Montblanc’s “Beauty of a Second” Short-Film Contest

Watch-nerds and amateurs alike are familiar with the chronograph. Once glance at the dial of a chronograph watch will show you the tell-tale sub-dials that can measure time to an accuracy of a fifth of a second. However, were you aware that this year marks the 190th anniversary of the invention of the chronograph? What’s more, did you know that the chronograph came about as a result of a horse race?

In 1821 King Louis XVIII of France asked his royal watchmaker, a man named Nicolas Rieussec, to develop a watch movement capable of recording the exact times of horses as they completed a race. Rieussec proceeded to develop a clock movement consisting of two rotating discs placed beneath an ink-filled tip. When the movement was set into motion, the tip of the ink tip would mark one of the dials in order to measure time. This movement, which Rieussec named the chronograph, was then set to have its first test during a horse race. On September 1st, Nicolas Rieussec’s creation successfully recorded the finishing time of every horse to an accuracy of a quarter of a second.

In honor of this fantastic achievement, Montblanc, in conjunction with award-winning director Wim Wenders, is holding a short film contest entitled “The Beauty of a Second.” Everyone is invited to submit a film using any recording device as long as the moving image lasts one second. The film can consist of any moment or anything that you consider beautiful.

The twenty best films are uploaded to www.montblanc-onesecond.com. There will be a second round of judging at the beginning of November where filmmakers have a second chance to upload a one second video clip to be judged by an group of esteemed panelists. The winner of this contest will be announced in January of 2012 and presented with the beautiful Montblanc Nicholas Rieussec Chronograph. The winner will also be invited to attend the Berlinale International Film Festival in Berlin to meet Wim Wenders at the “Beauty of a Second” awards ceremony.

If film-making is not your interest, Montblanc has also invited the public to enter a second competition by creating a 2 to 60 seconds film composed of the “Beauty of a Second” film entries and a soundtrack from Montblanc’s audio library. The winner for best compilation will also be presented with a Montblanc Nicholas Rieussec Chronograph.

King Jewelers is an authorized dealer for over forty luxury Swiss watch brands including Bell & Ross, Breguet, Breitling, Cartier, Chanel, Chopard, DeWitt, Harry Winston, Hublot, IWC, Jaeger-LeCoultre, Jaquet Droz, Montblanc, Roger Dubuis and TAG Heuer. King Jewelers is a member of the American Watch Guild and has been named a Leading Watch Retailer in North America by International Wristwatch Magazine. King Jewelers also offers expert watch repair and watch restoration at their retail locations in Aventura, FL and Nashville, TN.