A DOCTOR’S WATCH FOR 2019
During the SIHH, the Hamburg brand introduced several new watches, including one inspired by 1950s styles with a salmon-pink dial encircled by a pulsograph scale.
First developed in 1854, the sphygmograph was a mechanical instrument used to measure the heartbeat. It was bulky and somewhat impractical, and gradually lost ground to wrist watches including a pulsometer. These watches found favour with the medical profession in the mid-20th century. Known as “doctors’ watches”, they showed the pulse rate directly on the dial with no mental calculation required. Today, this type of timepiece is much in demand, most of all for its design. Making use of the experience provided by Minerva, Montblanc was inspired by these famous watches to create the Heritage Pulsograph Limited Edition 100, a monopusher chronograph featuring a pulsation bezel to count 30 heart beats. One hundred pieces are available, as its name suggests.
What immediately attracts the eye is the colour on the curved dial, a fine, bright salmon pink. In the centre, the grained central ring houses an hour rim made up of Arabic numerals and silver dots. The hours and minutes are shown with two dauphine-style hands, while the seconds tick away in a blue sub-dial at 9 o’clock. This timekeeping landscape is encircled by a black second scale, around which the blue second hand of the chronograph makes its way, while with the blue pulsograph is near the chapter ring. A totaliser at 3 o’clock counts up the chronograph minutes.
This new watch by Montblanc is powered by the MB M13.21 calibre, a hand-wound movement providing 55 hours of power reserve and housed in a 40mm-wide steel case.
Price on request
By Sharmila Bertin