Montblanc Iced Sea 0 Oxygen Deep 4810: from the peaks to the depths

The work on haute horlogerie carried out by Montblanc in recent years is something of an achievement. Since the arrival of the watch division’s Global Managing Director, Laurent Lecamp, the brand has substantially rejuvenated and modernised its collections, working on movements, complications and, above all, more modern aesthetics. One of Lecamp’s great intuitions, which began almost as a gamble, was the launch of Montblanc’s first diver’s collection, the 1858 Iced Sea, in 2022. A gamble because, from a brand so tied in name and in deed to the mountains world, a diver seemed just a way of trying to preside over a rich segment never before explored by the brand. The facts, and above all the market, proved Lecamp right.

Today, the Iced Sea is Montblanc’s number one collection in terms of sales and, while at first it built its success by substantially enriching the line with new colour variants, over time the Iced Sea began to become fertile ground for the introduction of technical innovations. In this sense, the new Montblanc Iced Sea 0 Oxygen Deep 4810 is the spearhead. Because it is their first high-performance diver, and because it houses the 0 Oxygen technology that Montblanc introduced a couple of years ago within its watches intended for high-mountain exploration and which, as has become evident, is also well suited to extreme divers.

MONTBLANC AND 0 OXYGEN TECHNOLOGY

When Montblanc unveiled its 0 Oxygen technology, there were many questions being asked by insiders and the trade press. As its name suggests, this technology allows watch cases to be completely devoid of oxygen inside. A situation that prevents possible tarnishing of the crystal in the event of sudden changes in temperature and pressure, and allows the movement components to suffer less from the effects of oxidation resulting in wear and tear.

The questions were not so much about how to remove the oxygen from the case: there are in fact not only a few industry branches with machines capable of ‘sucking in’ oxygen, creating vacuum environments. The doubts were more akin to those related to the waterproofing ofthe cases, i.e. how to deal with the weak points of a watch such as the crown or, in the case of chronographs, the push-buttons. Well, the technology developed by Montblanc relies on special seals and a design capable of preventing oxygen from entering the case, even in the face of the stress to which these components are subjected.

THE PERFORMANCE OF THE MONTBLANC ICED SEA 0 OXYGEN DEEP 4810

In addition to benefiting from this technology, as mentioned, the Montblanc Iced Sea 0 Oxygen Deep 4810 is also a high-performance diver, for which being water- and oxygen-proof is a matter of life and death. Naturally, the brand managed to guarantee both. The reason for this high performance is quickly stated, or rather written down. While classic Iced Seas have a respectable water resistance, guaranteed up to 30 bar, this one goes much further, that is, to 481 bar. Pressure that one experiences, roughly speaking, when diving down to -4810 metres. That is the same altitude, in negative, as the Alps’ highest peak: the Mont Blanc.

Mind you, though: this is not just a marketing stunt to tie in with the brand’s heritage. This is a watch of substance with a lot of valuable content. Starting with the movement, which is the in-house automatic MB 29.29 calibre. It is a single time with central seconds and date display, built in-house by Montblanc on the basis of a Manufacture Horlogère ValFleurier sketch. It offers a decent performance: it operates at 28,800 vibrations per hour, has a 5-day power reserve – 120 hours, if you like – and is chronometer-certified by the COSC. All characteristics that the Baumatic calibre that equips Baume & Mercier’s Cliftons also possesses. Considering that the Baumatic was developed by Manufacture Horlogère ValFleurier – inaugurated in 2005 and belonging to the Richemont Group, like Montblanc – on the basis of specific requests from Baume & Mercier, the close relationship between the two movements is not strange to assume.

The fact that most of the other watches in the Iced Sea collection have a simpler basic movement, with around two days’ power reserve, shows that with the Montblanc Iced Sea 0 Oxygen Deep 4810, the brand wanted to reinforce the value of its watchmaking offering. A value that is also reflected in the price, because the Deep 4810 version costs almost three times as much as a standard Iced Sea Automatic Date: 8,900 euros against a range of 3,150 to 3,850 euros depending on the model.

THE WATCH’S AESTHETICS 

Aesthetically, the Montblanc Iced Sea 0 Oxygen Deep 4810 resembles the other models in the Iced Sea collection, but is distinguished by its larger case, which is necessary for a high-performance diver water-resistant to 481 bar. It measures 43 mm wide and an impressive 19.2 mm thick, but the fact that it is made of grade 5 titanium makes the watch light on the wrist. Merit also goes to the rather rounded case back, designed to fit into the slight hollow between the ulna and the radius; in this way, the timepiece is less bulky when worn under the cuff of a shirt and not over a diving suit.

Inthe case of the Iced Sea 0 Oxygen Deep 4810, the case back is, in our opinion, the watch’s real aesthetic treat. It is in fact decorated with a three-dimensional blue texture that the brand describes as an underwater view of a frozen water surface: in essence what divers should see, looking upwards, when diving in an Alpine lake in the winter or in the Arctic seas. Having seen it live, we confirm that the effect is indeed beautiful, very seductive: it is a pity that, being on the back, this feature is hidden from view. The dial, the visible part, is in fact textured, as on the other Iced Sea watches, with a technique called gratté-boisé, used to reproduce the crystal latticework of one of Mont Blanc’s largest glaciers, the Mer de Glace. The deep blue colour hints at the abysses for which the timepiece is intended.

The dial is framed by a unidirectional rotating bezel knurled in black anodised aluminium, with blue-emitting Super-LumiNova on the hour markers and the dot at 12 o’clock. The other watches in the Iced Sea collection have a ceramic bezel; Montblanc probably chose to use aluminium here, a more ‘vintage’ material than ceramic for a diver’s bezel, because it is extremely resistant to the pressure and wear of water. The very thick sapphire crystal protecting the dial has an internal and external anti-reflective treatment, synonymous with high quality and extreme care. All the technical details help to ensure that the watch meets the ISO 6425 standards, which define a watch as a professional diver.

The strap ismade of black rubber and is interchangeable thanks to a quick release system, although no additional straps or bracelets are currently available. The double folding clasp is equipped with a micro-adjustment system at the wrist, now the standard for top-of-the-range diver’s watches, designed to guarantee the timepiece’s immediate adaptability to the wrist or over a wetsuit.

By Davide Passoni