While Montblanc’s history with leather goods and writing instruments goes back over a hundred years, its watchmaking chops are considerably less long-lived. Though the Berlin-based Maison’s went full manufacture just sixteen years ago, it has since left a strong imprint on the horological world. Just this year, Montblanc made waves with its 1858 Iced Sea dials and further iterations of the ‘0 Oxygen’ collection; the latter of which came to an exceptional crescendo with the release of Montblanc’s entry into the esteemed Only Watch 2023 charity auction event, due this November.
The Montblanc 1858 Geosphere 0 Oxygen CARBO2 is a special, one-of-a-kind evolution of the 0 Oxygen concept that stays exceptionally true to the name—utilising some fantastic materials science wizardry to highlight the thematic use of carbon dioxide. For starters, there’s the unique CARBO2 watch middle case. Created by harvesting biogas and mineral wastes from recycling factories, Montblanc uses a process of calcium dissolution and carbonation to form an ultra-light, super-resistant carbon fibre composite material, which is then shaped into a watch case with a unique, streaked dark-grey finish.
Reinforcing the world of adventure and exploration, the 43.5 mm case comes with a luminous glacier-blue outline of Mount Everest on the side that only the wearer can see. The older glaciers are, the less oxygen they contain and the denser they become, resulting in a deeper blue colour that has been depicted here on the case band, shining white by day and luminous blue by night. A beautiful engraving of Mount Everest also adorns the titanium case back using Montblanc’s 3D laser technique that depicts the colour, depth and realism of this natural wonder; flanked by the names of Earth’s fourteen highest peaks.
The timepiece is powered by the MB 29.25 automatic movement with Montblanc’s Manufacture world-time complication, which includes turning Northern and Southern Hemisphere globes, a 24-hour scale, day and night indications, dual time display, and a date. The timepiece comes with a fluted bi-directional black ceramic bezel with the compass cardinal points and ‘OW’ for ‘Only Watch’ depicting West. The timepiece is fitted with an electric blue glacier pattern dial and the world-time meridians in a spectrum of colours, in keeping with Only Watch’s 2023 rainbow colour theme. Completing the look is a black interchangeable textile strap, reminiscent of climbing ropes and made of 100% recycled PET.
Like Montblanc’s other 0 Oxygen watches, this one-off timepiece offers a host of benefits to those exploring the harshest environments on the planet. Each piece is certified for containing a pressurised zero-oxygen environment within the case, which offers the twofold benefit of preventing fogging (which occurs during drastic temperature fluctuations at high altitudes) and halting oxidisation, which damages internal components over time.
Montblanc even went so far as to seal the entire watch within a zero-oxygen, ice-like capsule, including a hand-written note from world record-breaking climber, Nimsdai Purja, the fastest man to climb all fourteen of the world’s 8000m+ peaks. The lucky bidder will receive one of Purja’s own icepicks after the auction to shatter the capsule and access the watch if they so desire—allowing them to access the timepiece, as well as Purja’s personal notes concerning the future of humanity in the next 100 years —or leave that choice to future generations. What would you do?
Images: Montblanc
