Montblanc builds on Minerva heritage

“Day & Night” magazine met up with Laurent Lecamp – Managing Director Watch Division, Montblanc – during Dubai Watch Week and discussed the changes he would like make and what the Minerva Manufacture means to Montblanc …

Since you have taken over the Watch Division of Montblanc, what are the changes we should anticipate?

The first one is opening up to the team; I mean when there is an idea, it is always shared with the team. I am not going to just tell them that this is what we are going to do, rather I sit with my watchmakers, my development team, and my marketing team – all together, and discuss ideas. I think success is success only if all the team is behind the idea rather than just a few people.

The second one is of three elements; when you meet women, they expect a good story behind a watch. When you meet customer or collectors, you want them to keep you in their mind. Lastly, you want people to have a good image of you. How do you achieve all of this? The product value, the differentiation, and the story-telling – all of these are key elements that I want to implement in each new product we launch next year. I think this is the recipe for success. If you observe the watches here, you see the story-telling. For instance, the Star Legacy Orbis Terrarum LE 71 – you have the story-telling, the anniversary. The differentiation factor is the World Timer; all of this makes it work so well. That is exactly what we need and what we will implement.

What are the main pillars of Montblanc Watch Division right now?

The main pillar for us is clearly the Manufacture. For instance, if the most beautiful woman or a man in Italy lived inside a house without anybody knowing about it, they are never going to get married. Minerva is the same; we have to open the window and say, “Hey, I am here!”. We have a very beautiful Manufacture that is mostly hidden. Minerva should be shown and explained to the world. We have such legitimacy in the craftsmanship and in the know-how.

We pay attention to human beings; when you buy a watch that has been assembled and developed by Villeret, that means you have a watch made by human beings, for human beings. If you visit Villeret, you will see that the human beings there – the watchmakers, the whole team – represent more than 80% of our watches. Compared to other watch companies, it is a lot. We do the hairsprings by hand; we do the finishings on the movement by hand; the polishing of the flank is done using wood from the flowering trees that grow in front of our Manufacture – this is unique. The human aspect of this is very important and we want to emphasise this, which will then help all Montblanc timepieces. Because as of now, only collectors know about Minerva.

Would you consider the 1858 as Montblanc’s most important line?

The Star Legacy is very strong – a traditional Montblanc line. Other than this, we need something daring, the 1858 is dedicated to the world of conquest, sport, adventure, discovery. So, I would say yes, 1858 is an important line. The key element for me in the 1858 collection is that here we can dare, as we did this year with the Gobi Desert Geosphere Limited Edition. We have 5 customers in the mall for one available timepiece. This is clearly evidence that when you dare and you have the differentiation – the dial, the bezel, the unique caseback – then there is no comparison.

Another important fact is that these timepieces are unique because their complications have been developed in Villeret by the Minerva team. The complication of the Geosphere has been developed by one of the best and oldest Manufacture in Switzerland. That is why it is completely unique. If you take all the existing brands worldwide, you will never find a complication as good as this one.

Would the 1858 continue to be based on the theme of adventure in the future?

Yes; 1858 is discovery, and it is adventure. 1858 is based on the idea that you want to discover the world. It was inspired by conquest; the first 1858 were military pieces, because Minerva initially made military timepieces, in the 1920s and 1930s. We have the spirit of precision inspired by the military timepieces, and Minerva was famous for its precision. In 1911, Minerva unveiled stopwatches that could measure a fifth-of-a-second. In 1912, its stopwatches could measure a tenth-of-a-second, and in 1936, Minerva was the Timekeeper of the Olympic Games in Germany. Minerva was extremely strong in terms of timekeeping, and this precision is what we need. We also need the daring to show what we are made of.