Montblanc takes a fresh look at its Star Legacy Full Calendar watch with a new movement that makes the setting of the calendar far easier through two pushers, instead of the previous four. There are also a host of enhanced features, including a wider moon phase aperture, better legibility of the day and month apertures, and improved ∼50-hour power reserve and ∼50-meter water resistance.

Montblanc’s full calendar is among the Maison’s best-selling watch complications, reflecting a need to track the time, days, and months that dates back to the earliest civilizations, and continues today in an elegant and timeless way.

Making sense of time
The calendar is humankind’s way of making sense of the passage of time with one of the oldest lunar calendars yet found known to man being a Mesolithic monument located in Scotland that dates back to around 8,000 BC.

This monument not only tracked the phases of the moon, but also aligned on the midwinter sunrise, providing an annual astronomic correction to adjust the seasonal drift of the lunar year. The pre-historic hunter-gatherer communities living at this time are believed to have relied on it for seasonal activities, including the management of food resources that were available at different times of the year.

The next known formal calendars appear in Mesopotamia around 5,000 years later, starting with the Sumerian calendar, which was followed by the Egyptian, Assyrian and Elamite calendars.

Different versions of these lunisolar calendars were found in several civilizations across the planet during Antiquity.

The next major development occurred with the Julian calendar, a version of the Roman Calendar that was improved by Julius Caesar in 45 BC. Caesar’s calendar introduced leap days every four years for great precision. The Julian calendar was further refined into the Gregorian calendar in 1582 and is the “de facto” calendar used today.

The calendar complication today
Our need for a calendar today has never been greater as our lives are governed by time more than ever before. The invention of the measurement of time is one of humankind’s most important achievements and to have all this information available at a glance on the wrist makes the Montblanc Star Legacy Full Calendar watch a timeless and elegant tool for life.

The spirit of classical fine watchmaking
The Montblanc Star Legacy Full Calendar watch doesn’t only find its inspiration in the human invention of the measurement of time, but also in the design elements from historical Minerva pocket watches from the late 19th and early 20th centuries. The Maison’s archives show the existence of numerous international orders from the railway companies of the time whose employees needed both precision and legibility in their timekeepers to ensure the safe operation of their trains.

What else is new?
The Montblanc Star Legacy Full Calendar watch first catches the eye with its aesthetic design codes that indicate the hours, minutes, and seconds that are combined with the day, date, month and moon phase in a simple and elegant way.

These three new models come in elegantly polished and rounded 42mm stainless steel cases with straight horns and steps on the side. They now also feature two correctors for setting the calendar – instead of the previous four – making the timepieces much simpler to set and adjust.

Two of the models come with Roman numerals and blue leaf-shaped hands, while the third reference is adorned with new rose gold-coated Arabic numerals and matching leaf-shaped rose gold-coloured hands that are more modern and contemporary.

The design codes of this practical timepiece are directly rooted in the spirit of fine watchmaking and draw upon the 165 years of Minerva heritage. All the codes of the Montblanc Star Legacy collection are present, including a railway track with dots, a filet sauté that runs around the periphery of the dial, a date hand with a red half-moon tip, an elegant Montblanc emblem on the counterweight of the second hand, and the iconic Montblanc exploding star guilloché pattern.

The Montblanc Star Legacy Full Calendar models come in a stainless-steel bracelet for the Roman numeral version, or a choice of a stainless steel bracelet or a blue Sfumato alligator leather strap with a semi-matt finish for the other models.