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Montblanc Timewalker Twinfly Automatic Watch

Montblanc Timewalker Twinfly Automatic Watch

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Product Description
Founded in the early 1900s, Montblanc started out making high-quality fountain pens, which naturally led to watchmaking. The Timewalker Twinfly automatic tracks multiple time zones, the date, and offers chronograph functionality Read More

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loopingyeti
9
May 28, 2019
checkVerified Buyer
I confess to holding some complicated feelings about this admittedly very nice watch.

Everything arrived and worked as hoped. Shipment was fast by Massdrop standards (which are sluggish in a *good* month), and arrived with the full kit well protected and in working order.

The watch is very satisfying at a technical level. The semantics of “in-house” movement seems to get more blurred by the year, but this one is incontrovertibly made exclusively for pieces from Montblanc, via its acquisition of Minerva, and that on it’s own is neat. The display caseback doesn’t betray too many of the engine’s inner workings, but does have some nice striping, blued screws, and the column wheel barely visible along the periphery.

I’m big on chronographs, and for me, having the chrono seconds *and* minutes hands centrally mounted is impressive and unique. I do wish it were a “jumping” minutes hand, as opposed to a “creeping” minutes hand; I find it a more satisfying motion to watch and easier to read. I wouldn’t say it’s “hard” to read though, so it’s more of a nit. The pushers are pleasant to activate, with the reset taking a little extra effort. And of course, flyback functionality is always appreciated.

On the tactility note, winding the watch is also pleasant, providing a slightly smoother, or more high-tech sensation than I’m used to. The prominent, Montblanc-starred crown provides less grip than I’d like, but it’s large size, square profile, and lack of guards helps with the task. It’s easy to hear the barrel clutch slipping to know when the mainspring is fully wound. 

I’m not one of the folks who’s big on GMTs, but my understanding from them is that the Twinfly’s jumping local-hour hand (as opposed to an independently settable GMT hand) is where it’s at—more desirable, if not simply rarer (due to technical complexity). Indeed, changing the current timezone without having to stop the watch is nice. It’s also the only way to change the date, but this hasn’t provided a significant obstacle in my experience.

Aesthetically, the watch also has a lot going for it. The subtly textured (almost shimmery), off-white (almost silvery) dial does a lot to remind me of fresh-fallen snow. The sporty typeface of the Arabic numerals just adds to the feeling that this is a watch to wear skiing. I like how the GMT subdial is balanced by the running seconds hand, and the red paint on the chronograph hands adds a lovely pop of color. The minute/hour hands feel short-changed on execution, in reflective light exposing less fine craftsmanship than I’ve seen in less expensive watches. Not a major gripe, but certainly worth noting. The date at 9:00 (which gradually changes over from about 11pm till 1am) is definitely different, but in a way I like.

The sizing and profile is where things get complicated. A 40mm case is really the sweet spot for me, but I’ll happily rock a 43mm Navitimer as my “big” watch. This case, also 43 mm is actually quite comparable to the Navitimer, with a slim bezel, slanted rehaut, and large, detailed dial. The bowl shape of the case also aids wearability for me. The issues here start just beyond those 43 millimeters—at the shoulders, and on down from there.

The lugs are simply long. They’re long, and concave. They’re long, concave, and highly polished, so they reflect quite a bit of light, and simply add to the perceived case size. They’re also cool—they’re hollowed out, and the convexity is thoroughly different. They’re also well slanted to help wearability. It helps, but it’s ultimately a hedge against very significant proportions.

And that’s before we even get into the bracelet. It’s like somebody looked at the lugs, thought, hey that’s big and funky, how can I *outdo* those? And so you have this bracelet. The outer portion of each link looks like a pair of cylinders with a hollow wrap connecting them, almost like the tread of a tank’s wheels. Indeed, the bracelet is tank-like in its lightness in subtlety, which is to say it has neither. These outer portions also don’t quite meet on the sides, creating a square-wave profile that’s just… I really can’t see what they were going for, but it comes off to me as clunky rather than funky, aggressive instead of innovative, awkward-looking—not forward-thinking. And again, all of this is strongly emphasized by bright, eye-catching, light-reflecting, mirror-polished shine. It is, simply, a lot.

On the bracelet’s plus side, the butterfly clasp (“butterfly” feels like the wrong image in the context of this sheer honking piece of metal, but I’ll leave it for contrast) is easy and mechanically satisfying to operate, and it was easy to resize at home with a pin tool—though the simple screwless pins feel like another odd point of cheapness in a watch with an MSRP of 8k+.

With any watch purchase I’d usually say get the bracelet, even if you wear the thing on a strap, and that way you have it—in case you want to resell it or go for a different look. But in this case, I can only imagine this bracelet hurting resale value, and the different look is, if you’re asking my opinion, not under advisement.
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MarPabl
1088
Feb 22, 2019
checkVerified Buyer
The ⌚ was shipped some days before the planned date from New York City, USA. In the shipping 📦, the sender is marked as Massdrop... so it may be hard for me to determine who was the actual seller of this watch. The package came reasonably well protected and the Montblanc box had no damage at all. The watch comes in a brand 🆕️ condition, meaning that the ⌚ is covered by stickers to protect it, just like it happens when I've bought brand new watches before with AD. The Montblanc 📦 seems to be the correct for this watch but I'm not sure if Montblanc has bigger boxes depending on the model. I received the 5️⃣0️⃣0️⃣ hours brochure alongside the user guide for several movements from Montblanc. This user guide seems to be the correct one, because when I tried to download a digital copy from Montblanc, my caliber is not listed there. But my caliber is listed on the printed user guide I received. The warranty card is not filled at all (blank card). I was expecting this because we all know this is gray market. However I appreciate that I indeed got the warranty card and it was not removed from the package. So I think I've got the whole package: original 📦, documentation, (blank) warranty card alongside with the watch. After checking the accesories, I read the user guide to test the adjusment and functions for the watch. Every function works as expected: adjusting the local & home hour, date change (which happens near midnight) The chronograph works correctly: starting, stopping, immediate restart (twinfly), and the seconds & minute hands for the chronograph work correctly. I got the bracelet adjusted at a nearby jewerly, which is indeed an AD for Montblanc and they had no comments regarding this may be a fake watch... which I already knew. They even told me they've got a customer looking for this specific watch, and that nowadays this model is hard to come by. The watch and the bracelet are somewhat heavy but in the end I got a nice fit. So I'm happy with my purchase. This is my first purchase of a watch (relatively expensive) sold at grey market. I know that it may be a risk (paying for repair if anything goes wrong) but considering the money I saved, that almost every single watch I've bought before through AD has been fine (I've never really needed to use the warranty except for my very first Mido automatic chronograph) and that Massdrop offers warranty for this watch, I'm confident.
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Now I'm only checking the accuracy for this specific watch, I'm not really strict here (I'm not checking how much seconds the watch is losing/gaining every day), so time to time I just take a glance to my smartphone to check both have the same time. This watch is adjusted to 5️⃣ positions which should qualify this one as a chronometer, but I don't really see any reference to COSC compliance. The flyback feature is awesome and works perfectly. The chronograph pushers are nice to press. I don't find as easy to read the minutes and maybe I miss having an hour counter, but the chronograph centered hands are nice so I'm really nitpicking here. For me, the dial is somewhat busy in the beginning but I got used to that quickly. Regardless of the busy dial, it's finely finished and it looks refined. The GMT subphere is mixed with the 1️⃣2️⃣ marker and with the minute subsphere for the chronograph, so that's a little busy for me. I 💜 that the 1️⃣2️⃣ on the 2️⃣4️⃣ subsphere is @ the 🔝 Adjusting the date implies that you also adjust the GMT hand so it's somewhat slow to do, but not big deal. This ⌚ has a a true GMT function, check the meaning of that here https://drop.com/buy/m-hle-glash-tte-seebataillon-gmt-automatic-watch/talk/2556197 The case is mostly polished and the lugs are something beautiful and unique. The bracelet is also really nice. You could also choose the strap version, but I'll never do that when a bracelet is readily available. The 💧 resistance is a joke, so I'll avoid by all means getting this one wet. I'm sharing with you some other reviews that you may find useful as well:
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