Montblanc’s 1858 timepieces, which take inspiration from early pocketwatches made by legendary Swiss chronograph maker Minerva, are conceived as luxurious tool watches for mountain exploration. (Montblanc, which absorbed Minerva back in 2009, does take its name from a famous mountain, after all.) For its latest limited edition, the company teamed with one of the world’s preeminent mountaineers, Reinhold Messner, to produce a very special version of its 1858 Geosphere world-time watch.

The Montblanc 1858 Geosphere Limited Edition features the distinctive world time display, with two turning disks representing the northern and southern hemispheres, as the original Geosphere from 2018. It also introduces some new elements that help this new model stand on its own as a tribute to Messner, the Italian explorer, climber, and author whose accomplishments include the first solo ascent of Mount Everest and the first crossing of Antarctica on foot, minus dog sleds or snowmobiles. The watch combines a polished and satin-finished 42-mm bronze alloy case with a blue dial and rose-gold-coated details. Its fluted, bi-directional turning bezel has a blue ceramic insert with engraved cardinal points for a compass motif.
On the two hemisphere disks are subtle red dots indicating the locations of the mountains that Messner has climbed as part of his “Messner’s List” ? recognized as the most difficult variation on the Seven Summits Challenge, in whic...