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Welcome back to another round of The Wind Up! This is the weekly wrap exploring the horological encounters, events, and developments that have caught Man of Many’s attention over the past seven days. I’m Rob, someone who talks about watches at the most inappropriate times, and it’s my pleasure to be joining you again.
This week, we get up close and personal with a stunning Minerva release that comes courtesy of Montblanc. We also have a look at Mido‘s tactical take on the Multifort 8 One Crown, as well as TAG Heuer‘s latest colourful release. Plus, for something a little different, we also discuss who Rolex just announced as one of five laureates of this year’s Rolex Awards.
As ever, there’s no time like the present and not a second to waste, so let’s get stuck into another instalment of Man of Many’s The Wind Up.
On the Wrist: Minerva The Unveiled Crownless
This week, our regular ‘On the Wrist’ section of The Wind Up would more accurately be called ‘In the Palm’. I spent Friday morning visiting the Montblanc boutique in Sydney, where the team kindly showed me a range of the maison’s High Artistry and High Watchmaking collections. Throwing these on was a bit tricky, so I settled for holding them and using my vivid imagination.
The undisputed highlight of the morning for me was this gorgeous Minerva timepiece, the first the brand has made without a crown. For those who don’t know the history, Minerva is an esteemed watchmaker founded in 1858 in Villeret, Switzerland. Montblanc acquired it in 2006, and now Minerva operates as Montblanc’s high-end watchmaking arm. This gives Montblanc essential credibility in the horology space, and one look at this piece makes it crystal clear why.
Free from any Montblanc branding, the Minerva The Unveiled Crownless (awkward naming convention aside) is a beautiful time-only piece with a bezel that handles both its manual-winding and time-setting functions. It builds on the functionality of a bezel-activated chronograph Montblanc released in 2023: the Minerva Unveiled Timekeeper.
In order to achieve this, Minerva had to develop an entirely new movement. The Calibre M15.08 is manually wound with a small-seconds function that‘s crafted entirely in-house at Minerva’s Villeret facility. Composed of 139 components, it boasts curvaceous bridges in rhodium-plated German silver, decorated with polished bevel edges and Geneva striping. It also carries Minerva’s classic movement architecture and elite hand-finishing. The watch’s precision is maintained via a free-sprung balance wheel with finely tuned regulating weights mounted to an in-house hairspring. Plus, the movement’s regulator takes the signature shape of Minerva’s arrow. All that is to say, this is a formidable piece of watchcraft.
The case is similarly impressive. It boasts a 41.5-mm diameter, but it feels smaller in the hand. It’s constructed using stainless steel and features an 18-karat rose-gold fluted bezel. Under the watch’s crystal, the dial echoes the design of a Minerva timepiece from the ’50s. Here, Minerva has reinterpreted the colourway, alongside its guilloché engraving and opaline textures. The small seconds at 6 o’clock counterbalances the vintage Minerva logo and rose-gold-coated Arabic numeral 12 above. Further, the opaline-textured centre dial is set into an outer ring of guilloché engraving onto which faceted hour markers are applied. These indices are tonally matched by the rose-gold-coated bevelled hands, a nameplate “Villeret 1858” on the mid-case, and the fluted bezel.
All of this is a long-winded way of saying that this is a dress watch of the most elite kind. The finishing touch is the dark-green alligator strap (I could have sworn it was black) with its semi-matte finish. It also boasts a new deployant clasp, which features the Minerva arrow emblem and a fine adjustment system for more accurate sizing.
In person, the Minerva The Unveiled Crownless is truly something to behold. I feel very comfortable describing it as one of the most exquisitely elegant watches I’ve seen all year. It’s luxurious without appearing gaudy, and genuinely feels like a release from another era. Magical stuff.
Minerva The Unveiled Crownless Key Specs:
- Reference: MB137544
- Case: 41.5 mm stainless steel
- Thickness: 11.99 mm
- Movement: Calibre M15.08
- Power Reserve: 80 hours
- Water Resistance: 30 metres
- Bezel: 18-karat rose-gold fluted bezel
- Strap: Dark-green alligator strap
- Dial: Guilloché signature gold-colored dial with gold-coated indexes
- Price: AUD$58,500
Mido Multifort 8 One Crown: Does It Come In Black?
For my most recent trip to Geneva for Watches and Wonders 2026, the team at Mido kindly loaned me a Multifort 8 One Crown to keep me company. It’s a handsome, understated watch that I very much enjoyed wearing. It’s also very affordable and received far more compliments than I expected for a watch that is quite utilitarian. You can find more of my thoughts here.
Mido clearly knows when it’s on to a good thing. The brand has a new addition to the Multifort 8 One Crown line, but it has a very different vibe from the one I wore. This was actually announced earlier this year, but it escaped my attention until the team reached out to me last week. I suspect it may have done the same for many of you.
Dressed entirely in black, except for its dial details (hands, indices, etc.), this watch’s 40-mm case and octagonal bezel create an aesthetic that looks military-inspired in this hue. Or to put it another way, it looks like something Batman would wear. The most fun element is the addition of a rubber strap, which is an option I’m increasingly enjoying of late. It complements the monochromatic look and adds to the watch’s hardy persona. I’m hoping to get this one on the wrist sooner rather than later.
Mido Multifort 8 One Crown Key Specs:
- Reference: M055.507.37.051.00
- Case: 40 mm stainless steel
- Thickness: 9.9 mm
- Movement: Calibre 80
- Power Reserve: Up to 80 hours
- Water Resistance: 100 metres
- Strap: Black rubber
- Dial: Black
- Price: AUD$1,625
Orange You Glad TAG Heuer’s Back with a New Formula 1 Solargraph?
While you might baulk at the idea of spending AUD$3,200 on a watch with a solar quartz movement, you’ll certainly get your money’s worth in terms of potential for catching the attention of those around you. This bold and bright limited-edition release has been created to mark Zandvoort’s final Dutch Grand Prix. It’s even been donned by modern racing icon Max Verstappen, so I’m sure many of the motorsports faithful will be racing (ahem) to get their hands on one.
The watch features eye-catching orange splashed across its TH-Polylight bezel and rubber strap (or you can pick one up with a steel bracelet for AUD$150 more). Plus, as alluded to above, it’s powered by TAG’s TH50-00 Solargraph movement, which charges from natural or artificial light and can run for up to 10 months once fully charged.
This not-so-cheap but immensely cheerful TAG Heuer Formula 1 Solargraph may not be the kind of release you make your daily driver, but it’s an undeniably fun celebration of the end of the Zandvoort era of the Dutch Grand Prix.
TAG Heuer Formula 1 Solargraph Key Specs:
- Reference: WBY111H.FT8128
- Case: 38 mm sandblasted steel
- Thickness: 9.9 mm
- Movement: TH50-00 Solargraph quartz
- Power Reserve: Up to 10 months on a full charge
- Water Resistance: 100 metres
- Bezel: Bidirectional orange TH-Polylight
- Strap: Orange rubber
- Dial: Grey opaline with red-lacquered hands and applied indices
- Limited Edition: 1,500 pieces
- Price: AUD$3,200
Rolex to Honour Rosa Vásquez Espinoza at 2026’s Rolex Awards
This is a little out of left field for The Wind Up, but it’s important we try new things. This week, Rolex announced it would be showcasing the remarkable work of chemical biologist and conservationist Rosa Vásquez Espinoza, naming her a laureate at this year’s Rolex Awards.
Vásquez Espinoza’s work has linked deforestation in the Amazon with the decline of an integral bee species, and this award will help her to expand an indigenous-led corridor of protected bee habitats. Her efforts to work with native pollinators show the role that protecting small but vital species plays in preserving a region’s defining native flora and ecosystems.
Vásquez Espinoza and her team have to date surveyed 40,000 hectares of rainforest, identifying more than 300 wild hives and 1.6 million stingless bees. They currently work with 11 communities and have trained more than 350 Indigenous people (70 per cent of whom are women) in sustainable beekeeping, entrepreneurship, and ecological research.
If you’d like to know more about her work, I highly recommend you take the time to watch the above video in full.
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