A Sporting Take on Minerva
An 1858 Minerva Monopusher Chronograph evoking the brand’s historical stopwatches. Signed with the Minerva logo on the dial, limited to just 30 examples, and available exclusively from Collective Horology.
Key Specifications
- Stopwatch-inspired dial and strap
- Minerva-signed dial
- Minerva Calibre M13.21
- 42mm stainless steel case
- Bi-directional blue timing arrow
- 18K white gold rotating bezel
- “1 of 30” case back engraving
- Full specs below
A Legendary Manufacture
Amongst enthusiasts, the name Minerva has always held great significance. For more than a century, this brand has maintained a stellar reputation for crafting precision chronographs and stopwatches. Throughout much of its history, it stood as one of Switzerland’s few brands dedicated to producing chronographs entirely in-house.
Today, under the stewardship of Montblanc, Minerva continues to uphold its tradition of creating these legendary chronographs, each painstakingly hand-finished and produced in limited quantities. In fact, the manufacture only releases a few hundred of these exceptional watches each year.
What sets the P.05 apart is its dial, which proudly bears the dual signatures of both Minerva and Montblanc at six and twelve o’clock, respectively. The prominent placement of the Minerva logo on the dial pays homage to the deep affection that many enthusiasts hold for this brand and the iconic chronograph caliber it houses.
Eric Wind Inspires Design
The choice of which product line to pursue became clear during Worn&Wound’s Windup Watch Fair when the Collective team came across a mid-century Minerva stopwatch offered by Eric Wind, a passionate collector of unique stopwatches. Inspiration struck without delay. This stopwatch not only underscored Minerva’s reputation as a manufacturer of precise chronographs but also provided a blueprint for a more athletic interpretation of the brand’s existing collection.
With the inspiration in their grasp, the Montblanc and Collective teams collaborated to create an 1858 Monopusher Chronograph, drawing from the design, colors, materials, and finishes found in Minerva’s mid-century stopwatches. It all begins with the watch’s white lacquered dial, adorned with yellow subdials and blue scales reminiscent of Minerva’s iconic stopwatches. Moreover, the thermally-blued hands, a rotating blue arrow, and the steel case pay homage to those heritage timepieces. Similarly, the textile strap is intended to evoke the nylon cords often seen on vintage sporting stopwatches.
The culmination of these intricate details results in a timepiece that infuses a fresh and sporty perspective into the Villeret chronograph family, while still retaining a sense of seamless continuity.
The “Blue Arrow”
Situated at the outer edge of the dial is the rotating blue timing arrow, manipulated by an 18K white gold fluted bezel that can rotate in both directions. This arrow introduces an additional timing feature to the watch, drawing inspiration from historical Minerva stopwatches and wristwatches. In 1927, Minerva unveiled a stopwatch featuring an internal rotating bezel for countdown timing, as depicted above. Subsequently, in 1939, they introduced a chronograph wristwatch affectionately known as the “Red Arrow,” also showcased above. This timepiece featured a fluted rotating bezel designed for easy operation by pilots wearing gloves.
The arrow’s significance extends beyond functionality; its inclusion in Minerva watches pays homage to the Roman deity Minerva, the goddess of craftsmanship, who bore a spear with an arrowhead at its tip.
Hand-finished Minerva Calibre
At its essence, the P.05 remains a quintessential Minerva chronograph. Driving this timepiece is the fabled hand-wound MB M13.21 movement, a direct descendant of the historic Minerva Calibre 13.20, which made its debut in 1923. The movement’s structure proudly retains the iconic V bridge, a design element inspired by the majestic mountain ridge visible from the Villeret workshop’s windows. Remarkably, almost every single component, with the exception of jewels and a few select screws, is meticulously crafted in-house in Villeret.
Meticulously adorned, every movement demands over 48 hours of meticulous handcrafting for its embellishment. Notably, even the undersides of each component receive the same painstaking hand-finishing treatment. Perhaps the most emblematic showcase of Minerva’s dedication to finishing is the Devil’s tail on the lateral clutch—a poetic design embellishment that serves as a testament to Minerva’s expertise in hand-finishing internal angles.
Specifications
Movement
- Caliber: MB M13.21
- Chronograph with central second-hand and 30-minute counter
- Manual-winding
- 60 hour power reserve
- Screw balance with Philips curve
- Devil’s tail bridge
- Rhodium-coated German silver bridges with “Côtes de Genève”, circular
- graining on both sides, hand-chamfered edges
- Going-train gold-coated, circular grained, chamfered, diamond hubs on both sides
- Rhodium-plated German silver plate, circular-grained on both sides, hand-
- chamfered edges
Case & Strap
- 42mm stainless steel case
- 12.5mm case thickness/height
- 51.5mm lug-to-lug
- 20mm lug width
- Watch shown above on 6.5 inch/16.5 cm wrist
- 18K white gold bi-directional rotating bezel
- Domed sapphire crystal with anti-scratch treatment
- Sapphire crystal case back
- Fluted crown in stainless steel with Montblanc emblem in relief
- 3 bar (30 m) water resistance
- Black textile strap
Dial & Hands
- Stopwatch-inspired color palette
- Telemeter (outer) and tachymeter (inner) scales
- Thermally-blued central chronograph and totalizer hands
- Luminous hour and minute hands
- Bi-directional rotating blue arrow (operated by 18K white gold fluted-bezel)
Fore more information, please visit CollectiveHorology.com.