With the launch of the new TimeWalker collection, the Luxury Maison brings its timekeeping heritage to one of the world’s most important automotive events with a five year partnership

Every summer, Goodwood hosts the internationally renowned Festival of Speed, one of the most iconic events in the British sporting and social calendar that brings together the most accomplished drivers in the world’s rarest and most spectacular machinery. This year from June 29^th to July 2^nd 2017, Montblanc lends its timekeeping expertise to one of the greatest festivities of car culture in the world today. As the Official Timing Partner of the Festival of Speed for the next five years, Montblanc will present its new TimeWalker collection and highlight its Minerva legacy for professional time-keeping instruments, celebrating some of the most remarkable icons of the 20^th century automotive history.

Racing has always been closely tied to the evolution of the chronograph. With the technology to record elapsed time, Minerva chronographs paid witness to great racing moments. Founded in 1858, the Minerva manufacture became an exclusive workshop where high-quality instruments for measuring brief intervals of time with precision up to 1/100^th of a second were created. Minerva instruments became the reference in the field of horological timekeeping innovation, with numerous patents registered over the years in the domain of precision timers including the renowned “Rally Timer”, a stopwatch created to time motor racing with the utmost precision in 1960.

With its presence at the Festival of Speed, Montblanc will be putting a spotlight on the tight bond between exhilarating motor races and the instruments of victory that timed them with the greatest accuracy. The Festival of Speed 2017 coincides with the much-anticipated market launch of the new TimeWalker collection. Inspired by performance, the collection captures the spirit and adventure of the early racing drivers seeking victory, their magnificent racing machines, and the passionate officials who meticulously timed them using Minerva’s precision instruments. The new timepieces encapsulate this rich heritage through superb technology, masculine energy, highest performance and the design cues that evokes the glory of winning.

“Goodwood is the ultimate celebration of the traditions and achievements of automotive racing over the past century, while Montblanc’s watchmaking heritage is closely tied to the chronographs used during the glory days of motor racing”, says Nicolas Baretzki, Montblanc CEO. “The Goodwood Festival of Speed is the perfect platform to present our new TimeWalker collection as this partnership brings together the ambition of pushing boundaries in the field of automotive performance and racing on one side, and on innovating in the field of timekeeping performance on the other.”

Goodwood has been the seat of the Dukes of Richmond for over three centuries and has become England’s greatest sporting estate. The tradition of the Festival of Speed goes back to the summer of 1936, when the then Duke, better known as racing driver and Brooklands winner, Freddie March, staged a private hill climb for the Lancia Car Club on the winding driven in front of Goodwood house. In the winter of 1992, his grandson, the present Earl of March, recreated that motor sport event and the following summer the Festival of Speed was born and entered the British social and sporting calendar. Today the largest and greatest celebrations of car culture in the world, the Festival of Speed, uniquely supported by the current F1 teams, attracts the most celebrated drivers to compete up Goodwood’s legendary 1.16 mile hill climb.

The theme of the Festival of Speed in 2017 is “Peaks of Performance – Motorsport’s Game- Changers”, celebrating racing machines that were so fast, powerful and complicated that the rules had to be changed to rein them in. As a Maison driven by the pioneering spirit with many innovations of its own disrupting the status quo, Montblanc will present the ‘Game Changers’ collection of 10 cars that best epitomise disruption in motor racing from the 1920s to the present day. For each iconic automobile of the ‘Game Changers Presented by Montblanc’ its magnificent history will be highlighted in detail and they will also tackle the fabled Goodwood hill climb throughout the weekend.

In addition to its presence with the new Montblanc TimeWalker Chronograph as the timing partner at the races providing the live results across the event and on the starting and finishing line, Goodwood and Montblanc will launch “Speed and Style”, a new digital channel that will tell the Montblanc story at the Festival of Speed and feature an exclusive collection of the most exceptional cars, objects of desire that are admired and revered around the world because of their unique combination of style, speed and performance.

The partnership between Montblanc and Goodwood kicks off on April 10^th 2017 and the Festival of Speed takes place at Goodwood from June 29^th to July 2^nd 2017.