Mont Blanc TimeWalker Watches

Dear All:it just hit the Swiss news: The luxury conglomerate Richemont discards 200 jobs in the Swiss watch industry after the profit decreased for about 1/5. Mostly affected will be Geneva, La-Chaud-de-Fond and Villeret.The financial situation of Richemont is recently very often a topic in the Swiss economic periodicals. The purchase of the former LMH watch manufacturers for 3,1 Mrd. $ is a viewed a major reason, especially since it did not ease the dependency on Swatch's ebauches. 'A Hayek would never pay that much money' is a bottom line often heard.Interestingly, neither IWC, Lange & Sohne or JLC seem to be affected with the recent decision.Best regards,Magnus Bosse6/5/03

Montblanc Metamorphosis Collection Villeret transformer watchThe new Montblanc Metamorphosis was one of the most exciting premieres from the young Swiss watch making brand at this year’s SIHH 2010 show.Coming in a case reminiscent of Dali’s famous melting clocks, the new timepiece also features a futuristic transformer dial. With a push of a slide you can transform the regulateur-style civil time display watch into a chronograph.In its normal layout, the watch features a “lone” hour hand sub-dial at 12 o’clock, a retrograde minute hand that travels from 8 o’clock to 4 o’clock and back, and the third sub-dial with a hand indicator displays current date.Sliding the lever on the left side of the case from 10 to 8 o’clock, one can transform the watch into a chronograph with hour and minute totalizers at 12 and 6 o’clock respectively. After the slide is moved to the new position, the watch takes about 15 seconds to open, slide under one another and finally hide behind the dial two wings at 12 o’clock and four wings at 6 o’clock while lifting a new sub-dial disc that eventually “swallows” the date hand.The complication adds 315 extra parts to the original 252 parts of the Minerva Kaliber 16-29 hand-wound movement.If I understand it correctly, the Montblanc Metamorphosis watch is still in its prototype phase, but the 3d-presentation by Montblanc looks truly astonishing.