Hands-On With the Monta Noble Voyager

While visiting Monta HQ in St. Louis, I spent some time with the new Noble Voyager: Monta’s dual-time take on their simple, refined Noble.

The Noble Voyager bridges the gap between most of Monta’s catalog, which consists of decidedly rugged tool watches (divers, GMTs, field watches), and the Noble, which could be considered a dress watch. The result is an uncommonly elegant dual-time sports watch. Let’s take a closer look.

As a disclaimer, I work for both Everest and Monta. I  think it’s worth nothing that I was not assigned or encouraged to do this writeup. I just think it's a cool watch.

The Monta Noble (Non-Voyager)

The Monta Noble, released in 2020.

Before I talk about the Noble Voyager, I want to provide some context by looking at the Monta Noble (above).

The Noble is somewhat of an outlier in Monta’s catalog. It’s by far the “dressiest” watch they offer with an array of polished surfaces: namely the bezel and bracelet/lug chamfers. The Noble’s dial configurations (sunburst, opaline) align with this styling, as does its simple time-and-date layout, void of any numerals.

The Noble Voyager adds to the Noble’s simple layout with a fourth 24-hand and accompanying numerals inside the minutes track.

The Monta Noble Voyager 

The Monta Noble Voyager comes in two dégradé sunburst dial configurations: blue and green. The radial pattern shows a wide range of hues depending on lighting conditions. I‘d say the green dial (the only I’ve seen in person) averages somewhere between grass green and olive green. I tried my best to capture this dial’s many looks, but it’s definitely a watch best seen in person. (See you at Windup!).

If you’re curious about the shade of blue, of course you can reference the picture above, but you can also reference any picture/video of the blue Noble – it shares the same base dial as the blue Noble Voyager. 

The arabic numerals on the Noble Voyager, those marking the 24-hour scale, are all odd; the hour indices represent the even numbers. This is a nice solution to prevent what would have been a very crowded dial with all 24 numerals.

My favorite part of the Noble Voyager is its “skeletonized” 24-hour hand. It has the same length and general shape as the 12-hour hand, but is hollowed out, so to say, with lume applied on the outermost quarter. This 24-hand is independently adjustable, allowing you to change the second time zone without stopping the movement. This is sometimes referred to as a “caller” GMT functionality. 

The Noble Voyager is powered by the same movement you’ll find in Monta’s Atlas and Skyquest models: the caliber M-23, a Monta-decorated-and-adjusted Sellita SW330. It beats at a standard 4hz and has 56 hours of power reserve.

Due to that added GMT functionality, the caliber M-23 is a bit thicker than the Noble’s M-22, and as such, the Noble Voyager is 1mm thicker than the Noble. Don’t worry – it’s still just 10.7mm thick. To that point, the Noble Voyager’s dimensions (and proportions) are very forgiving. This watch will fit most wrists at just 38.5mm across and 47mm lug-to-lug. It really does occupy that sweet spot for a lot of people. 

In case you haven’t read the dial, the watch has 150 meters of water resistance. And yes, the crown screws down (quite smoothly, at that).

The Oyster-style bracelet tapers to a clasp that features three points of tool-free microadjustment. Monta also includes half links with their watches to ensure that you’ll find a good fit.

My Thoughts On The Noble Voyager

I appreciate that the Noble Voyager goes against the grain, not just within Monta’s catalog but within the general category of dual-time watches. This is by no means a rule, but the complication is popularly used in so-called “sport” watches or tool watches. It’s relatively uncommon to find on a watch like the Noble. (That’s what makes the new dual-time Cartier Santos so cool, too). Sure, there are elegant GMTs out there like the Grand Seiko SBGM221, JLC Master Hometime, and others, but when I think of a GMT, I think of a larger watch with an external rotating bezel.

The Noble Voyager is a thoughtful execution of the dual-time complication. It erases the line between “this watch never leaves my wrist” and “this is my nice watch”. In that way, it could very well be your only watch . . . but that’s no way to live life.

Availability

The Noble Voyager is available for pre-order at $2,150 through August 9th. Those watches will be delivered in August. After the pre-order window has expired (post Aug 9th), the watch will be full price at $2,395.