The Minerva The Unveiled Crownless: A Distinctive Timepiece Announcing A Return To Top Billing

Is it gimmicky? This is the question that comes to mind when pondering a watch like the Minerva The Unveiled Crownless (RM156,500), which has, as a defining feature, something nobody asked for: it has no crown, with winding and setting done instead via the rotating bezel.

The answer to that question is subjective. It will be to some. It won’t be to others. For everyone else in the middle, their judgement will depend on the execution. Does the new feature feel like a tacked-on afterthought, made solely to seek attention? Or is it an integrated part of the watch’s identity, developed with intent from the start?

Well, The Unveiled Crownless is underpinned by Calibre M15.08, an entirely new movement: time-only, manually wound with a small seconds indicator, and beating at 18,000vph, as is tradition for the movements made at the Minerva manufacture in Villeret, Switzerland. Twisting the bezel anticlockwise winds the movement up to 80 hours; in the opposite direction, the bezel moves, but does not accomplish anything other than being quite a satisfying, clicky mechanism. When a small lever on the edge of the caseback is flipped outwards, the bezel sets the time; forward and backwards behave as intuitively as you would expect. 

It is quite novel to set the time this way, manipulating something in the same plane as the hands themselves (as opposed to perpendicular to them with a regular crown). It feels like the minute hand, in particular, is responding directly to your touch.

It is, otherwise, a dress watch, aesthetically in a classical mid-century mould. The dial is a light gold, with a guilloche pattern at the edge and on the subdial, with simple applied indices and an unassuming printed vintage logo. The case is stainless steel, with long but downward-tapering lugs, while the bezel is fluted and in rose gold. It measures 41.5mm in diameter and is just shy of 12mm thick, which might be surprisingly large-sounding for a dress watch—though perhaps less so if you think of this as a three-hander with a complication. (That line of thought might also help you justify the price.) But it is proportionate, and the dial opening is smaller than you might expect, which means the watch wears better on the wrist, especially since it has quite an understated demeanour. It is not small, but neither does it necessarily feel oversized.

The other question to ask is: why? This one needs context. 

Minerva was founded in 1858, and became highly regarded, especially for its early 20th-century chronograph movements. It just about survived the quartz crisis from the 1970s onwards and, in 2006, was acquired by the Richemont group. However, starting in 2007, Minerva was no longer a standalone entity, instead existing as a department within the watch division of Montblanc—more famous for its writing instruments and leather goods, but a fledgling watchmaker as well. Minerva still managed to shine as the manufacture behind Montblanc’s highest tier of timepieces and movements. The co-branded The Unveiled Secret was the most prominent example of recent years: debuting in 2022, it featured a classic chronograph movement, but flipped and paired with a skeleton dial to allow for unfettered visual admiration. It was a compelling statement of Minerva’s still-intact expertise, and the potential it had to innovate for today’s collectors.

This was one of the reasons that collectors had been clamouring for Minerva to once again make its own way—to create distance between itself and the rest of Montblanc’s more consumer-oriented offerings, and to distinguish itself once again as a watchmaker that could rival the best. In April of this year, they got their wish, as it was announced that Minerva would be repositioned as a separate brand within the Richemont group, standing tall within a stable that includes other high-end historical watch manufactures such as Jaeger-LeCoultre and Vacheron Constantin.

Why now? “Because life is short, and I cannot wait anymore,” Laurent Lecamp says wryly, with a laugh. As managing director of Montblanc’s watch division since 2021, Minerva was under his purview; today, it still is, as he is now also CEO of Minerva. Lecamp points out that one of Minerva’s main roles was to provide technical support to Montblanc’s watchmaking, as it sought to elevate its timepiece offerings to new levels. “It was the best time,” he says. “Montblanc is strong enough to be without the support of Minerva.” He cites the strength of Montblanc’s current offerings—encompassing collections like the Iced Sea diving watches, the explorer-minded 1858, which includes the unique Geosphere, and the quirky Nicolas Rieussec chronographs—as having carved out their own niche in the market. And it has always been a matter of time. “For me, it was sure that one day it would happen. The day Montblanc would be strong as a watchmaker, and Minerva was ready to be Minerva again,” he says. The two brands might be under one management team but, more than ever, the production teams are entirely separate.

And why the Crownless? Because it is distinctive and unexpected, a statement during a watershed moment for Minerva. It also allows Lecamp to focus on a particular piece of historical inspiration that he discovered about the manufacture shortly after he first joined. In 1927, Minerva filed a patent for an external rotating timing bezel for a pilot’s watch, making it one of the earliest companies that would have innovated in this regard. This bezel was knurled for better grip, and this is why the knurled bezel had become a signature of Montblanc’s Minerva watches. Lecamp has already experimented with adding a rotating bezel to where it has not gone before, with The Unveiled Timekeeper in 2023—adapting a classic monopusher chronograph movement to be controlled by a rotating bezel instead of a crown-mounted pusher.

Which leads back to the Minerva The Unveiled Crownless. The case is steel but the knurled bezel is gold to highlight this signature, as well as provide a more luxe point of tactility. Going forward, the Crownless is proposed as the first rung of the core collection—the gateway to loftier, limited-edition chronographs, tourbillons, and the like.

But it is meant to be unique in its own right, and no less representative of the high-end watchmaking that Minerva is still capable of. The manufacture building, the same one as it was in 1958, is a modest construction by today’s standards but is the tallest building in Villeret, which has only about 900 residents. Here, hairsprings are made in-house for its own movements from a proprietary alloy. Balance springs oscillate at 18,000vph, Minerva being one of the last companies to focus on this old-school beat rate. Movement components are constructed out of German silver. Hand-finishing is the order of the day, including the use of wood from the gentian plant, picked by watchmakers from the nearby brush every October. Polished, sharply defined inner angles are a specialty, including that of the V-shaped bridge that is a signature feature on every chronograph calibre. Ratchet wheels are snail-finished. Each movement is assembled twice by a single watchmaker.

Given the size of the Minerva manufacture—it only has nine watchmakers—it is safe to assume that it will be the lowest production brand in the Richemont group. And that is exactly what Lecamp is leveraging. “The philosophy is one of an independent brand,” he says. “I think Minerva, with its size, with the products we are doing, with the proximity to our end customers…Richemont is giving a lot of support to Minerva, but in my head…it’s clearly one of an independent brand.” It extends beyond watchmaking, as well, with Minerva also debuting two things in direct response to customer requests: richly constructed hardwood boxes meant to last as long as the watch, and a newly designed pin buckle for its deployant clasps that put less stress on the leather strap when changing sizes. These are small details, but ones that matter to high-end collectors. 

“We want to be very exclusive. It’s a choice. Now, we are at full capacity. We could produce more, but we lose the relationship we have with our customers,” Lecamp says. And these days, they are more involved, more discerning. Visitors to the Minerva manufacture are asking questions that they did not five years ago—about hairsprings, polishing techniques, and even the schedule the watchmakers keep, and how they spend their time. “Completely new questions. People are looking for something real,” he explains. 

“The point is: artisanal will be back,” Lecamp adds. “For luxury, I strongly believe that artisanal is the key element.”

Minerva