One of the oldest and most celebrated names in Swiss watchmaking has been brought back into the spotlight by the same company that had been keeping it in the shadows for the past 20 years.
Minerva, founded in 1858, has long been respected by watch collectors for its high-end, hand-finished chronographs. But since 2006, when the luxury conglomerate Richemont bought the business and placed it under the control of Montblanc’s watch division, Minerva had been relegated to operating as a kind of high-end performance workshop, producing co-signed watches with Montblanc.
Then in April, Montblanc announced that Minerva would once again become a stand-alone brand, making high-end pieces in small volumes, while Montblanc itself would continue to make more inexpensive watches. (Many pieces in Montblanc’s collections retail for less than $5,000).
Along with the announcement, a new Minerva collection called the Unveiled was introduced, four models produced using artisanal techniques at Minerva’s base in the Swiss watchmaking town of Villeret, its traditional home.
As for the change in direction, “it was requested by collectors,” said Laurent Lecamp, the managing director of Montblanc’s watch division who now also has the title of chief executive for Minerva. “They’re looking for a specific brand and not a mix, and for brands from the past to come back. They want something with artisanal intelligence, not artificial intelligence.”
Behind the scenes, many of the links between the two brands will remain. In addition to Mr. Lecamp, Montblanc and Minerva will continue to share heads of production, development and after-sales, and Minerva will lean on Montblanc’s website and international network of boutiques for sales.
Industry experts appeared to approve of the decision, with Frank Geelen, the founder of the website Monochrome Watches, saying it closed the door on a marriage that had not worked.
“Minerva was known for what many collectors would easily call the most beautiful chronograph calibers — hand-wound, tons of character and finished to the highest level,” he wrote in an email. “Merging these incredible handmade and hand-finished watches with the Montblanc collection with a huge pricing void was difficult. Separating the brands into two entities seems the best solution.”
And Jack Forster, who has been reviewing watches since the 1990s and founded the Split Seconds Substack, wrote in an email: “Montblanc’s other timepiece and accessory offerings feel like a natural extension of the Montblanc brand. But given the overall trend to premiumization, Minerva has much more commercial potential as an independent brand than as a Montblanc sub-entity.”
Premiumization — the retail strategy of elevating the materials and the perception of products so prices can follow — has prompted many watchmakers to refocus their collections in recent years.
Zenith, for example, has been heavily promoting its higher priced G.F.J. limited editions since April 2025, while Ulysse Nardin has been phasing out the Diver models at the lower end of its offerings.
The trend also has led investors to buy tired or defunct watch companies. The Swiss private equity firm Partners Group acquired Universal Genève three years ago, rebooting it and positioning it at the top of a newly established House of Brands, with higher average prices than Breitling, which the firm also owns. (Some Universal Genève watches carry six-figure prices.)
The least expensive piece in Minerva’s new collection is $38,000: the Unveiled Crownless, which replaces the watch’s traditional winding crown with a bezel-operated system. At the top end, for $85,000, is the Unveiled Secret Limited Edition, an 18-piece model with a reversed chronograph movement visible through the sapphire crystal.
Mr. Lecamp said both the bezel function and the reversed movement were based on traditional Minerva designs and would come to define the brand.
According to Mr. Lecamp, the average Minerva price will be about $50,000, although he indicated that later this year he would introduce a run of nine highly complicated pieces, the first of which would cost 350,000 euros ($408,100).
“If we come with higher prices, it’s only because we come with innovations,” he said. “I will not position a watch 20,000 higher just because that’s what a competitor is doing. The cost is fair, and the perceived value is very high.”
Not everyone was convinced. “I haven’t heard anybody talk about Minerva in years,” said Jeff Kingston, a watch collector and author, who said that he once owned three Minerva watches. “Minerva is going to have to do a lot of work to establish its cred as an independent watchmaker, because that’s what they’re trying to do.”
Popular independent brands such as Kari Voutilainen, Simon Brette and Rexhep Rexhepi have significant advantages over Minerva, Mr. Kingston said: “With the indies, you’re buying more than the watch, you’re buying the watchmaker. It’s difficult to be a brand and be seen as a real indie, because brands are brands and not people forward.”
But Mr. Lecamp said Minerva’s small size was important. (While he did not specify its output, Minerva is believed to produce fewer than 1,000 watches a year.)
“Luxury is super exclusivity, not mass production,” he said. “I have a feeling that collectors are more and more keen on working with smaller structures with a strong history. They don’t want to make mistakes or take any risks.”
One analyst said he felt Montblanc’s strategy left questions unanswered. “Can the two brands stand alone, or will they only function as unequal siblings?” Oliver R. Müller, the founder of the Swiss watch consultancy LuxeConsult, wrote in an email. “I understand the purpose of Montblanc watches as an additional product category for a brand positioned in a dying market like writing instruments, but I don’t get the point of reactivating Minerva, which would require a lot of energy and financial means in a niche market already saturated with brands.”
Mr. Lecamp, who joined Montblanc in 2021, said its watch offering was now well established by its midrange mechanicals such as the Iced Sea. “We have collectors in 21 countries and they’re asking for new products before they’re launched,” he said of Montblanc watches. “If you’re not a real watchmaker, this doesn’t happen.”
But he admitted Montblanc still had work to do. “Some people have no idea Montblanc is a watchmaker,” he said. “But those who do say it’s a real watchmaker.”
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