With Day 3 at the Salon International de la Haute Horlogerie (SIHH) wrapped up, we find ourselves overwhelmed as usual. The WOW team has by now seen (and, not for nothing, photographed) all the novelties from all the major players exhibiting at the Palexpo. At this moment, we are hard pressed to choose just one watch to highlight…

For example, there is an amazing Richard Mille vying to be the lightest watch in the world; an amazingly complicated Grand Sonnerie, 10 years in the making, at Vacheron Constantin; a lubrication-free watch from Officine Panerai that has a 50-year warranty; and an outrageous and out-of-this-world diamond-encrusted wonder from Audemars Piguet. Believe it or not, the list goes on but for today, our penultimate day inside the halls of the Palexpo, I want to look at something fun, which we discovered at Montblanc, with the Montblanc TimeWalker Chronograph Rally Timer Counter.

A 50mm wrist titan, this watch can be transformed into a pocket watch, a table clock and a dashboard clock. It can also be worn in many different ways, making it possibly the most flexible wristwatch at this size (the watch is cased in grade 2 titanium so it isn’t actually as hefty as it sounds). The case turns from 0 to 180 degrees, or from 3 to 9 o’clock, which means the knurled crown can be positioned from 3 to 9 o’clock.

It was inspired by the original Minerva Rally Timer from the 1930s and is reportedly in exactly the same size today. Even the movement, the manual winding manufacture MB M16.29, is inspired by the original Minerva calibre 17.29. It is worth noting that Montblanc and Minerva are today the same, with Richemont announcing that both firms are now totally integrated.

Of course, Montblanc has a couple of star pieces from the fair, one of which graces the current issue of WOW, and another of which is a superlative chronograph with three balance springs, also in the TimeWalker collection but more on this later. For now, the specifications.

Specifications

Case: 50mm titanium

Dial: Black, with Arabic numerals and SuperLuminova treated indexes

Movement: Manual winding calibre MB M16.29 with monopusher chronograph

Functions: Hours, minutes, small seconds, chronograph

Limited edition of 100