The Montblanc Star Legacy Nicolas Rieussec Chronograph honours French watchmaker Nicolas Rieussec, the creator of the first inking chronograph. The design traces its origins to the Champs-de-Mars horse track in Paris, where in 1821 Rieussec tested his inking chronograph as an instrument to record the time when the horses crossed the finish line. His device had a fixed nib that would place a drop of ink on two rotating counters (one for the minutes, the other for the seconds) as a measure of time. Inspired by this concept, Montblanc unveiled the Montblanc Star Legacy Nicolas Rieussec Collection in 2007, with one index marker that pointed to both the elapsed minutes and seconds on rotating counters. The latest in this series is the Montblanc Star Legacy Nicolas Rieussec Chronograph 43mm – Ref. 129763 has an anthracite ‘Clou de Paris’ dial limtied to 500 pieces, while Ref. 129764 has a silver white Anthracite ‘Clou de Paris’ dial.
Both the variants incorporate two rotating discs on the watch’s dial, and are a reduction from the 44.8mm seen in this line previously. The watches have a 60-second counter at 8 o’clock and a 30-minute counter at 5, both controlled by the pusher at 8 o’clock. In the Ref. 129763, the subdial at At 12 o’clock features a sunray finish, while also sporting dauphine-shaped, anthracite hour and minute hands with white Super-LumiNova®, a blue dual time hand, and a window for day and night indication, and a date window at 6 o’clock.
The non-limited edition gets a silver-white coloured “Clou de Paris” dial, a white counter at 12 o’clock with blue dauphine-shaped hour markers with white Super-LumiNova®. The variant gets blue-coloured titanium conical chronograph counters with a white date window at 6 o’clock. Both the variants get a domed sapphire crystal glass with an anti-reflective coating and a monopusher at 8 o’clock.
The watch is powered by the iconic automatic winding in-house monopusher chronograph movement, Caliber MB R200, the very in-house movement developed by Montblanc. The watch is equipped with a column wheel that controls the monopusher mechanism, two barrels and a 72-hour power reserve. Both the models have been tested for 500 hours at Montblanc Laboratory and have an engraving of ‘Chronographe Nicolas Rieussec’ at 12 o’clock and ‘Academie Des Sciences De Paris – 1821’ at 6 o’clock on the outer periphery, with an oversized onion-shaped crown at 3 o’clock. Turning the watch over reveals the semi-transparent sapphire crystal caseback. Both the limited edition DLC coating variant and the non-limited edition come with a water resistance of 50 metres.
The limited edition model sits on a blue textile strap with a “Clou de Paris” pattern and black DLC-coated stainless steel with a triple-folding clasp system. While the non-limited edition gets a blue textile strap with a “Clou de Paris” pattern and a stainless steel triple-folding clasp.
Images: Courtesy Montblanc
