The Union Jack, or Union Flag was first presented 300 years before the birth of Montblanc, as part of King James I’s efforts to bring together the political union between England and Scotland. The flag was contentious when first presented, not least because it superimposed England’s cross of St. George over Scotland’s cross of St. Andrew, and at first was only flown by military ships of England and Scotland. It was only with the Act of Union, one a hundred years later that the flag gained official status as “the ensign armorial of the Kingdom of Great Britain”.
Ironically, at the time that Montblanc presents a limited edition of just five of its 4810 Orbis Terrarum bearing the flag, the union that it represents is far from solid. The Brexit vote earlier this year has thrown up a multitude of uncertainties that will need to be ironed out over the next two and a half years. One major uncertainty is the role that Scotland will play in a post-Brexit Britain, given that the majority of its population voted to remain in the European Union.
It would be tenuous at best to conclude from this that the Union Flag could be under threat, especially since it was waved so fervently after the Brexit vote as Great Britain celebrated a giant-killing performance at this year’s Olympic Games. But the timing of a limited edition watch using the powerful symbolism of the flag could not be better. The fact that only five are being sold makes it all the more exclusive.
As a reminder, the Montblanc 4810 Orbis Terrarum is based around a playful but intuitive world time display, which shows at a glance the divide between day and night around the world and the correct time in the 24 principal time zones. The world as seen from the North Pole is depicted on a disc at the centre of the dial. A second disc is overlaid on top of this disc, with half in dark blue (for the night) and the other half bearing the Union Jack. This disc logically performs a full revolution in 24 hours, while the world disc can be adjusted to a different time zone by pressing the pusher at 8 o’clock.
The Montblanc 4810 Orbis Terrarum Special Edition Great Britain comes in a 43mm diameter stainless-steel case with a blue alligator skin strap to match the colours on the dial and is water resistant to 50 metres. Its calibre MB 29.20 movement is a self-winding mechanical calibre with 42 hours of power reserve. This five-piece limited edition is available exclusively from Montblanc’s London store on Bond Street and costs £5,600.
