Montblanc Launch 1858 Iced Sea Automatic in Fresh Grey and Green Colourways

While Montblanc are known more for horologically inspired pieces like the Minerva than practical divers, the Montblanc 1858 Iced Sea Automatic that debuted at Watches & Wonders is one of their highlights. A year later, the watch is back with new dial colourways joining the collection, the Iced Sea Automatic Grey and Emerald Green.

This collection is all about the dial, so let’s start there. The grey edition has a light grey tone as its base with a cracking, fractured ice pattern depicted in a darker shade. The image it creates feels incredibly truthful to the actual glacier its inspired by. The grey really does emphasise that snow coated glacier vibe as opposed to the blue or black editions which have a more definitively aquatic vibe.

The Iced Sea Automatic Emerald Green edition is a boutique exclusive and pays homage to the phenomenon of iron oxide deposits in the ice – hence the green. It differs from the previous green Iced Sea as it has a black bezel instead of a tone matched one. It’s a small change but a welcome one.

While the icy pattern on the dial is intricate, the core elements of the display have been kept relatively understated, with rectangular indexes, Arabic numerals at 12, 6 and 9 and a date window at 3. The central hands are also coated with plenty of lume for low-light legibility.

Beyond the fresh colourways, it’s the Iced Sea Automatic as we know it: a 41mm diameter stainless steel watch with 300m water resistance housing the automatic movement MB 24.17 with 38-hour power reserve. There’s no point changing a winning formula.