of timing the horses. It was one thing to see who won, it was another thing entirely to be able to tell by exactly how much. On the 1st September 1821, he attended the Arrondissement de la Seine race at the Champs-de-Mars with the intention of testing his new device, managing to record the time of the winner and those who followed.
Just over a month later, on 15 October, 1821, the French Academy of Sciences made a report on Rieussec's invention. The chronograph had been examined by two members of the academy, mathematician and engineer, Gaspard de Prony and, the one-and-only Alexandre-Louis Breguet, founder of the influential company, Breguet, and no stranger to owning patents.
Featured in the Academy's minutes of the meeting is a report which provides what is among the most comprehensive descriptions of the chronograph and its operation:
The volume and shape of this instrument are about those of a large pocket chronometer. The dial is movable and turns about an axis that is perpendicular to its plane and passes through its centre. When the Chronograph is operating, this dial makes one revolution per minute, and since its circumference is divided into 60 parts, the angular motion of one division corresponds to one second. A small window next to the hanging ring reveals a number, which is replaced by another number with each revolution of the dial and indicates the minutes; the Chronograph can run about three-quarters of an hour without stopping. To use this instrument, when it is mounted and in a resting state, one first sets the divisions marking the time to the starting points by turning a knurled knob with one’s hand. Through the intermediary of a gear train, the knob causes the minute and second dials to move. Having done this, when the moment to start timing arrives, one presses a small button next to the knob to set the machine in motion. The observer can give full attention to the phenomena whose successive time intervals he wishes to measure, and as soon as one of the divisions of these intervals is reached, he presses a second button next to the one we have just mentioned. At the moment when it is pressed a small pen, or metal point, passing through the open tip of a cone filled with black oil ink and placed opposite the moving dial’s fixed zero point, marks a point on the circumference that is divided into seconds. This point then indicates the second and fraction of a second corresponding to the beginning or end of the period of time being measured. Operation of the pen trigger mechanism neither stops nor slows the moving dial’s motion, so the button can be pressed several times while this motion lasts, making a number of black points on the scale divided into 60 parts; each point indicates, by its position, the moment when it was marked. To stop the chronograph quickly, one need only press the button that started it. The mechanism is arranged such that pressing this button abruptly changes the current state of the machine, making it pass from a resting state to movement or from movement to its resting state. We did not examine the inside of the instrument, and we do not think that it offers anything particularly remarkable, given the current state of watchmaking. Its principal merit lies in its ability to instantly indicate the first and last moments of several successive time intervals by means of permanent, visible signs on a moving dial, without requiring the attention of the observer’s eyes or ears. A chronograph with such a property unquestionably offers precious resources to physicians, engineers and, in general, anyone who measures phenomena. A highly satisfactory trial was recently made at public horse races; but its use can obviously extend to an infinite variety of other kinds of observations, the testing of moving machines, gauging of running water, and almost all hydraulic operations. The passage of a star over the cross-hairs of a telescope, when the astronomer has only one free hand, will be very precisely indicated by this new means, which will either serve to verify the count of the seconds on a clock, or will replace such a count if the distant location of the clock or poor hearing keeps the escapement from being heard. We think that Mr. Rieussec’s Chronograph deserves the Academy’s approval.
Montblanc has designed and developed a unique watch in its Manufacture in Locle, the Montblanc Nicolas Rieussec Rising Hours for Monaco. Alliance of red gold and steel with Dual Carbon treatment, it displays the hours on a turning disc that has been augmented with the appealing complication of a day/night indication in the hour display.
Catalogue Description:
| Montblanc Nicolas Rieussec Rising Hours for Monaco A fine and unique self-winding monopusher chronograph with hours on a turning disc and day/night indication in the hour display. Red gold and steel with Dual Carbon treatment case. Accompanied by a special box and certificate. | |
| C. Stainless steel with dual carbon treatment Crown, pushers and screws of the case back in 18K red gold (5N) Domed sapphire crystal with double anti-reflective coating Screwed case back with transparent sapphire crystal M. Montblanc Manufacture Calibre MB R220. Mechanical movement with automatic winding mechanism and twin barrels (343 components and 42 jewels) Chronograph Monopusher with column-wheel control and vertical disc clutch power reserve 72 hours Balance Screw balance Ø 9,70 mm ; Moment of inertia: 12 mgcm² Frequency 28'800 bph (4 Hz) Hairspring Flat Plate Rhodium plated and circular grained Bridges Rhodium-plated, Geneva stripes Gear train Special toothing for more efficient power transmission Indications Hours and minutes on off-center dial/Digital hour display with integrated day/ Night indication/Day by disc /Date by disc Chronograph Chronograph tallies 60 elapsed seconds and 30 elapsed minutes on rotating discs with motionless hands | |
| Estimate: 15,000 EUR - 20,000 EUR |
Links to all the articles in our countdown can be found on the original post
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