Lutz Bethge & Ole von Beust.
On January 11 2006, Montblanc, luxury goods and watch producer, started celebrating the anniversary of the founding of the company in Hamburg 100 years ago.
An ice block in the shape of the Montblanc trade mark, a white star on a black background symbolizing the snow-covered peak of the Mont Blanc Mountain, was presented on a roofed stage in front of the former ‘Musikhalle’ in Hamburg, which is now named ‘Laeiszhalle’ after an important ship-owner.
Inside the old, venerable concert hall a second specimen was visible. On the occasion of the anniversary, explained Lutz Bethge, CEO of Montblanc International, a special, now patented brilliant cut diamond in the exact shape of the Montblanc star had been created after eight years of development.
This diamond of Top-Wesselton quality adorns a special edition of the Meisterstück (Masterpiece), it’s most successful fountain pen. Its cap has a half round cut original piece of granite from Europe’s highest mountain in the Mont Blanc. Embedded in the granite: a Montblanc brilliant-cut diamond.
Even though Montblanc is number two in watch output within the Richemont Group to which the Hamburg company now belongs (Cartier is first), more than half of the annual turnover is still generated by sales of fountain pens and ballpoint pens. The company also sells handbags, briefcases as well as accessories like sunglasses and watches.
The Northern German brand, named after the mountain, having enjoyed an extraordinary reputation for their pens and leather goods for many years, started up its watch production in the mid-nineties. Initially there were sceptical remarks about the timepieces, including many insiders who questioned the logic of the move, but the well-established brand with its new product group was quickly successful.
The Montblanc Montre SA. has its headquarters in the small town of Le Locle in the Swiss Jura mountains, where the watches are partly assembled in an old renovated villa to which a superb extension had been added.
However, Montblanc, which owns some 280 boutiques worldwide, became rich and famous because of its fountain pens, which are still produced at the Hamburg headquarters today. Established by a stationer, an engineer and a businessman as ‘Simplo Fillerpen Company’ in 1906 and surprisingly named after the highest European mountain in France.
“The first pens came onto the market under the name ‘Rouge & Noir’, explained Lutz Bethge in his anniversary speech before several hundreds of invited VIPs. The trademark name of Montblanc was registered in 1910. Soon people knew, that a Montblanc pen was guaranteed not to blot, and with technical innovations Montblanc kept ahead of the competition for years and the trademark peak became its recognizable symbol. 1924 was the year of the birth of a legend, the ‘Meisterstück’.”
Although this writing tool is the top product of the company today and in the USA is also popular as the ‘Power Pen’, it’s production, years earlier as a mass produced inexpensive filler [fountain] pen, almost led to the company’s collapse in the sixties and seventies. Literally at the last minute - as happened in the watch industry - a tendency towards proven well-crafted products with high value mechanical components became popular for writing equipment. Montblanc had the necessary skills and it wasn’t long before the old company was on the way up again.
With its success, the company began sponsoring different branches of the arts. Amongst others, the Hanseatic world brand is the only founding sponsor of the international orchestra Philharmonie der Nationen, which came into being through an idea of Leonard Bernstein and Lord Yehudi Menuhin and is today directed by the German conductor Professor Justus Frantz.
It wasn’t surprising then that at the anniversary ceremony on January 11, the Philharmonie der Nationen, conducted by Justus Franz, played popular classical music. This concert was followed by the climax of the performance, a breathtaking entrance of the Chinese percussionist Li Biao, who drummed a composition accompanied by the orchestra.
In his congratulatory speech, The First Mayor (Prime Minister) of Hamburg, Ole von Beust, told one of the innumerable little Montblanc stories. Apparently during one state visit, by error, no present had been arranged for the visitor. He, von Beust, therefore had given the Montblanc, which is normally used to sign the city’s Golden Book, to the state visitor as a present after the signing. “I told him,” said von Beust,” that we always do it that way in Hamburg.”
After the Mayor’s speech, a Meisterstück set consisting of a fountain pen with a holder made of polished granite was presented to him by Montblanc CEO Lutz Bethge. But since von Breust was not on a state visit, the present was offered merely as a loan!
Source: February - March 2006 Issue
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