As reported earlier, Montblanc has acquired the respected Swiss watch manufacture Minerva SA, now named "Institut Minerva de Recherche en Haute Horlogerie". The first fruits of that collaboration, the beautifully finished Montblanc "Collection Villeret 1858" is on exhibition at the Paragon in Singapore. Transforming the Montblanc boutique into a stunning time capsule showcasing Montblanc's historical milestones in watchmaking.

Of the many things we love about mechanical watches, we here at Goldarths Review are perhaps most impressed by top-notch movement finishing, and we were delighted to have had a chance to photograph the beautifully finished watches in some detail. Do look out for our full-length article on the Collection Villeret 1858 in an upcoming issue.

We were also very happy to speak to Mr Alexander Schmiedt, Business Director of the Villeret 1858 collection, to gain some insight into the founding of this collection.

What are the most attractive attributes of the Minerva name?

In one word, tradition. They are one of the few watch brands for longer than 100 years. This is special in the industry because while there are many brands with a supposedly longer history, but you will find that many of them were inactive for a long period of time.

Minerva had been producing beautiful and technical movements and watches in a traditional way throughout its history, even through the Quartz crisis which saw the death of many other larger companies. Their chronographs in particular are much desired by collectors everywhere.

So it's this continuity of tradition that is more attractive to us

Montblanc is also a company with more than 100 years in the luxury business, and Montblanc's products are also made based on the same principles of craftsmanship and handwork.

Admittedly, our history is not rooted in watchmaking but this makes our fit with Minerva perfect. While Montblanc benefits from the know-how and watchmaking savoire-fair of Mr Demetrio Cabbidu and his team, Minerva will gain access to our market-leading strengths in organization, distribution and marketing.

If Minerva were to be acquired by another watchmaking company with a longer history, the name Minerva will most likely have disappeared. But through Montblanc, the Minerva story can be publicized and told to more people all over the world.

It's not a commercial story, as Minerva's traditional watchmaking methods means we can't make enough pieces to support a full-fledged commercial collection.

But our goal is to maintain this traditional principles of craftsmanship, every few companies are doing it the way we are doing.

The luxury watch industry has seen a renaissance recently, with more product offerings than ever. What in your opinion are watch-collectors craving for?

While there are many types of collectors, I would say many of them crave to be told the truth. While it is true that many new luxury watches are being launched, there are also many not so credible stories, such as the artificial limitation of timepieces into limited editions. So the collectors are craving for something true, something honest that can be believed.

Mr Alexander Schmiedt, Business Director of the Villeret 1858 collection

How does Minerva and the Villeret collection fill this need?

At Institute Minerva we are producing watches at the same high levels of hand-craftsmanship as 100 years ago. Very few brands do it in such a consistent and strict way as we are able to do. That's what really made a difference. Look at our watches and you will see the high degree of hand-finishing of all aspects of our watch.

So a Montblanc Villeret watch is a watch with a soul. It carries a piece of the watchmaker who had spent so much time with the watch.

Are there plans to use Minerva movements in other Montblanc watches?

We can't. The level at which the Minerva movements are manufactured means it's not possible to industrialise it. It's really a choice we made, between making a few thousand pieces a year to make a collection commercially relevant, or doing it the traditional way, in which our purposes is to safeguard the tradition.

What are the plans that Montblanc has for Minerva in the future?

Our first objective is to continue to develop our own movements to the same traditions of quality and craftsmanship.

The second is to supply Montblanc's exclusive Villeret collection with movements.

The third is to be able to support independent watchmaking. Indeed we bring young people, independent watchmakers, into the Institute to work on projects which are not related to commercial products. In this way we hope to perpetuate the spirit and safeguard the tradition of haute horlogerie.