1858

The price gap is itself information

A Villeret Minerva costs many multiples of a Le Locle 1858 that may look broadly similar in a photograph. A Minerva-described watch offered near Le Locle money is either not a Minerva or has a problem that explains the price. Treat an implausible price as a prompt to examine the movement first, not as an opportunity.

A Minerva caliber is unmistakable and that is the point

Large, hand-finished, with a column wheel, the distinctive devil's-tail arrow-shaped chronograph bridge, and finishing — bevelled and polished edges, hand-drawn straight-graining — executed by hand rather than by machine. Nothing in the Le Locle range resembles it, and no generic movement does either. Where a watch is offered as a Villeret Minerva, the movement settles the question completely, and the display back means it can be settled without opening anything.

Hand finishing looks different from machine finishing under a loupe

Machine-applied bevels are uniform in width and meet at rounded internal angles; hand-applied bevels vary slightly and can be brought to a sharp internal corner, which a machine cannot do. On a caliber priced where these are, hand finishing is the specification, and its absence is a finding. This is the one place in the Montblanc catalog where finishing quality is evidence rather than aesthetics.