Princesse Grace de Monaco

To create watches for a collection which bears the name of such an incomparable and unforgettable personality was a challenge that continues to fill Montblanc’s designers and jewelers with pride. The inimitable grace and tasteful predilections of this European- American style icon inspired Montblanc’s specialists to design watch models that duly honor the name and the memory of Princesse Grace de Monaco.  Among the designers’ first feats was the creation of a case that positively bubbles with elegance and refinement. Its slim silhouette and classical beauty recall similar traits embodied by Gracia Patricia. The same basic form reappears in all of the models in this collection, from the most lavish one-of-a-kind haute joaillerie wristwatch to watches featuring the timelessly attractive combination of stainless steel and diamonds.  

The circular case has a decidedly contemporary diameter of thirty-four millimeters. The perfectly round dial contrasts with and gains fascinating excitement from an elliptical flange (réhaut) with its long axis running from the “12” to the “6.” Like the unforgotten princess, whose unsurpassed style was based on uncomplicated forms and simple gestures that unfurled their full graciousness only in skilful combination, so too is this wristwatch unmistakably “Gracia Patricia.”  The lovely impression is also conveyed in side view, a perspective from which watches are seldom viewed. The horns point slightly downwards for an anatomically perfect fit. This same angle continues across the beveled bezel and culminates in the tastefully cambered sapphire crystal, which spans the dial like a transparent dome. Its arc is echoed in the slight curvature of the screwed back, which has a somewhat concave form that conforms to the shape of its wearer’s wrist. The back is engraved with a regal and the monogram of Grace Kelly. The fluted and readily grasped crown looks especially attractive when viewed from the side. Each winding-button on models with gold cases bears Montblanc’s patented diamond: the exquisitely colorless gem is cut and polished with forty-three facets to form Montblanc’s logo. The brand’s symbol appears as a mother-of-pearl inlay on each stainless steel watch.  

A consummately designed watch like this one is an ideal field on which jewelers can give free reign to their creativity and craftsmanship. This is especially true for the breathtaking and unique haute joaillerie watches, on which gemstone-specialists enjoyed nearly unlimited artistic freedom. Here they’ve been inspired by the love of flowers, for which Princess Gracia Patricia was famed, not solely because of her fantastic rose garden. Floral adoration is expressed in the one-of-a-kind “Pétales de Rose motif” model, on which countless rose-petal contours adorn a white mother-of-pearl dial and nestle closely side by side to form a precious white gold bracelet that scintillates with the gorgeous fire of 605 brilliant-cut diamonds weighing a total of ca. 6.09 carats. In the unique piece “Pétales Entrelacés motif,” the shape of rose petals appears in red gold indices on the dial and as perfectly interlaced red gold loops, which combine with 567 diamonds (ca. 6.842 ct) and twine around the wrist of the lucky lady who can call this watch her own. Each of these two unique timepieces has forty- four diamond baguettes around its bezel and 130 brilliant-cut diamonds along its dial’s flange, where they glitter under the protection of an overarching sapphire crystal.  

The other watch models in the Montblanc ‘Collection Princesse Grace de Monaco’ bear the symbol of the rose petal in the form of a pink sapphire teardrop that simultaneously adorns the dial and also serves as an index to mark the “6 o’clock” position.  Creative minds and skilled hands in Montblanc’s ateliers have thus given birth to a rich palette of fantastic and unmistakable bejeweled wristwatches. Alongside the two breathtaking and unique haute joaillerie watches, the series also includes sets of eight and twenty-nine limited-edition diamond-studded watches and, for daily wear, charming ladies’ watches with stainless steel cases and precious diamond embellishments. All of these timepieces are studded in best jeweler’s tradition with brilliant-cut and baguette-cut diamonds: the total weight of the gems ranges from 0.45 to 9.363 carats, depending on the model. The two lavish and unique watches are affixed to richly diamond-studded gold bracelets; the other timepieces have alligator-leather straps with pronged buckles.  

One model from the Montblanc ‘Collection Princesse Grace de Monaco’, produced in a strictly limited edition of eight watches, was shown in Monaco in September 2011; the others will follow until April 2012. They complete an irresistibly feminine and uncommonly elegant collection of watches that span a broad spectrum in which each model exemplifies tasteful style and noblesse – just like their namesake, Princess Gracia Patricia of Monaco, who always set the most elegant standards, whether she wore a simple daytime dress or an elaborate evening gown with a diadem in her coiffure.  

Montblanc also offers charmingly feminine timepieces from the ‘Collection Princesse Grace de Monaco’ for a moderate price. These watches give faithful admirers of the still unforgotten Princess a lovely way to wear a timeless memorial to this remarkable lady, while simultaneously supporting her charitable foundation. The silvery gleam of the stainless steel case surround a dial adorned with six diamond indices, a teardrop-shaped pink sapphire at “6 o’clock” and a glittering wreath of 130 brilliant-cut diamonds along the flange. Depending on the model, the numerals and the feuille-shaped hands are plated either with red gold or rhodium. These wristwatches are affixed to alligator-leather straps with large reptilian scales. The model with accents plated in red gold comes with a white strap; the watch with rhodium- plated numerals and hands is worn on a black strap.