Montblanc Launch Star Legacy Orbis Terrarum in Steel and Rose Gold

One of Montblanc’s signature complications is the world timer through their unique Geosphere function. Geospheres allow you to read the time across the world but lack the traditional world cities scale, however, Montblanc have also produced conventional world timers in the form of the Star Legacy Orbis Terrarum. For 2022 they’ve released a new version of the Montblanc Star Legacy Orbis Terrarum in steel and rose gold.

What’s intriguing about this watch is that the previous editions were full steel and full rose gold, making the new version a fusion of the two. It’s important to mention that while the new piece is steel and gold, it’s not bi-colour in the typical sense of a bi-metallic case. Instead, the 43mm case is steel and the dial has a rose gold plated depiction of the Earth.

A second intriguing element is the use of a North Pole centred map instead of the regular world map we’re familiar with, as used in the Moritz Grossman Universalzeit. It means that the orientation of the globe matches the locations of the cities on the peripheral scale, making the complication more readable even though it appears distorted at first. Outside of the worldtimer, the dial has a black and grey colourway split evenly across the dial to give day/night indication.

As a relatively simple recolour, the dial is the primary focus of the launch. Hence, the Star Legacy Orbis Terrarum houses the same movement as its predecessors, the Montblanc Calibre MB 29.20 with automatic winding and 42-hour power reserve. Overall, the new piece adds a more serious tone to the model, the darker dial contrasting to the brightness of previous versions without altering any of the functionality. At £5,800 it’s on the lower end of Montblanc’s prices for the Star Legacy Orbis Terrarum, so it’s a certainly a welcome reinterpretation of the model.