This article was originally published in the July/August 2022 Issue of the WatchTime print magazine. Photos by Montblanc and Olaf Köster.

Both an iceberg and a diver appear in a 3D-relief engraving on the caseback of the Montblanc 1858 Iced Sea Automatic Date dive watch. The six-screw attachment, together with the 42-mm solid case body and a screw-down crown ensures that the watch is water resistant to a depth of 300 meters. The impressive relief engraving is created with a technique rarely used on such a small surface. The metal is engraved with a laser until a 3D-structured relief is created that conveys a realistic impression of depth. The elaborate caseback is just one result of the extensive design work undertaken for the 1858 Iced Sea Automatic Date. Taking its inspiration from the icy sea of the Mont Blanc glacier, which has solidified into an intertwined network of crystals over thousands of years, Montblanc created a dial that uniquely reflects this unusual aspect of nature. It was no simple undertaking to depict a realistic impression of a glacier on a disk that is only 0.5-mm thick.
Three Colors for Three Different Kinds of Ice 

The age-old technique known as gratte-boisé, which means ?scraping with a wooden utensil,? is the process used to create the impression of a dial covered in ice. Viewed through a loupe, it?s possible to recognize the crystalline structures of the ice between the gray, blue and black tones. The blue dial of o...