Two days ago, Montblanc welcomed a slew of journalists, bloggers, social media influencers and its friends of the brand to New York to commemorate an important event: the 110th anniversary of its founding. CEO Jérôme Lambert presented a new campaign video celebrating the pioneering spirit, featuring a dapper Hugh Jackman describing in two succinct minutes what Montblanc‘s innovativity meant back then and why that spirit is still so pervasive and important today.
As both Lambert and Jackman explained in his opening speech and video respectively, there are many similarities between the time of Montblanc’s founding and the world today. After all, we are in a similar state of political change and turmoil, business revolution and entrepreneurial spirit as the world during the turn of the last century.
To commemorate the event, Montblanc transformed the Rainbow Room of the Rockefeller Centre into a retro entertainment experience, complete with live jazz band where it exhibited all of the objects that would be part of the 110th anniversary collection across all product ranges, from cufflinks to eyewear and timepieces. The collection revives an old Montblanc icon from its earliest days, the serpent. As Zaim Kamal, creative director of the company explains, “the serpent has always represented many things across numerous cultures, from creativity to transformation, healing, allure and glamour and much more. It’s why we decided to bring it back this time”.
Last nights dreamy soirée at the rainbow room. Happy birthday @montblanc! #montblanc110
A photo posted by Adam Gallagher (@iamgalla) on Apr 6, 2016 at 1:03pm PDT
The theme of “Rouge et Noir” stems from the earliest Montblanc product, the safety refill fountain pen which is still in use today. With the 110 anniversary collection, this has become an elegant range that’s incorporated the serpent symbol as the clip, along with engraving of the serpent head on the nib.
Another highlight was the steamer bag, with the serpent boldly covering the bag, bearing Art Deco scales. Cufflinks, a slew of leather accessories, and a special edition of 3 Villeret Tourbillon Bi-Cylindrique timepieces with a micro sculpture of the serpent around the inner bezel was also presented along with pieces from the SIHH.
We’ll have more updates for you, but in the meantime, check out the #Montblanc110 on Instagram where you can see what happened that night.
