The world of watches has always had an affinity with famous explorers.
Rolex named its Explorer watch after Sir Edmund Hillary, the first man to summit Everest and modern-day mountaineer Kenton Cool is now a Bremont brand ambassador.
The latest mountaineer to join forces with a high-end watchmaker is Reinhold Messner, one of the greatest living explorers. The 76-year-old Italian has had one of the biggest climbing careers in history, starting in 1978 when him and his friend reached the peak of Mt. Everest without the benefit of additional oxygen.
Two years later, Messner became the first person to solo climb Mt. Everest, again without extra oxygen.
Last week, Montblanc unveiled the first watch in celebration of Messner, the 1858 Geosphere Limited Edition. The watch is a unique world time model with a special bronze alloy.
It comes with the range’s flauted bi-directional bronze bezel, with blue ceramic and four engraved cardinal direction points that are all coated in Super-LumiNova.
What really makes the watch standout though, are the luminescent northern and southern hemisphere globes on the dial – which make a full rotation once every 24 hours. The watch face also features seven red dots, which represent the world’s Seven Summits (or the most challenging mountains to climb).
In addition to displaying the time from 24 different time zones – including a day/night indicator – the model has an additional time zone at the 9 o’clock position. The caseback features images of Mont Blanc, a compass motif, and an engraving of Messner’s signature.
The watch is limited to just 262 pieces (a reference to all the peaks over 26,200 feet that Messner has climbed) and costs US$6,500.
They are available now at select Montblanc boutiques and authorized retailers.
Esquire now has a newsletter – sign up to get it sent straight to your inbox.
Want up-to-the-minute entertainment news and features? Just hit ‘Like’ on our Esquire Facebook page and ‘Follow’ on our @esquiremiddleeast Instagram and Twitter account.
