The Swiss Montblanc TimeWalker World-Time Sinosphere replica watch is based on the Hemisphere world-time watch, which was launched earlier this year, depicts all 24 time zones at a glance, and is available in two models – one for the Northern and one for the Southern Hemisphere.
Rotating around the Middle Kingdom is the entire world, or rather the world-time ring with its 24-hour scale which, using red for nighttime hours and grey for daytime hours, shows the hour and the time of day or night in whichever zone is oppositely positioned along the dial’s periphery.The specialness of this new timepiece is also evident in the design of its dial, the centre of which is occupied by a gleaming red gold appliqué depicting a map of China surrounded by the pale grey contours of its neighbouring land masses.
For the TimeWalker World-Time Sinosphere the Northern Hemisphere model – on which the names of places and cities in the Northern Hemisphere represent the world’s 24 time zones – was naturally chosen as basis. Exclusively on the World-Time Sinosphere, the UTC +8* time zone is not signified by Beijing or Hong Kong (as on most other MontBlanc world-time copy watches), but by the word “CHINA” clearly printed in red.
A red gold plated sword-shaped hour-hand and minute-hand, each with luminous coating, sweep above this scene, as does a slim counterpoised second-hand. This trio shows the time in the wearer’s current zone by sweeping past Arabic numerals and indexes coated with red gold and applied along the dial’s periphery. To further express the exclusiveness of this special model, which is made in a limited series of 88 timepieces, the words “CHINA EDITION” appear in golden micro-print at “7 o’clock”.
Time zones located to the east between Greenwich and the 180° meridian are designated as UTC +X, where X is the time difference in hours between Greenwich and each easterly zone. Zones situated to the west between Greenwich and the 180° meridian are similarly designated UTC -X. For example: Beijing is eight hours ahead of UTC ±0 and lies in the UTC +8 time zone; Los Angeles is seven hours behind UTC ±0 and is situated in the UTC -7 time zone.
UTC is always the same and doesn’t distinguish between summer and winter time. Its passage is measured by caesium clocks, which err from perfect timekeeping by only one second every twenty million years.
Introduced at Watches & Wonders 2013 in Hong Kong, the mens fake Montblanc TimeWalker World-Time Sinosphere time-zone watch is available in a limited edition of 88 timepieces.